The Forum's Favourite Poems

Glam

Mad Cat Woman
Happy Winter Solstice blessings to all that wish for them...and a beautiful little story to warm our soul as the days get lighter and the nights less heavy ♡

Twas the night before Yuletide and all through the glen
Not a creature was stirring, not a fox, not a hen.
A mantle of snow shone brightly that night
As it lay on the ground, reflecting moonlight.
The faeries were nestled all snug in their trees,
Unmindful of flurries and a chilly north breeze.
The elves and the gnomes were down in their burrows,
Sleeping like babes in their soft earthen furrows.
When low! The earth moved with a thunderous quake,
Causing chairs to fall over and dishes to break.
The Little Folk scrambled to get on their feet
Then raced to the river where they usually meet.
“What happened?” they wondered, they questioned, they probed,
As they shivered in night clothes, some bare-armed, some robed.
“What caused the earth’s shudder? What caused her to shiver?”
They all spoke at once as they stood by the river.
Then what to their wondering eyes should appear
But a shining gold light in the shape of a sphere.
It blinked and it twinkled, it winked like an eye,
Then it flew straight up and was lost in the sky.
Before they could murmur, before they could bustle,
There emerged from the crowd, with a swish and a rustle,
A stately old crone with her hand on a cane,
Resplendent in green with a flowing white mane.
As she passed by them the old crone’s perfume,
Smelling of meadows and flowers abloom,
Made each of the fey folk think of the spring
When the earth wakes from slumber and the birds start to sing.
“My name is Gaia,” the old crone proclaimed
in a voice that at once was both wild and tamed,
“I’ve come to remind you, for you seem to forget,
that Yule is the time of re-birth, and yet…”
“I see no hearth fires, hear no music, no bells,
The air isn’t filled with rich fragrant smells
Of baking and roasting, and simmering stews,
Of cider that’s mulled or other hot brews.”
“There aren’t any children at play in the snow,
Or houses lit up by candles’ glow.
Have you forgotten, my children, the fun
Of celebrating the rebirth of the sun?”
She looked at the fey folk, her eyes going round,
As they shuffled their feet and stared at the ground.
Then she smiled the smile that brings light to the day,
“Come, my children,” she said, “Let’s play.”
They gathered the mistletoe, gathered the holly,
Threw off the drab and drew on the jolly.
They lit a big bonfire, and they danced and they sang.
They brought out the bells and clapped when they rang.
They strung lights on the trees, and bows, oh so merry,
In colors of cranberry, bayberry, cherry.
They built giant snowmen and adorned them with hats,
Then surrounded them with snow birds, and snow cats and bats.
Then just before dawn, at the end of their fest,
Before they went homeward to seek out their rest,
The fey folk they gathered ‘round their favorite oak tree
And welcomed the sun ‘neath the tree’s finery.
They were just reaching home when it suddenly came,
The gold light returned like an arrow-shot flame.
It lit on the tree top where they could see from afar
The golden-like sphere turned into a star.
The old crone just smiled at the beautiful sight,
“Happy Yuletide, my children,” she whispered. “Good night.”
Poem author C.C. Williford

@Gadget xx
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
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Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
Babi Yar

No monument stands over Babi Yar.
A steep cliff only, like the rudest headstone.
I am afraid.
Today, I am as old
As the entire Jewish race itself.

I see myself an ancient Israelite.
I wander o’er the roads of ancient Egypt
And here, upon the cross, I perish, tortured
And even now, I bear the marks of nails.

It seems to me that Dreyfus is myself.
The Philistines betrayed me – and now judge.
I’m in a cage. Surrounded and trapped,
I’m persecuted, spat on, slandered, and
The dainty dollies in their Brussels frills
Squeal, as they stab umbrellas at my face.

I see myself a boy in Belostok
Blood spills, and runs upon the floors,
The chiefs of bar and pub rage unimpeded
And reek of vodka and of onion, half and half.

I’m thrown back by a boot, I have no strength left,
In vain I beg the rabble of pogrom,
To jeers of “Kill the Jews, and save our Russia!”
My mother’s being beaten by a clerk.

O, Russia of my heart, I know that you
Are international, by inner nature.
But often those whose hands are steeped in filth
Abused your purest name, in name of hatred.

