The Poetry Thread

[Greeny]

Thought I'd start a thread for anyone who writes poetry or wants to start. I don't write too much these days, but in the distant past I wrote quite a lot, and was mildly successful at it. I had a book published and did several readings in London. It was what killed it for me; when you see what the London poetry 'crowd' is like, you suddenly find yourself going off poetry completely.

So this is just a place for everyone to share poetic words if they feel inclined to do so.

I just wrote my first poem for at least a year... maybe more, so that's why this thread occurred to me. Maybe it'll encourage some more word play. And as I've found over the years, poetry is a VERY good discipline for your lyrics.


POTENTIAL

I've managed to reach my full potential –
Sat in the corner of a wretched bar
At 3:23 in the afternoon;
Four bottles of Newcastle Brown to the good,
And surrounded by the jobless pint-sippers
And liver-spotted retirement bores.

The BBC news rolls soundlessly –
It's auto-cued subtitles riddled with errors
Of basic spelling and misunderstanding,
And the weather map paints a sorry picture
Of cloud and plummeting temperatures.

I've worked in London half my life,
But still I'm just a country boy
Amongst these shifty and feral types
With their mobility scooters parked outside
For the slowest possible getaway.

Yet here I am, managing
To reach my full potential:

Two Jägerbombs for a fiver,
And my undone work piling up like snow
For another time,
Another day.



 

[IanR]

Good Idea Greeny

I can relate to your feelings about reaching our potential.  I've been in my current job for 9 years.  I'm holding on to it tightly because I'm 50 and I don't think I would find it easy to get another one - even though I've mastered my field, I don't think employers hire old farts.

Anyway,  here is a poem I wrote for my aunt  a couple of years ago, just after her husband, my uncle passed away...............

Hamilton Rain

27 October 2011

The rain brings me the smell of the Hamilton pines
I can see the park and feel the little boy in my heart
Foster Street is dusty most of the time
The rain gives it life like a brand new start

The rain brings the sound of the corrugated roof
I can see Uncle Bob's room and feel the cool of the sheets
It makes me feel safe, except for the dash to the loo
Nothing except weather happened in the Hamilton streets

When the rain cleared we'd go to the farm
I remember being looked after and fed
It seemed such a long way from Hamilton to Branxholme
I wondered if anyone would find me again

In later years we'd get taken out on the ute
We'd have to hold on the keep our seats
Uncle Bill would drive slow so we wouldn't fall out
Especially when we crossed a paddock or a creek

He really cared about his kids
And because we were there he cared about us as well
He taught us stuff by showing us things
Like how to drive a tractor, turn over hay and how to round up sheep with a whistle and a yell

When I look at my kids, I wonder if they might be missing out
I tell them about the memories the rain brings me
35 Foster Street is long gone
They don't care about my ancient history

The little boy is still there in my heart
He remembers his uncles, his dad and his nan
The people his kids never met
Whether they know it or not, part of this line is in them

So I cannot say goodbye because, to me, he is still inside
I know its years since we talked or embraced
I'm sure the lessons that he taught us have somehow been applied
If I looked, I know I would find his trace

Maybe in the future my own kids will have their own stories to tell
About their dad and how he went on about Hamilton rain
I need to tell them about the whistle and the yell
Its times like these that make ancient history important again

Ian Robertson

[danieldesete]

Good idea Greeny.
what's the title of your book?

[thetworegs]

SUNRISE DOWN TO SUNSET

I thought you were just a dream
an apparition from the heavens above
you made my dreams come true
with your soft silky touch

i'm gonna love you from Sunrise
down to the sunset of time
I'm gonna keep you locked in my heart
Cause in there i can keep you mine

I know you fly where the wind blow
nobody can keep you tame
when a man love you
your like a panther on a lead

but,i'm gonna love you from Sunrise
down to the sunset of time
I'm gonna keep you locked in my heart
Cause in there i can keep you mine

i know i can not tame you
i know my hearts going to bleed
i know your gonna leave me
leave me with a need

but,i'm gonna love you from Sunrise
down to the sunset of time
I'm gonna keep you locked in my heart
Cause in there i can keep you mine


You may just drift back into my life
You make be gone for good
But i'm gonna love you for all time
even if i bleed inside

but,i'm gonna love you from Sunrise
down to the sunset of time
I'm gonna keep you locked  in my heart
Cause in there i can keep you mine
keep you mine
keep you mine

[danieldesete]

Maybe the post your work section could have a poetry entry?

[Farrell Jackson]

Cool idea Greeny! I'm sure there are many here that have some poetry filed away. I tend to write things down all the time thinking that they will most likely become a song lyric at some point in time but some never do so I call them poems, lol. Here's a short one I wrote a couple of years ago.

Post Tenebras Spero Lucem ( After Darkness I Hope For Light)

When fire rises from earth....lift us from this place
When stars are falling......protect us from the waste

As demons raise their heads......kneel down and pray
For it's not easy.......to continue with a new day

When mother, daughter, and son.....have all been laid to rest
The war between heaven and hell.....brings little comfort to our chests

Earthquakes shake foundations......buildings come tumbling down
And demons walk the rubble....where angels can't be found

The warriors of empires.......battle to keep the peace
But these mongers of evil.....still shear the lamb's fleece

Look to the heavens..... for that angel to save
And let the tolling knell....ring over our hallow graves

Post Tenebras Spero Lucem.......After Darkness I Hope For Light
Post Tenebras Spero Lucem.......After Darkness I Hope For Light


Farrell Jackson © 11-03-11

[Oldrottenhead]

some good stuff here anyone mind if i try put some to song

[Farrell Jackson]

Be my guest ORH. I have no problem at all if you want put my words to some music.

Farrell

some good stuff here anyone mind if i try put some to song

[SteveB]

Ah, Greeny, weren't the London poetry crowd once described as: '...like Jackals snarling at each other across a dried-up river bed'?

Anyway, one of mine. (Read slowly).


UNIONS

At Central Street, a wedding group,
Its Civil duty duly done.
(A legal climax achieved)
Is now at the camera-in-the-courtyard-stage,
As I continue passing through,
Tremulous, to a rendezvous.

Bride and Groom, I presume,
Central, and half-ribald in
Exclamation -
She, un-demure, shrieks with suggestion
At the loud woman in the wide-brimmed hat:
'Oh, mam, give over!'.
While He, wedded, draws deeply on his first
Husband cigarette.

They're only kids, I think to myself,
What future have they got?
As they all line up reluctantly, for -
'Just one more, with Aunty Dot'.

Just kids. But even I must know, surely -
That they are the future. Because a future
Must be, somewhere. Unsurprisingly,

The normally-cold receptionist spies me,
Singly, as I enter the short corridor.
She ventures, human and warm:
'Go right in, would you. The doctor has your results.'

[IanR]

I like that one Steve