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Centrix Vigilis View Drop Down
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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: AE Poetry Club
    Posted: 10-Sep-2015 at 17:26

Colors of the Comanche Nation Flag




By Stuart Youngman "Sy" Hoahwah


                             Red


Mupits’ breath, in moonlight, outside a child’s bedroom window


Hunter’s bones scattered on the prairie


Fragrance of Comanche gangstas who entered The Zoo Club

and assassinated the bosses of Underworld Seven,

a Navajo crime syndicate


Little Stoney Burgess’s footprints after catching ghost sickness

by running through Post Oak Cemetery chased

by snot-nosed bully, Blender Plenty Bear



                             Blue


Lips of the poisoned tribal chairman collapsed on the buffet table

at the 1974 Comanche Nation Inaugural Dinner


Silk handkerchief drawn over the stuffed owl used to converse

with the dead


In the woods, it’s the laughter of Deer Woman as she stomps

her male victim to death


Electric guitar distortion of the Messiah playing Jimi Hendrix’s

Machine Gun as she strolls into the Indian bar



                               Yellow


Coyote’s eyes in the darkness of the backseat at midnight

as you speed down Mt. Scott, on a dare, with the headlights off


Crushed buffalo kidney stones used in graffiti to magically

imprison the river-witch underneath the I-44 bridge


Intricate beadwork on Lucifer’s cane

left at the funnel cake stand at Comanche Fair


Flashing ignition light to the engines of the great abyss





*Pinterest

Sy Hoahwah, “Colors of the Comanche Nation Flag” from Velroy and the Madischie Mafia. Copyright © 2009 by Sy Hoahwah.

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"

S. T. Friedman


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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Sep-2015 at 04:15
The moon is not drunk
The moon is not drunk,
and I am not drunk either.
You must blame my swaying
on the western breeze.

The stars do not sigh
and I do not sigh either.
I keep my feelings to myself
this spring.

The moon is not drunk,
but sometimes in dreams
it becomes like that for me,
and I ride on twinkling stars.

Copyright © 2015 Julia Ward

http://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/the_moon_is_not_drunk_687733
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-Sep-2015 at 23:48
Goblin Market

Morning and evening
Maids heard the goblins cry:
“Come buy our orchard fruits,
Come buy, come buy:
Apples and quinces,
Lemons and oranges,
Plump unpeck’d cherries,
Melons and raspberries,
Bloom-down-cheek’d peaches,
Swart-headed mulberries,
Wild free-born cranberries,
Crab-apples, dewberries,
Pine-apples, blackberries,
Apricots, strawberries;—
All ripe together
In summer weather,—
Morns that pass by,
Fair eves that fly;
Come buy, come buy:
Our grapes fresh from the vine,
Pomegranates full and fine,
Dates and sharp bullaces,
Rare pears and greengages,
Damsons and bilberries,
Taste them and try:
Currants and gooseberries,
Bright-fire-like barberries,
Figs to fill your mouth,
Citrons from the South,
Sweet to tongue and sound to eye;
Come buy, come buy.”

               Evening by evening
Among the brookside rushes,
Laura bow’d her head to hear,
Lizzie veil’d her blushes:
Crouching close together
In the cooling weather,
With clasping arms and cautioning lips,
With tingling cheeks and finger tips.
“Lie close,” Laura said,
Pricking up her golden head:
“We must not look at goblin men,
We must not buy their fruits:
Who knows upon what soil they fed
Their hungry thirsty roots?”
“Come buy,” call the goblins
Hobbling down the glen.

“Oh,” cried Lizzie, “Laura, Laura,
You should not peep at goblin men.”
Lizzie cover’d up her eyes,
Cover’d close lest they should look;
Laura rear’d her glossy head,
And whisper’d like the restless brook:
“Look, Lizzie, look, Lizzie,
Down the glen tramp little men.
One hauls a basket,
One bears a plate,
One lugs a golden dish
Of many pounds weight.
How fair the vine must grow
Whose grapes are so luscious;
How warm the wind must blow
Through those fruit bushes.”
“No,” said Lizzie, “No, no, no;
Their offers should not charm us,
Their evil gifts would harm us.”
She thrust a dimpled finger
In each ear, shut eyes and ran:
Curious Laura chose to linger
Wondering at each merchant man.
One had a cat’s face,
One whisk’d a tail,
One tramp’d at a rat’s pace,
One crawl’d like a snail,
One like a wombat prowl’d obtuse and furry,
One like a ratel tumbled hurry skurry.
She heard a voice like voice of doves
Cooing all together:
They sounded kind and full of loves
In the pleasant weather.

