ASF Poetry Thread

"If you want to know how much I love you ,
though we're half a world apart,
how I envy the winds above you
and how fierce the flames in my heart
..
go at six to the ocean today,
place your gentle hand deep in the brine
and I'll do the same thing half a world away
.....
and you'll feel the warmth of mine"

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Ahh it's bound to be global warming
or a whale did a piss or a fart,
but I've sent off a carrier pigeon
to bring you a raspberry tart

you want to know how much I've missed you?
with mine eyes - (and mine hands and my mind)? -
it's a year since they've seen you or kissed you
and they're starting to go bloody blind.!!

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2020hindsight said:

(and beggar the self-centred rest.)

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Time is not a line, but a series of now points.
- Taisen Deshimaru

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chansw said:

"Until" - Sting
(THE WORLD'S OLDEST LESSON IN HISTORY?)

if I caught the World in a bottle
and Everything was Still beneath the Moon
withOut your love would it Shine for me?
if I was smart as Aristotle
and Understood the Rings around the Moon
what Would it all matter if You loved me?

here in your Arms where the World is impossibly Still
with a Million dreams to fulFill
and a Matter of moments unTil the dancing ends
here in your Arms when Everything seems to be Clear
not a Solitary thing would i Fear
exCept when this moment comes Near the dancing's end

if I caught the World in an hourglass
Saddled up the Moon so we could Ride
unTil the Stars grew Dim, unTil...

One day You’ll meet a stranger
and All the noise is Silenced in the room
you’ll Feel that you're close to some Mystery
in the Moonlight and Everything shatters
you Feel as if you’ve Known her all your life
the World’s oldest lesson in History

here in your Arms where the World is impossibly Still
with a Million dreams to fulFill
and a Matter of moments unTil the dancing ends
here in your Arms when Everything seems to be Clear
not a Solitary thing do i Fear
exCept when this moment comes Near the dancing’s end

oh, if I caught the World in an Hourglass
Saddled up the Moon and we would Ride
unTil the Stars grew Dim
unTil the Time that Time stands Still, unTil...

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2020hindsight said:

gotta feeling this is a fast waltz
great song posted by chainsw back there
Sting - Until
https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=93780&highlight=sting#post93780

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THE WORLD'S NEWEST LESSON IN HISTORY

if I caught the World in a bottle
and Introduced a Dancing partner, moon
then Played a song would they Dance for me?
if I was smart as Aristotle
and Understood the Rings around the Moon
what Would it all matter – they Danced for me!!

guitar in Arms, and the World and the moon dancing Still
with their Millions of dreamers and thrills
and a Million millennia Till the dancing ends,
here on this Floor, when Everything’s whirring aRound
not a Solitary thing would i Fear
exCept when this moment comes Near the dancing's end....

if I caught the World in an hourglass
Saddled up the Moon so they could Waltz
unTil the Stars grew Dim, unTil...

One day Earth will get stranger
and Sun will cease to Play its dancing Tune
all too Tired of life and the Mystery
on that Day then Everything shatters
you Feel as if you’ve Reached the end of Life
the World’s newest lesson in History

guitar in Arms, and the World and the moon dancing Still
with their Millions of dreamers and thrills
and a Million millennia Till the dancing ends,
here on this Floor, when Everything’s whirring aRound
not a Solitary thing do i Fear
exCept when this moment comes Near the dancing's end

oh, if I caught the World in an hourglass
Saddled up the Moon so they could waltz
unTil the Stars grew Dim,
unTil the Time that Time stands Still, unTil...

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Reading a poem from the book Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows by Rob McKuen

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It went on sale exceeding fast, the cheapest there, ten cents
a little boy was walking past, and spied it through the fence
and book and boy were both aghast, their first sight love intense,
and ten cents later, die was cast on all that's happened hence"

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Heave her up and haul away
Underway for Botany Bay
We're bound for Australia etc ??

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"If I had a hundred sons I would send them all to the southern hemisphere - either Van Dieman's Land, or Natal. England is sinking - not by the efforts of a foreign power (having got out of the clutches of France / Napolean etc in recent memory at that time) - but by our own efforts... " etcetc

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Her cheek grew pale, in her dark eye I saw the tear-drop shine;
Her red lips faltered in reply, And then were pressed to mine.
A quick pulsation of the heart! A flutter of the breath!
A smothered sob—and thus we part, To meet no more till death.

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TO MY SISTER
Adam Lindsay Gordon

ACROSS the trackless seas I go, No matter when or where,
And few my future lot will know, And fewer still will care.
My hopes are gone, my time is spent, I little heed their loss,
And if I cannot feel content, I cannot feel remorse.

My parents bid me cross the flood, My kindred frowned at me;
They say I have belied my blood, And stained my pedigree.
But I must turn from those who chide, And laugh at those who frown;
I cannot quench my stubborn pride, Nor keep my spirits down.

I once had talents fit to win Success in life’s career,
And if I chose a part of sin, My choice has cost me dear.
But those who brand me with disgrace Will scarcely dare to say
They spoke the taunt before my face, And went unscathed away.

My friends will miss a comrade’s face, And pledge me on the seas,
Who shared the wine-cup or the chase, Or follies worse than these.
A careless smile, a parting glass, A hand that waves adieu,
And from my sight they soon will pass, And from my memory too.

I loved a girl not long ago, And, till my suit was told,
I thought her breast as fair as snow, ’Twas very near as cold;
And yet I spoke, with feelings more Of recklessness than pain,
Those words I never spoke before, Nor never shall again.

