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Do you have any favorite poems for Valentine's week-end? Here are a few of mine.

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bluedawg12 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 09:27 PM
Original message
Do you have any favorite poems for Valentine's week-end? Here are a few of mine.



i like my body when it is with your
- e.e.cummings

i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite a new thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones, and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like,, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz
of your electric fur, and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh . . . . And eyes big Love-crumbs,

and possibly i like the thrill

of under me you quite so new
.........


-e.e.cummings

somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain, has such small hands

.........

carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
not fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

- e. e. cummings

...........

She said, I love you.

He said, Nothing.

(As if there were just one
of each word and the one
who used it, used it up).

In the history of language
the first obscenity was silence.
........

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT
-Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
.........

e. e. cummings:

it may not always be so; and i say
that if your lips, which i have loved, should touch
another's, and your dear strong fingers clutch
his heart, as mine in time not far away;
if on another's face your sweet hair lay
in such a silence as i know, or such
great writhing words as, uttering overmuch,
stand helplessly before the spirit at bay;

if this should be, i say if this should be
you of my heart, send me a little word;
that i may go unto him, and take his hands,
saying, Accept all happiness from me.
Then shall i turn my face, and hear one bird
sing terribly afar in the lost lands.

.........
The Genius Of The Crowd- Charles Bukowski

there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day

and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love

beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average

but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect

like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock

their finest art
..........

you shall above all things be glad and young
you shall above all things be glad and young
For if you're young,whatever life you wear


it will become you;and if you are glad
whatever's living will yourself become.
Girlboys may nothing more than boygirls need:
i can entirely her only love


whose any mystery makes every man's
flesh put space on;and his mind take off time


that you should ever think,may god forbid
and (in his mercy) your true lover spare:
for that way knowledge lies,the foetal grave
called progress,and negation's dead undoom.


I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance

-e.e.cummings
........

They wish we were invisible. We're not. Let's dance.
-Joe.My.God.





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FSogol Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 09:31 PM
Response to Original message
1. How about Kurt Vonnegut?
"We do, doodley do, doodley do, doodley do,
What we must, muddily must, muddily must, muddily must;
Muddily do, muddily do, muddily do, muddily do,
Until we bust, bodily bust, bodily bust, bodily bust."
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thingsarelookingup Donating Member (56 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 09:57 PM
Response to Reply #1
5. Words mean more than flowers or candy.....
We are like so many others. This economy has thrashed our family of 6 to within a month or two of total financial ruin.

As we continue to wobble on the abyss, the very thought of spending money on Valentine's Day with 4 teenage mouths to feed and clothe seemed utterly ridiculous.

This morning my husband of almost 20 years handed me a simple white envelope. He had written a touching haiku poem on beautiful paper and attached a photo of the first time we met. Tears... yes.

Although I don't sleep at night wondering what is in store for us in the days and weeks to come, I take solace in the simple fact that love will lash us together as we endure this storm and will continue to do so long after Valentine roses have died.
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bluedawg12 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 10:48 PM
Response to Reply #5
12. That is simply beautiful and true.
The thing that costs the least and gives us most meaning, love.

What a wonderful Valentine's day remembrance from your hubby.

I wish you and yours the best.

peace-
bd12
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nomorenomore08 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 10:42 PM
Response to Reply #1
9. Is that Vonnegut or Ned Flanders?
:hide:
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bluedawg12 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 10:45 PM
Response to Reply #9
11. Either way it's charming. LOL.
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chill_wind Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 09:35 PM
Response to Original message
2. "He drew a circle..."


He drew a circle that shut me out--
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!

"Outwitted" by Edwin Markham
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WillParkinson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 10:11 PM
Response to Reply #2
7. I like that...
It's so prophetic.
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bread_and_roses Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 09:39 PM
Response to Original message
3. Matthew Arnold, "Dover Beach," comes to mind, though I'm not a fan of Valentine's Day
Edited on Sat Feb-14-09 09:41 PM by bread_and_roses
Or - on edit to be precise, because I'm not a fan of Valentine's Day

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

.....from Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold

And on a more bawdy, if only slightly more cheerful not, "To His Coy Mistress" by Marvell

To His Coy Mistress
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime
We would sit down and think which way
To walk and pass our long love's day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, Lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear
Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song: then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust:
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapt power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

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bluedawg12 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 10:41 PM
Response to Reply #3
8. The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.

What a great line, what a great poem, they don't make romance like they used to. :evilgrin:


Or do they? ;-)
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bluedawg12 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 09:43 PM
Response to Original message
4. ...
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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chill_wind Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 10:00 PM
Response to Original message
6.  "I would like to watch you sleeping-
Variations on the Word "Sleep"

I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head

and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear

I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center. I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and you enter
it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.

-- Margaret Atwood

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bluedawg12 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 10:43 PM
Response to Reply #6
10. Whoa! I've not read this one before.
"I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary."

Just wonderful. :)
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katanalori Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 10:58 PM
Response to Reply #10
13. : )
"So many Gods, so many creeds;
So many roads that wind and wind -
When just the art of being kind,
Is all the sad world needs." (Ella Wheeler Wilcox)

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bluedawg12 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-15-09 12:30 AM
Response to Reply #13
14. The golden rule.
Do onto others. :)
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TechBear_Seattle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-15-09 02:17 AM
Response to Original message
15. I've always been fond of Ogden Nash
"Candy is dandy, but
Liquor is quicker."
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bluedawg12 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-15-09 02:25 AM
Response to Reply #15
16. Short and sweet?
:evilgrin:
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-15-09 01:24 PM
Response to Reply #15
17. I just Googled "Ogden Nash" and "Valentine"
To My Valentine
Ogden Nash

More than a catbird hates a cat,
Or a criminal hates a clue,
Or the Axis hates the United States,
That's how much I love you.