               Laura stretch’d her gleaming neck
Like a rush-imbedded swan,
Like a lily from the beck,
Like a moonlit poplar branch,
Like a vessel at the launch
When its last restraint is gone.

               Backwards up the mossy glen
Turn’d and troop’d the goblin men,
With their shrill repeated cry,
“Come buy, come buy.”
When they reach’d where Laura was
They stood stock still upon the moss,
Leering at each other,
Brother with queer brother;
Signalling each other,
Brother with sly brother.
One set his basket down,
One rear’d his plate;
One began to weave a crown
Of tendrils, leaves, and rough nuts brown
(Men sell not such in any town);
One heav’d the golden weight
Of dish and fruit to offer her:
“Come buy, come buy,” was still their cry.
Laura stared but did not stir,
Long’d but had no money:
The whisk-tail’d merchant bade her taste
In tones as smooth as honey,
The cat-faced purr’d,
The rat-faced spoke a word
Of welcome, and the snail-paced even was heard;
One parrot-voiced and jolly
Cried “Pretty Goblin” still for “Pretty Polly;”—
One whistled like a bird.

               But sweet-tooth Laura spoke in haste:
“Good folk, I have no coin;
To take were to purloin:
I have no copper in my purse,
I have no silver either,
And all my gold is on the furze
That shakes in windy weather
Above the rusty heather.”
“You have much gold upon your head,”
They answer’d all together:
“Buy from us with a golden curl.”
She clipp’d a precious golden lock,
She dropp’d a tear more rare than pearl,
Then suck’d their fruit globes fair or red:
Sweeter than honey from the rock,
Stronger than man-rejoicing wine,
Clearer than water flow’d that juice;
She never tasted such before,
How should it cloy with length of use?
She suck’d and suck’d and suck’d the more
Fruits which that unknown orchard bore;
She suck’d until her lips were sore;
Then flung the emptied rinds away
But gather’d up one kernel stone,
And knew not was it night or day
As she turn’d home alone.

               Lizzie met her at the gate
Full of wise upbraidings:
“Dear, you should not stay so late,
Twilight is not good for maidens;
Should not loiter in the glen
In the haunts of goblin men.
Do you not remember Jeanie,
How she met them in the moonlight,
Took their gifts both choice and many,
Ate their fruits and wore their flowers
Pluck’d from bowers
Where summer ripens at all hours?
But ever in the noonlight
She pined and pined away;
Sought them by night and day,
Found them no more, but dwindled and grew grey;
Then fell with the first snow,
While to this day no grass will grow
Where she lies low:
I planted daisies there a year ago
That never blow.
You should not loiter so.”
“Nay, hush,” said Laura:
“Nay, hush, my sister:
I ate and ate my fill,
Yet my mouth waters still;
To-morrow night I will
Buy more;” and kiss’d her:
“Have done with sorrow;
I’ll bring you plums to-morrow
Fresh on their mother twigs,
Cherries worth getting;
You cannot think what figs
My teeth have met in,
What melons icy-cold
Piled on a dish of gold
Too huge for me to hold,
What peaches with a velvet nap,
Pellucid grapes without one seed:
Odorous indeed must be the mead
Whereon they grow, and pure the wave they drink
With lilies at the brink,
And sugar-sweet their sap.”

               Golden head by golden head,
Like two pigeons in one nest
Folded in each other’s wings,
They lay down in their curtain’d bed:
Like two blossoms on one stem,
Like two flakes of new-fall’n snow,
Like two wands of ivory
Tipp’d with gold for awful kings.
Moon and stars gaz’d in at them,
Wind sang to them lullaby,
Lumbering owls forbore to fly,
Not a bat flapp’d to and fro
Round their rest:
Cheek to cheek and breast to breast
Lock’d together in one nest.