Her cheek grew pale, in her dark eye I saw the tear-drop shine;
Her red lips faltered in reply, And then were pressed to mine.
A quick pulsation of the heart! A flutter of the breath!
A smothered sob—and thus we part, To meet no more till death.

And yet I may at times recall Her memory with a sigh;
At times for me the tears may fall And dim her sparkling eye.
But absent friends are soon forgot, And in a year or less
’Twill doubtless be another’s lot Those very lips to press!

With adverse fate we best can cope When all we prize has fled;
And where there’s little left to hope, There’s little left to dread!
Oh, time glides ever quickly by! Destroying all that’s dear;
On earth there’s little worth a sigh, And nothing worth a tear!

What fears have I? What hopes in life? What joys can I command?
A few short years of toil and strife In a strange and distant land!
When green grass sprouts above this clay (And that might be ere long),
Some friends may read these lines and say, The world has judged him wrong.

There is a spot not far away Where my young sister sleeps,
Who seems alive but yesterday, So fresh her memory keeps;
For we have played in childhood there Beneath the hawthorn’s bough,
And bent our knee in childish prayer I cannot utter now!

Of late so reckless and so wild, That spot recalls to me
That I was once a laughing child, As innocent as she;
And there, while August’s wild flow’rs wave, I wandered all alone,
Strewed blossoms on her little grave, And knelt beside the stone.

I seem to have a load to bear, A heavy, choking grief;
Could I have forced a single tear I might have felt relief.
I think my hot and restless heart Has scorched the channels dry,
From which those sighs of sorrow start To moisten cheek and eye.

Sister, farewell! farewell once more To every youthful tie!
Friends! parents! kinsmen! native shore! To each and all good-bye!
And thoughts which for the moment seem To bind me with a spell,
Ambitious hope! love’s boyish dream! To you a last farewell!

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QUARE FATIGASTI
Adam Lindsay Gordon

Two years ago I was thinking
On the changes that years bring forth;
Now I stand where I then stood drinking
The gust and the salt sea froth;
And the shuddering wave strikes, linking
With the waves subsiding and sinking,
And clots the coast herbage, shrinking,
With the hue of the white cere-cloth.

Is there aught worth losing or keeping?
The bitters or sweets men quaff?
The sowing or the doubtful reaping?
The harvest of grain or chaff?
Or squandering days or heaping,
Or waking seasons or sleeping,
The laughter that dries the weeping,
Or the weeping that drowns the laugh?

For joys wax dim and woes deaden,
We forget the sorrowful biers,
And the garlands glad that have fled in
The merciful march of years;
And the sunny skies, and the leaden,
And the faces that pale or redden,
And the smiles that lovers are wed in
Who are born and buried in tears.

And the myrtle bloom turns hoary,
And the blush of the rose decays,
And sodden with sweat and gory
Are the hard won laurels and bays;
We are neither joyous nor sorry
When time has ended our story,
And blotted out grief and glory,
And pain, and pleasure, and praise.

Weigh justly, throw good and bad in
The scales, will the balance veer
With the joys or the sorrows had in
The sum of a life’s career?
In the end, spite of dreams that sadden
The sad or the sanguine madden,
There is nothing to grieve or gladden,
There is nothing to hope or fear.

“Thou hast gone astray,” quoth the preacher,
“In the gall of thy bitterness,”
Thou hast taught me in vain, oh, teacher!
I neither blame thee nor bless;
If bitter is sure and sweet sure,
These vanish with form and feature—
Can the creature fathom the creature,
Whose Creator is fathomless?

Is this dry land sure? Is the sea sure?
Is there aught that shall long remain,
Pain, or peril, or pleasure,
Pleasure, or peril, or pain?
Shall we labour or take our leisure,
And who shall inherit treasure,
If the measure with which we measure
Is meted to us again?

I am slow in learning and swift in
Forgetting, and I have grown
So weary with long sand sifting;
T’wards the mist where the breakers moan
The rudderless bark is drifting,
Through the shoals and the quicksands shifting—
In the end shall the night-rack lifting,
Discover the shores unknown?

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Gordon had fallen in love with a girl of 17, Jane Bridges, who was able to tell the story 60 years afterwards to his biographers. He did not declare his love until he came to say good-bye to her before leaving for Australia on 7 August 1853. "With characteristic recklessness he offered to sacrifice the passage he had taken to Australia, and all his father's plans for giving him a fresh start in life, if she would tell him not to go, or promise to be his wife, or even give him some hope." This Miss Bridges could not do, though she liked the shy handsome boy and remembered him with affection to the end of a long life. It was the one romance of Gordon's life. That Gordon realized his conduct had fallen much below what it might have been can be seen in his poems .

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ship me somewhere east of aries
where the starcount starts at first
and there’s 123 quadrillion
and the same if the count’s reversed

and the heavens’s have their HQ
and the god’s of love their base
and Apollo and his mates too
keep expanding into space
keep expanding into space

on the starship Galileo
which the chinese call their mao
where the dawns shines through the cosmos
like a perforated Sao

on the road to aldabaran
where the thermal heights are Fahren
and the lord insists on hymn songs
even if your gitus is laran.

repeat …
lets pretend a year’s a second,
with your heartbeat wild uncaged
then your age would be 140,
guess that makes you “middle aged”

on the road to aldabaran
where the thermal heights are Fahren
as we leave behind of world of sand
and stuff the world - cos it's barren

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