I know the kindness of my native land.
How vile, that without the slightest quiver
The antisemites have proclaimed themselves
The “Union of the Russian People!”

It seems to me that I am Anna Frank,
Transparent, as the thinnest branch in April,
And I’m in love, and have no need of phrases,
But only that we gaze into each other’s eyes.
How little one can see, or even sense!
Leaves are forbidden, so is sky,
But much is still allowed – very gently
In darkened rooms each other to embrace.

-“They come!”

-“No, fear not – those are sounds
Of spring itself. She’s coming soon.
Quickly, your lips!”

-“They break the door!”

-“No, river ice is breaking…”

Wild grasses rustle over Babi Yar,
The trees look sternly, as if passing judgement.
Here, silently, all screams, and, hat in hand,
I feel my hair changing shade to gray.

And I myself, like one long soundless scream
Above the thousands of thousands interred,
I’m every old man executed here,
As I am every child murdered here.

No fiber of my body will forget this.
May “Internationale” thunder and ring
When, for all time, is buried and forgotten
The last of antisemites on this earth.

There is no Jewish blood that’s blood of mine,
But, hated with a passion that’s corrosive
Am I by antisemites like a Jew.
And that is why I call myself a Russian!

p. 1961

YEVGENY YEVTUSHENKO
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
O, Russia of my heart, I know that you
Are international, by inner nature.
But often those whose hands are steeped in filth
Abused your purest name, in name of hatred.
 

Glam

Mad Cat Woman
Rupert Brooke. Died this day 1915. Aged 27.

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
 

Glam

Mad Cat Woman
THE WORST THING
The worst thing you can be is not fat,
or ugly,
or stupid.
The worst thing you can be,
is not different,
or awkward,
or ‘too much’.
The worst thing you can be,
unequivocally,
is locked in a prison of your own self-doubt,
riddled with insecurities,
afraid to venture out into this life,
lest the world see who you really are.
In short,
the worst thing you can be,
is someone else.
When you were only ever meant to be
you.
Donna Ashworth
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
This is actually the lyrics of a song ... but it's poetry to me.

My heart knows what the wild goose knows,
I must go where the wild goose goes.
Wild goose, brother goose, which is best?
A wandering fool, or a heart at rest?

Tonight I heard the wild goose cry,
Winging north in the lonely sky.
Tried to sleep, it was no use,
Cause I am a brother to the old wild goose,

Woman was kind and true to me.
She thinks she loves me, the more fool she.
She's got to learn that it ain't no use,
To love a brother of the old wild goose.

The cabin is warm and the snow is deep,
I got a woman who lies asleep.
She'll awake at tomorrow's dawn,
She'll find, poor critter, that her man is gone.

Spring is coming and the ice will break,
I can't linger for a woman's sake.
She'll see a shadow pass overhead.
She'll find my feathers beside her bed.

Wild goose, brother goose, which is best?
A wandering fool, or a heart at rest?
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Many think the speed of light,
Is the limiting factor to the speed of flight.
But that speed is built into space and time
A constant of nature, an inbuilt prime.
The way that light gets a mention
Photons have no mass, by convention.

'Bob Clay' after second dose of f****** Chemo-Therapy.

HEY, SPIDER POWERS KICKING IN FOLKS ... :P:P:P:facepalm:
 
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BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
The wise old owl sat in the Oak,
the more she heard, the less she spoke.
The less she spoke, the more she heard,
Now wasn't she a wise old bird.
 

SketchyMagpie

Well-Known Forumite
I was looking for a thread to post song lyrics but I guess this is close enough :)

When the wind's against you
Remember this insight
That's the optimal condition
For birds to take flight
When the wind's against you
Don't give up the fight

(Enter Shikari, 'Airfield')
 

Glam

Mad Cat Woman
Today.
I visited you in a memory,
Something I couldn't yet do
in the early stages of grief.
I let my heart wander,
Let my mind roam free
in the way that it used to be,
To feel you presense,
so persistant, so steady,
to reflect, to remember
and see you're still with me.
I knew that those moments
would be waiting
when I was ready.
So today,
I visited you in a memory.

Liz Newman.
 
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