               Early in the morning
When the first cock crow’d his warning,
Neat like bees, as sweet and busy,
Laura rose with Lizzie:
Fetch’d in honey, milk’d the cows,
Air’d and set to rights the house,
Kneaded cakes of whitest wheat,
Cakes for dainty mouths to eat,
Next churn’d butter, whipp’d up cream,
Fed their poultry, sat and sew’d;
Talk’d as modest maidens should:
Lizzie with an open heart,
Laura in an absent dream,
One content, one sick in part;
One warbling for the mere bright day’s delight,
One longing for the night.

               At length slow evening came:
They went with pitchers to the reedy brook;
Lizzie most placid in her look,
Laura most like a leaping flame.
They drew the gurgling water from its deep;
Lizzie pluck’d purple and rich golden flags,
Then turning homeward said: “The sunset flushes
Those furthest loftiest crags;
Come, Laura, not another maiden lags.
No wilful squirrel wags,
The beasts and birds are fast asleep.”
But Laura loiter’d still among the rushes
And said the bank was steep.

               And said the hour was early still
The dew not fall’n, the wind not chill;
Listening ever, but not catching
The customary cry,
“Come buy, come buy,”
With its iterated jingle
Of sugar-baited words:
Not for all her watching
Once discerning even one goblin
Racing, whisking, tumbling, hobbling;
Let alone the herds
That used to tramp along the glen,
In groups or single,
Of brisk fruit-merchant men.

               Till Lizzie urged, “O Laura, come;
I hear the fruit-call but I dare not look:
You should not loiter longer at this brook:
Come with me home.
The stars rise, the moon bends her arc,
Each glowworm winks her spark,
Let us get home before the night grows dark:
For clouds may gather
Though this is summer weather,
Put out the lights and drench us through;
Then if we lost our way what should we do?”

               Laura turn’d cold as stone
To find her sister heard that cry alone,
That goblin cry,
“Come buy our fruits, come buy.”
Must she then buy no more such dainty fruit?
Must she no more such succous pasture find,
Gone deaf and blind?
Her tree of life droop’d from the root:
She said not one word in her heart’s sore ache;
But peering thro’ the dimness, nought discerning,
Trudg’d home, her pitcher dripping all the way;
So crept to bed, and lay
Silent till Lizzie slept;
Then sat up in a passionate yearning,
And gnash’d her teeth for baulk’d desire, and wept
As if her heart would break.

               Day after day, night after night,
Laura kept watch in vain
In sullen silence of exceeding pain.
She never caught again the goblin cry:
“Come buy, come buy;”—
She never spied the goblin men
Hawking their fruits along the glen:
But when the noon wax’d bright
Her hair grew thin and grey;
She dwindled, as the fair full moon doth turn
To swift decay and burn
Her fire away.

               One day remembering her kernel-stone
She set it by a wall that faced the south;
Dew’d it with tears, hoped for a root,
Watch’d for a waxing shoot,
But there came none;
It never saw the sun,
It never felt the trickling moisture run:
While with sunk eyes and faded mouth
She dream’d of melons, as a traveller sees
False waves in desert drouth
With shade of leaf-crown’d trees,
And burns the thirstier in the sandful breeze.

               She no more swept the house,
Tended the fowls or cows,
Fetch’d honey, kneaded cakes of wheat,
Brought water from the brook:
But sat down listless in the chimney-nook
And would not eat.

               Tender Lizzie could not bear
To watch her sister’s cankerous care
Yet not to share.
She night and morning
Caught the goblins’ cry:
“Come buy our orchard fruits,
Come buy, come buy;”—
Beside the brook, along the glen,
She heard the tramp of goblin men,
The yoke and stir
Poor Laura could not hear;
Long’d to buy fruit to comfort her,
But fear’d to pay too dear.
She thought of Jeanie in her grave,
Who should have been a bride;
But who for joys brides hope to have
Fell sick and died
In her gay prime,
In earliest winter time
With the first glazing rime,
With the first snow-fall of crisp winter time.

               Till Laura dwindling
Seem’d knocking at Death’s door:
Then Lizzie weigh’d no more
Better and worse;
But put a silver penny in her purse,
Kiss’d Laura, cross’d the heath with clumps of furze
At twilight, halted by the brook:
And for the first time in her life
Began to listen and look.

