Time for a DU poetry session.

[armyowalgreens]

I don't know if this has ever been done before. But I've been in a bad mood lately and I find that poetry always seems to help me go to a better place mentally.

Hopefully my fellow DUers like poetry as well. What I want is for everyone to post their favorite poems or poems that they wrote. It doesn't matter what topic it's over. Just post it up so we all can enjoy.

I'll go first.


Tao Te Ching verse 41

"When a superior man hears of the Tao,
he immediately begins to embody it.
When an average man hears of the Tao,
he half believes it, half doubts it.
When a foolish man hears of the Tao,
he laughs out loud.
If he didn't laugh,
it wouldn't be the Tao.

Thus it is said:
The path into the light seems dark,
the path forward seems to go back,
the direct path seems long,
true power seems weak,
true purity seems tarnished,
true steadfastness seems changeable,
true clarity seems obscure,
the greatest art seems unsophisticated,
the greatest love seems indifferent,
the greatest wisdom seems childish.

The Tao is nowhere to be found.
Yet it nourishes and completes all things."




Here is something I wrote one night as I contemplated the ethics of living a happy life..


"Bliss Is Ignorance

Art is something the safe enjoy
the needy want
and the destroyed avoid

How can I marvel at the strokes on a canvas
When a man lies beside his dying child as the rebels pillage his land?

How can I sip my cup of coffee
When disease ravages entire nations?

How can I complain about money problems
When I know there are people barely surviving from one day to the next?

How can I live happy
When I know that such sadness exists in the world?

Does our happiness suffer blows from evil?
Or are they the same thing?

We surround ourselves with light
So that we may escape the darkness in the world.

Yet does that light not make the darkness more penetrating?
Does it destroy it?
Or does it make it more pronounced?

I do not know.

I do know that I will never fully enjoy the world
While others are subjected to such horrors.

I do know that the only true joy
Is hidden inside humanity
Inside good will and brotherhood"



And finally, one of my first attempts at true poetry. I suffer from severe depression and in the spring of 2008 I almost killed myself. No one knew but me. One night, when my family was out of town, I decided to end it all and consume a large quantity of muscle relaxants. But with the bottle in my hand, I had a a sudden urge to write poetry. I needed to express what I felt through something literal so that I could lift the burden of keeping it all inside.

So I wrote this.

"Isolation

My life is a perpetual state of distance
I see the world as an astronomer views far off galaxies with his telescope
The beauty is seen but is unattainable

Isolated from reality I watch life pass like the 5 o clock news
Each event is a flicker in my mind
But before I can enjoy it life moves on

She is right here in front of me and I know I cannot have her
She stands right beside me but I am 10000 miles away

Will I escape this isolation?
I long for relief from this perpetual nightmare

I sleep but I do not heal
My heart beats and my lungs inhale but I am not alive
My mind is my enemy
Happiness brings pain

I yearn for something to light up the darkness
I need to awake

I must break these bonds of isolation
I must swim up from the murky depths of this ocean of night
I must seek out the bright glow of the real world
So close to my soul, yet just out of reach

My life is fatigued
Each second is 1000 lifetimes
Sleep brings only the memories of reality
Taunting me
Destroying me
Bringing me so close to the edge

“Light up the darkness” my eyes tell me every second of every minute of every hour of every day
Yet each flicker of happiness brings with it the agony of losing it
Each time it breaks me down
Each time it ignites my hope and burns it out

Each interaction with someone is momentary
I slip away
I reach out for support
I cry out in desperation
Not wanting to let this flicker of life go

My hands claw at the earth
The earth breaks away
And I fall
I fall deep into myself unable to escape

I am alone"

I know that neither of my poems are great. But they are of great value to me because they express how I felt during some of my darkest times. It kind of serves as a reminder to me how life has been and how lucky I am to be in such a good spot now.


Oh and Mods if this isn't the right place to post poetry, I apologize.

[aquart]

1. Okay.

Live lightly.
Liking love.
Let the stars go free.
Let me.
Permit the sleep to be
A prelude to the sun.
Unhand the dust.