I love you more than a duck can swim,
And more than a grapefruit squirts,
I love you more than a gin rummy is a bore,
And more than a toothache hurts.

As a shipwrecked sailor hates the sea,
Or a juggler hates a shove,
As a hostess detests unexpected guests,
That's how much you I love.

I love you more than a wasp can sting,
And more than the subway jerks,
I love you as much as a beggar needs a crutch,
And more than a hangnail irks.

I swear to you by the stars above,
And below, if such there be,
As the High Court loathes perjurious oathes,
That's how you're love by me.
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TechBear_Seattle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-15-09 08:02 PM
Response to Reply #17
18. Excellent find!
Nash is a very funny poet.
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bluedawg12 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-15-09 08:13 PM
Response to Reply #17
19. Perfect! ROFL!!
He's a little like Dr. Suess for A-dults. :P

Verrrry cute.
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Eryemil Donating Member (958 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-16-09 08:43 AM
Response to Original message
20. Oh no, I won't have anything to do with any this... Ok maybe just once
Edited on Mon Feb-16-09 08:45 AM by Eryemil
Down, Wanton, Down!

Down, wanton, down! Have you no shame
That at the whisper of Love's name,
Or Beauty's, presto! up you raise
Your angry head and stand at gaze?

Poor bombard-captain, sworn to reach
The ravelin and effect a breach -
Indifferent what you storm or why,
So be that in the breach you die!

Love may be blind, but Love at least
Knows what is a man and whar mere beast;
Or beauty wayward, but requires
More delicacy from her squires.

Tell me, my witless, whose one boast
Could be your staunchness at the post,
When were you made a man of parts
To think fine and profess the arts?

Will many-gifted Beauty come
Bowing to your bald rule of thumb,
Or Love swear loyalty to your crown?
Be gone, have done! Down, wanton, down!

-Robert Graves von Ranke


Ok, maybe not that one. What of this one?


II

When you shave your chest, you arms, your legs,
And all the hair around your cock,
It's for your girlfriend, everybody knows, Labienus.
But who's for, when you shave also your ass?

-Martial


I give up! How about instead a bit of advice?


Advice

If you see someone beautiful
hammer it out right then.
Say what you think;
grab his balls: be a man.

But if 'I admire you' is what you say
and 'I'll be a brother to you' -
shame will bar the only way
to all you want to do.

-Adaios the Macedon


:evilgrin:
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bluedawg12 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-16-09 09:14 AM
Response to Reply #20
21. Ah! The Classics!
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
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Smarmie Doofus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-16-09 09:58 AM
Response to Original message
22. Hey... Woody Allen wrote that!
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain, has such small hands

I jest.... but it's quoted in Hannah and Her Sisters.

Michael Caine's character quotes it to Barbara Hershey's.







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bluedawg12 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-17-09 01:52 AM
Response to Reply #22
24. That's like a picture, in a picture of a picture.
Kewl! Big Woody Allen fan too. :P
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The Brethren Donating Member (853 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-17-09 01:45 AM
Response to Original message
23. No poems in mind.
However, I wanted to thank you bluedawg for sharing your favorite poems. I esp. liked -- The Genius Of The Crowd- Charles Bukowski.

I also wanted to thank whoever the heart fairy was who gave me my second heart. I know sent me the 1st one, but have no idea who the 2nd secret admirer was.....it was very sweet of that person. :-)
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bluedawg12 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-17-09 01:54 AM
Response to Reply #23
25. I am so glad you enjoyed them.
Yeah, the Bukowski poem was quite powerful and struck some chords from real life politics, didn't it?

Enjoy the heart--you do rock. :P

dawger:)
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The Brethren Donating Member (853 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-18-09 01:34 AM
Response to Reply #25
26. It struck a lot of chords.
I have a number of people in mind....politicians and social/religious leaders that is.

And thank you very much for the heart as well as the compliment. Likewise, I enjoy your humor and your passion for our community. :-)



The Stimulus Plan ("American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009"): Orig. House version -- http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/RecoveryBill01-15-09.pdf , House spreadsheet -- http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pV-c6t5fOVmNorqMpHvnCMw ; Senate version -- http://appropriations.senate.gov/News/2009_02_02_The_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009.pdf ; and Senate compromise -- http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-1 , Text and $$$ details of Senate compromise -- http://appropriations.senate.gov/News/2009_02_08_UPDATED_Appropriations_Provisions_of_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act.pdf?CFID=4043629&CFTOKEN=40573040 . In addition to -- http://readthestimulus.org/amdth1.pdf , along with -- http://www.readthestimulus.org/ . Final version, Feb. 13th, 1500 pgs. worth -- http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/arra_public_review/ , more details on the final version -- http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=1913&action=Headlines%20By%20TCS , including spending -- http://cbs4denver.com/national/Web.government.accountability.2.937188.html
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bluedawg12 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-18-09 02:07 AM
Response to Reply #26
27. ...
:pals:
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