               Laugh’d every goblin
When they spied her peeping:
Came towards her hobbling,
Flying, running, leaping,
Puffing and blowing,
Chuckling, clapping, crowing,
Clucking and gobbling,
Mopping and mowing,
Full of airs and graces,
Pulling wry faces,
Demure grimaces,
Cat-like and rat-like,
Ratel- and wombat-like,
Snail-paced in a hurry,
Parrot-voiced and whistler,
Helter skelter, hurry skurry,
Chattering like magpies,
Fluttering like pigeons,
Gliding like fishes,—
Hugg’d her and kiss’d her:
Squeez’d and caress’d her:
Stretch’d up their dishes,
Panniers, and plates:
“Look at our apples
Russet and dun,
Bob at our cherries,
Bite at our peaches,
Citrons and dates,
Grapes for the asking,
Pears red with basking
Out in the sun,
Plums on their twigs;
Pluck them and suck them,
Pomegranates, figs.”—

               “Good folk,” said Lizzie,
Mindful of Jeanie:
“Give me much and many: —
Held out her apron,
Toss’d them her penny.
“Nay, take a seat with us,
Honour and eat with us,”
They answer’d grinning:
“Our feast is but beginning.
Night yet is early,
Warm and dew-pearly,
Wakeful and starry:
Such fruits as these
No man can carry:
Half their bloom would fly,
Half their dew would dry,
Half their flavour would pass by.
Sit down and feast with us,
Be welcome guest with us,
Cheer you and rest with us.”—
“Thank you,” said Lizzie: “But one waits
At home alone for me:
So without further parleying,
If you will not sell me any
Of your fruits though much and many,
Give me back my silver penny
I toss’d you for a fee.”—
They began to scratch their pates,
No longer wagging, purring,
But visibly demurring,
Grunting and snarling.
One call’d her proud,
Cross-grain’d, uncivil;
Their tones wax’d loud,
Their looks were evil.
Lashing their tails
They trod and hustled her,
Elbow’d and jostled her,
Claw’d with their nails,
Barking, mewing, hissing, mocking,
Tore her gown and soil’d her stocking,
Twitch’d her hair out by the roots,
Stamp’d upon her tender feet,
Held her hands and squeez’d their fruits
Against her mouth to make her eat.

               White and golden Lizzie stood,
Like a lily in a flood,—
Like a rock of blue-vein’d stone
Lash’d by tides obstreperously,—
Like a beacon left alone
In a hoary roaring sea,
Sending up a golden fire,—
Like a fruit-crown’d orange-tree
White with blossoms honey-sweet
Sore beset by wasp and bee,—
Like a royal virgin town
Topp’d with gilded dome and spire
Close beleaguer’d by a fleet
Mad to tug her standard down.

               One may lead a horse to water,
Twenty cannot make him drink.
Though the goblins cuff’d and caught her,
Coax’d and fought her,
Bullied and besought her,
Scratch’d her, pinch’d her black as ink,
Kick’d and knock’d her,
Maul’d and mock’d her,
Lizzie utter’d not a word;
Would not open lip from lip
Lest they should cram a mouthful in:
But laugh’d in heart to feel the drip
Of juice that syrupp’d all her face,
And lodg’d in dimples of her chin,
And streak’d her neck which quaked like curd.
At last the evil people,
Worn out by her resistance,
Flung back her penny, kick’d their fruit
Along whichever road they took,
Not leaving root or stone or shoot;
Some writh’d into the ground,
Some div’d into the brook
With ring and ripple,
Some scudded on the gale without a sound,
Some vanish’d in the distance.

               In a smart, ache, tingle,
Lizzie went her way;
Knew not was it night or day;
Sprang up the bank, tore thro’ the furze,
Threaded copse and dingle,
And heard her penny jingle
Bouncing in her purse,—
Its bounce was music to her ear.
She ran and ran
As if she fear’d some goblin man
Dogg’d her with gibe or curse
Or something worse:
But not one goblin scurried after,
Nor was she prick’d by fear;
The kind heart made her windy-paced
That urged her home quite out of breath with haste
And inward laughter.

               She cried, “Laura,” up the garden,
“Did you miss me?
Come and kiss me.
Never mind my bruises,
Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices
Squeez’d from goblin fruits for you,
Goblin pulp and goblin dew.
Eat me, drink me, love me;
Laura, make much of me;
For your sake I have braved the glen
And had to do with goblin merchant men.”