[armyowalgreens]

3. That's beautiful

:thumbsup:

[annabanana]

2. 'the path forward seems to go back," . .. never truer. . . .n/t

[armyowalgreens]

4. Bump for the day walkers.

[Larry Ogg]

5. Giants of Words and Power

This is something I wrote and say too myself when I see things going too hell in a hand basket while at the same time politicians and the M$M are lying their asses off, making excuses, blaming someone else for their bad policies, complicity, venality and treason; all of this while scaring the hell out of the electorate so as we are constantly reminded as to why we actually need to keep on reelecting them…
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Giants of Words and Power

I have seen men, giants of words and power in many high places, putting lids on those whose feet run to expose their many faces. And a suppressed mans words are thorns in the sides of those who say, there’s nothing we can do, and while pushing the lid down they turn and walk away.

Dissenting voices silenced as truth despairs the shameless tyrants; Wolves in sheep’s clothing cloaked in religious fever and patriotic reveling too deceive the faithful and the just; Evil Greedy gluttons of power preaching parity but far removed, demanding oaths and conformity of lesser classes fed fat with mammon and revelry but left bereft of good decision for lack of truth.

Truth found in a hidden past but not lost.
Truth found in a censored present but not unseen.
And truth found in an unsustainable future waiting to be seen.

And soon will be the days when men begin to say, it was the past - truth forgotten that could of set us free.

[armyowalgreens]

8. Damn. I need to save that one. Simply beautiful.

[Bucky]

6. oh, I got one!

here I sit all brokenhearted, paid my dime and only farted

[armyowalgreens]

7. I have seen that written in a bathroom.

Made me laugh.

[NJCher]

9. I'll be following this thread all day

This is a good idea, Amy. :)


Cher

[armyowalgreens]

10. Here's another one that I conjured up in my dorm room...

"Truth is the sun beating down on a crisp field of St. Augustine
Salvation lies within truth
I am looking for a Saint"

[armyowalgreens]

11. Sorry, one more here and then I'm done for the night.

I'm agnostic.. But there is just something about this that expresses absolute truth to me.


Ezekiel 25:17

"The path of the
righteous man is beset on all sides
by the inequities of the selfish
and the tyranny of evil men.

Blessed is he who, in the name of
charity and good will, shepherds
the weak through the valley of
darkness. For he is truly his
brother's keeper and the finder
of lost children.

And I will strike down upon thee
with great vengeance and furious
anger those who attempt to poison
and destroy my brothers.

And you will know I am the LORD
when I lay my vengeance upon you!"


Now the "Lord" part is obviously going to be up to interpretation since I'm agnostic.

[laststeamtrain]

12. Bertolt Brecht : Questions From a Worker Who Reads

Questions From a Worker Who Reads
By Bertolt Brecht

Who built Thebes of the seven gates?
In the books you will find the names of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?
And Babylon, many times demolished
Who raised it up so many times? In what houses
of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live?
Where, the evening that the Wall of China was finished
Did the masons go? Great Rome
Is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom
Did the Caesars triumph? Had Byzantium, much praised in song
Only palaces for its inhabitants? Even in fabled Atlantis
The night the ocean engulfed it
The drowning still bawled for their slaves.

The young Alexander conquered India.
Was he alone?
Caesar beat the Gauls.
Did he not have even a cook with him?

Philip of Spain wept when his armada
Went down. Was he the only one to weep?
Frederick the Second won the Seven Year's War. Who
Else won it?

Every page a victory.
Who cooked the feast for the victors?
Every ten years a great man?
Who paid the bill?

So many reports.
So many questions.

*

[CTyankee]

13. Here is one by Kay Ryan, our Poet Laureate

Patience is
wider than one
once envisioned,
with ribbons
of rivers
and distant
ranges and
tasks undertaken
and finished
with modest
relish by
natives in their
native dress.
Who would
have guessed
it possible
that waiting
is sustainable—
a place with
its own harvests.
Or that in
time's fullness
the diamonds
of patience
couldn't be
distinguished
from the genuine
in brilliance
or hardness.