Though I'd share my favorite poen with you all

[4GS]

"I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD"

I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth 1804

[helliebobs]

Lovely John, this is mine:

Daddy
by: Sylvia Plath

You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.

Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time--
Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,
Ghastly statue with one gray toe
Big as a Frisco seal

And a head in the freakish Atlantic
Where it pours bean green over blue
In the waters off beautiful Nauset.
I used to pray to recover you.
Ach, du.

In the German tongue, in the Polish town
Scraped flat by the roller
Of wars, wars, wars.
But the name of the town is common.
My Polack friend

Says there are a dozen or two.
So I never could tell where you
Put your foot, your root,
I never could talk to you.
The tongue stuck in my jaw.

It stuck in a barb wire snare.
Ich, ich, ich, ich,
I could hardly speak.
I thought every German was you.
And the language obscene

An engine, an engine
Chuffing me off like a Jew.
A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen.
I began to talk like a Jew.
I think I may well be a Jew.

The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna
Are not very pure or true.
With my gipsy ancestress and my weird luck
And my Taroc pack and my Taroc pack
I may be a bit of a Jew.

I have always been scared of you,
With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.
And your neat mustache
And your Aryan eye, bright blue.
Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You--

Not God but a swastika
So black no sky could squeak through.
Every woman adores a Fascist,
The boot in the face, the brute
Brute heart of a brute

[helliebobs]

But they pulled me out of the sack,
And they stuck me together with glue.
And then I knew what to do.
I made a model of you,
A man in black with a Meinkampf look

And a love of the rack and the screw.
And I said I do, I do.
So daddy, I'm finally through.
The black telephone's off at the root,
The voices just can't worm through.

If I've killed one man, I've killed two--
The vampire who said he was you
And drank my blood for a year,
Seven years, if you want to know.
Daddy, you can lie back now.

There's a stake in your fat black heart
And the villagers never liked you.
They are dancing and stamping on you.
They always knew it was you.
Daddy, daddy, you *******, I'm through.


From "Ariel", 1966

[4getmenot]

By far the naughtiest children I know
Are Jasper, Geranium, James & Jo

They live in a house on the Hill of Kidd
And what in the world do you think they did?

They asked their Uncles and Aunts to tea
And shouted in loud rude voices �We

Are tired of scoldings and sendings to bed
Now the grown ups shall be punished instead

They said �Auntie Em, you didn�t say thank you�
They said �Uncle Robert, we�re going to spank you

They pulled the beard of Sir Henry Dorner
And put him to stand in disgrace in the corner

They scolded Aunt B, they punished Aunt Jane
They slapped and Louisa again and again

They said �Naughty Boy!� to their Uncle Fred
And boxed his ears and sent him to bed

Do you think Aunts Em and Lou and B
And Sir Henry Dorner (KCB)

And the elderly Uncles and kind Aunt Jane
Will go to tea with the children again?

[aka pixi]

My fave poem is The Cat in the Hat :D

I bought the book for my grandaughter a while ago and Im sure I enjoyed it more than she did lol

[beejay1124]

gravi----that doesnt even bl**dy rhyme

[4getmenot]

maybe the next line does

[helliebobs]

Poetry doesn't need to rhyme :)

[Floella]

This is my favourite poem.

Warning


When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Jenny Joseph

[mistys]

When you are old? I thought you already were old Flo :oP - xxx

And isn't this cloud one the one you want at your funeral?? Or was it the clocks one? I get confused!! - xxx

[Floella]

Humph @ Misty. When I am older then. Is that better.

Nah, its not the daffodils one, its Stop all Clocks or Christina Rossetti for my funeral. Which ever one you want to read.

[4GS]

I want this poem at my funeral:

I DID NOT DIE


Do not stand by my grave and grieve.



I am not there, I did not leave.


For I�m that distant shining star.


I�m all around you, never far.





I am the sparkle in children�s eyes.


I paint the blue in the autumn skies.


And in those cool sweet summer eves,


I hide in the shadows the sunshine weaves.





Yes together we laughed and cried,


But now I'm ever at your side.


For as long as I am in your heart,


We'll never really be apart.





So live your life and do be gay,


And look forward to that day,


When somewhere just around the bend,


We will surely meet again.

[mistys]

Sorry Ma, I'm not gonna read a poem. My contribution will be blaring out love shack and shaking my thang :o) - xxx

4GS - That's a really nice poem :o)