               Laura started from her chair,
Flung her arms up in the air,
Clutch’d her hair:
“Lizzie, Lizzie, have you tasted
For my sake the fruit forbidden?
Must your light like mine be hidden,
Your young life like mine be wasted,
Undone in mine undoing,
And ruin’d in my ruin,
Thirsty, canker’d, goblin-ridden?”—
She clung about her sister,
Kiss’d and kiss’d and kiss’d her:
Tears once again
Refresh’d her shrunken eyes,
Dropping like rain
After long sultry drouth;
Shaking with aguish fear, and pain,
She kiss’d and kiss’d her with a hungry mouth.

               Her lips began to scorch,
That juice was wormwood to her tongue,
She loath’d the feast:
Writhing as one possess’d she leap’d and sung,
Rent all her robe, and wrung
Her hands in lamentable haste,
And beat her breast.
Her locks stream’d like the torch
Borne by a racer at full speed,
Or like the mane of horses in their flight,
Or like an eagle when she stems the light
Straight toward the sun,
Or like a caged thing freed,
Or like a flying flag when armies run.

               Swift fire spread through her veins, knock’d at her heart,
Met the fire smouldering there
And overbore its lesser flame;
She gorged on bitterness without a name:
Ah! fool, to choose such part
Of soul-consuming care!
Sense fail’d in the mortal strife:
Like the watch-tower of a town
Which an earthquake shatters down,
Like a lightning-stricken mast,
Like a wind-uprooted tree
Spun about,
Like a foam-topp’d waterspout
Cast down headlong in the sea,
She fell at last;
Pleasure past and anguish past,
Is it death or is it life?

               Life out of death.
That night long Lizzie watch’d by her,
Counted her pulse’s flagging stir,
Felt for her breath,
Held water to her lips, and cool’d her face
With tears and fanning leaves:
But when the first birds chirp’d about their eaves,
And early reapers plodded to the place
Of golden sheaves,
And dew-wet grass
Bow’d in the morning winds so brisk to pass,
And new buds with new day
Open’d of cup-like lilies on the stream,
Laura awoke as from a dream,
Laugh’d in the innocent old way,
Hugg’d Lizzie but not twice or thrice;
Her gleaming locks show’d not one thread of grey,
Her breath was sweet as May
And light danced in her eyes.

               Days, weeks, months, years
Afterwards, when both were wives
With children of their own;
Their mother-hearts beset with fears,
Their lives bound up in tender lives;
Laura would call the little ones
And tell them of her early prime,
Those pleasant days long gone
Of not-returning time:
Would talk about the haunted glen,
The wicked, quaint fruit-merchant men,
Their fruits like honey to the throat
But poison in the blood;
(Men sell not such in any town):
Would tell them how her sister stood
In deadly peril to do her good,
And win the fiery antidote:
Then joining hands to little hands
Would bid them cling together,
“For there is no friend like a sister
In calm or stormy weather;
To cheer one on the tedious way,
To fetch one if one goes astray,
To lift one if one totters down,
To strengthen whilst one stands.”

-Christina Georgina Rossetti
What a handsome figure of a dragon. No wonder I fall madly in love with the Alani Dragon now, the avatar, it's a gorgeous dragon picture.
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-Sep-2015 at 23:35
TWILIGHT NIGHT

I

We met, hand to hand,
We clasped hands close and fast,
As close as oak and ivy stand;
But it is past:
Come day, come night, day comes at last.

We loosed hand from hand,
We parted face from face;
Each went his way to his own land.
At his own pace,
Each went to fill his separate place. 

If we should meet one day,
If both should not forget,
We shall clasp hands the accustomed way,
As when we met
So long ago, as I remember yet.

II

Where my heart is (wherever that may be)
Might I but follow!
If you fly thither over heath and lea,
O honey-seeking bee,
O careless swallow, 
Bid some for whom I watch keep watch for me.

Alas! that we must dwell, my heart and I,
So far asunder.
Hours wax to days, and days and days creep by;
I watch with wistful eye,
I wait and wonder:
When will that day draw nigh—that hour draw nigh?

Not yesterday, and not, I think, to-day;
Perhaps to-morrow.
Day after day 'to-morrow' thus I say: 
I watched so yesterday
In hope and sorrow,
Again to-day I watch the accustomed way. 

-Christina Georgina Rossetti



Edited by TheAlaniDragonRising - 09-Sep-2015 at 23:36
What a handsome figure of a dragon. No wonder I fall madly in love with the Alani Dragon now, the avatar, it's a gorgeous dragon picture.
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01-Aug-2015 at 21:27

Dreams of loving you

Longing for your touch on this empty night
I’m falling into you as my dreams take flight
The only way that I can have you near 
Is to be with you until dreams disappear
I’ll take your hand when you ask me to dance 
We’ll spend the night in this fantasy romance 
With thoughts of you lying by my side 
My slumbered thoughts will be satisfied 
When daylight streams across my bed
I’ll still be loving you, lost inside my head

Please don’t wake me from this bliss
To leave your arms for sunlight’s kiss
I don’t want to end this night’s romance
Don’t want to face the day; I’d rather dance 
The sheets feel cool against my skin
Your scent is on my mind, I’m still drinking you in  
My eyes stay closed, I want to take my time
To linger with your body close to mine 
But as I reach out to feel you near me
I’m awakened to the cold reality

Alone in this world, I go about my day 
Distracting thoughts of you come back to play
Remembering when you whispered my name 
My mind is on that moment, my heart is aflame
No matter what this day might bring
That memory alone will make me sing 
The daydreams make the waiting worthwhile
I think of you, and have to hide my smile 
All day long I’m looking forward to the night
When dreams of loving you will again take flight 
-Becca Teagan


Edited by TheAlaniDragonRising - 01-Aug-2015 at 21:28
What a handsome figure of a dragon. No wonder I fall madly in love with the Alani Dragon now, the avatar, it's a gorgeous dragon picture.
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16-Jul-2015 at 20:41

Looking For Your Face

From the beginning of my life
I have been looking for your face
but today I have seen it

Today I have seen
the charm, the beauty,
the unfathomable grace
of the face
that I was looking for

Today I have found you
and those who laughed
and scorned me yesterday
are sorry that they were not looking
as I did

I am bewildered by the magnificence
of your beauty
and wish to see you
with a hundred eyes

My heart has burned with passion
and has searched forever
for this wondrous beauty
that I now behold

I am ashamed

to call this love human
and afraid of God
to call it divine

Your fragrant breath
like the morning breeze
has come to the stillness of the garden
You have breathed new life into me
I have become your sunshine
and also your shadow

My soul is screaming in ecstasy
Every fiber of my being
is in love with you

Your effulgence
has lit a fire in my heart
for me
the earth and sky

My arrow of love
has arrived at the target
I am in the house of mercy
and my heart
is a place of prayer

-Rumi

What a handsome figure of a dragon. No wonder I fall madly in love with the Alani Dragon now, the avatar, it's a gorgeous dragon picture.
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Oct-2012 at 13:16
Walt Whitman, from "Starting from Pomanouk"

13
Was somebody asking to see the soul?
See, your own shape and countenance, persons, substances, beasts,
the trees, the running rivers, the rocks and sands.

All hold spiritual joys and afterwards loosen them;
How can the real body ever die and be buried?

Of your real body and any man's or woman's real body,
Item for item it will elude the hands of the corpse-cleaners and
pass to fitting spheres,
Carrying what has accrued to it from the moment of birth to the
moment of death.

Not the types set up by the printer return their impression, the
meaning, the main concern,
Any more than a man's substance and life or a woman's substance and
life return in the body and the soul,
Indifferently before death and after death.

Behold, the body includes and is the meaning, the main concern and
includes and is the soul;
Whoever you are, how superb and how divine is your body, or any part
of it!


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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-May-2012 at 01:08
Verlaine:

Is It Not So?….

 

          (La Bonne Chanson: XVII)

 

Is it not so? Despite the fools, the malevolent

Those who’ll never fail to envy our happiness,

We will sometimes be proud and forever indulgent.

 Is it not so? We’ll go, gaily, slowly, on the modest

Road that reveals to us Hope smiling,

Whether we’re seen or ignored, ever careless.

 Enclosed by love as in a dark wood, exhaling

Our two hearts, their peaceful tenderness,

Will be two nightingales in the dusk singing.

 As for the World, let it be angered by us,

Or tender, what can its gestures signify?

Let it make us a target, or let it caress us.  

 Bound by the strongest and dearest tie,

And more, possessing adamantine armour,

We’ll smile and fear nothing that meets the eye.

 Un-preoccupied with whatever Fate destines for

Us, marching onwards and in step we’ll go,

Hand in hand, with the childlike souls, what’s more,

 Of those whose love is untainted, is it not so?




Edited by Don Quixote - 09-May-2012 at 01:11
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-Apr-2012 at 14:13
Verlaine:

The Noise From Bars….

 

          (La Bonne Chanson: XVI)

 

The noise from bars, the pavement’s mire,

Ruined sycamores leafing on black ire:

The bus, a typhoon of mud and metal,

Bouncing, between wheels, with its rattle,

Rolling its red and green eyes slowly,

Workers off to the club, pipes smoking,

Under the eyes of police, those drones,

Roofs dripping, sweating walls, damp stones,

Broken asphalt, gutters where sewers blend,

Behold, my road – with paradise at the end.

 




Edited by Don Quixote - 23-Apr-2012 at 14:37
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-Apr-2012 at 02:28
Verlaine:

I Was Almost Afraid….

 

          (La Bonne Chanson: XV)

 

I was almost afraid, it’s so,

I felt my life so entwined

At the radiance in my mind

That last summer seized my soul,

 

Your image, forever dear,

So lives in this heart that’s yours,

My heart, uniquely jealous, adores

The loving and pleasing you here;

 

And I tremble, forgive me please

For speaking so freely to you,

To think that a word, a smile or two

From you is now my destiny,

 

And it only takes a gesture, but one,

Or a sound or your eye blinking,

To set all my being in mourning

With its heavenly deception.

 

Yet I would rather see you,

Though the future for me prove sombre

Full of miseries without number,

Than in hope’s distant view,


Plunged in this joy supreme

Tell myself ever and again,

Despite the return of such pain,

That I love you, that I love thee!



Edited by Don Quixote - 17-Apr-2012 at 02:29
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Apr-2012 at 03:05
Verlaine:

Home, The Lamp’s Circumscribed Glow

 

          (La Bonne Chanson: XIV)

 

Home, the lamp’s circumscribed glow:

Dreaming there with fingers on brow

And looks wandering among loved looks;

The hour of infusions of tea, and closed books;

The sweetness at feeling the evening’s conclusion;

The charming fatigue and adored expectation

Of nuptial shadows and of the soft night,

Oh, all that, my fond dream pursues in flight

Relentlessly, beyond all vain remissions,

Raging at weeks, impatient with seasons!




Edited by Don Quixote - 12-Apr-2012 at 03:06
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Apr-2012 at 02:48
Verlaine:

A Saint In His Aureole….

 

          (La Bonne Chanson: VIII)

 

A Saint in her aureole,

A Chatelaine in her tower,

All that contains the soul

Of human grace and amour;

 

The gilded note; the sound

Of a horn in the woods far away,

Wed to the tender pride found

In noble Ladies of yesterday;

 

With that, the lofty charm

Of a fresh conquering smile

Born in the swan’s pure calm

And the blushes of a grown child;

 

Pearl aspects, of white and rose,

Sweet patrician harmony:

I see, I hear all I suppose,

In its Carolingian identity.



Edited by Don Quixote - 10-Apr-2012 at 02:49
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05-Apr-2012 at 01:26
Verlaine:

The Moon, White…

 

          (La Bonne Chanson: VI)

 

The moon, white,

Shines in the trees:

From each bright

Branch a voice flees

Beneath leaves that move,

 

O well-beloved.

 

The pools reflect

A mirror’s depth,

The silhouette

Of willows’ wet

Black where the wind weeps…

 

Let us dream, time sleeps.

 

It seems a vast, soothing,

Tender balm

Is falling

From heaven’s calm

Empurpled by a star…

 

It’s the exquisite hour.




Edited by Don Quixote - 05-Apr-2012 at 01:31
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30-Mar-2012 at 13:31
Verlaine:

Before You Leave, Pale…

 

          (La Bonne Chanson: V)

 

Before you leave, pale

Morning star that shines,

          – A thousand quail

Calling, calling in the thyme –

 

Turn towards your poet,

With sad eyes so lovelorn,

          – The lark as yet

Still climbs the sky with dawn –

 

Turn here your gaze, that day

Drowns in his azure;

          – What joy always

In fields of ripening corn! –

 

And make my thoughts glow

There – far, oh, far away,

          – The dew shines so,

Shines glistening on the hay –

 

Within the sweet dream

Where yet my love makes one…

          – Swiftly, swiftly,

For here’s the golden sun! –




Edited by Don Quixote - 30-Mar-2012 at 13:31
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-Mar-2012 at 00:30
Verlaine:

In Her Dress….

 

          (La Bonne Chanson: III)

 

With her dress of grey-green frills,

One June day, I was feeling anxious,

She appeared, smiling at my glances,

The one I admired without fear of ill.

 

She came, went, returned, spoke, and sat,

Serious, light, ironic, tender,

And I felt, deep in my soul, so sombre,

Some joyous reflection of all that:

 

Her voice, its subtle music’s tone,

Delightfully accompanying

The artless wit of a sweet chattering

Where a kind heart’s joy was shown.

 

I was as quickly, once the semblance

Of my rebellion was over, wholly

In the power of that little Fairy,

As since I’ve sought to be, trembling.




Edited by Don Quixote - 28-Mar-2012 at 00:34
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-Mar-2012 at 01:25
Verlaine:

Sentimental Conversation

 

          (Fêtes Galants: Colloque Sentimental)

 

In the lonely old park’s frozen glass

Two dark shadows lately passed.

Their lips were slack, eyes were blurred,

The words they spoke scarcely heard.

In the lonely old park’s frozen glass

Two spectral forms invoked the past.

‘Do you recall our former ecstasies?’

‘Why would you have me rake up memories?’

‘Does your heart still beat at my name alone?’

‘Is it always my soul you see in dream?’ – ‘Ah, no’.

‘Oh the lovely days of unspeakable mystery,

When our mouths met!’ – ‘Ah yes, maybe.’

‘How blue it was, the sky, how high our hopes!’

‘Hope fled, conquered, along the dark slopes.’

So they walked there, among the wild herbs,

And the night alone listened to their words.




Edited by Don Quixote - 27-Mar-2012 at 01:27
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Mar-2012 at 20:13
Verlaine:

Muted

 

          (Fêtes Galants: En Sourdine)

 

Calm in the half-light

Tall branches surround,

Let our love be filled by

This silence profound.

 

Hearts and souls blend there

And senses’ ecstasy,

With the vague languor

Of pine and strawberry.

 

With eyelids scarce apart,

Arms crossed in dream,

From your slumbering heart

Chase forever every scheme.

 

Let’s be convinced at last

By the sweet lulling breeze

That makes the russet grass

Wave, in ripples, at your feet.

 

And when solemn evening

Falls from black oaks there,

The nightingale will sing,

The voice of our despair.




Edited by Don Quixote - 25-Mar-2012 at 20:38
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-Mar-2012 at 10:54
Verlaine:

Muted

 

          (Fêtes Galants: En Sourdine)

 

Calm in the half-light

Tall branches surround,

Let our love be filled by

This silence profound.

 

Hearts and souls blend there

And senses’ ecstasy,

With the vague languor

Of pine and strawberry.

 

With eyelids scarce apart,

Arms crossed in dream,

From your slumbering heart

Chase forever every scheme.

 

Let’s be convinced at last

By the sweet lulling breeze

That makes the russet grass

Wave, in ripples, at your feet.

 

And when solemn evening

Falls from black oaks there,

The nightingale will sing,

The voice of our despair.



Edited by Don Quixote - 23-Mar-2012 at 10:57
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22-Mar-2012 at 17:36
Verlaine:

Cupid Overthrown

 

          (Fêtes Galants: L’Amour par Terre)

 

Last night’s wind saw Cupid’s overthrow,

Who, in the park’s most mysterious corner,

Would bend his bow in guileful laughter,

His aspect causing us to daydream so!

 

Last night’s wind toppled him! The marble

Shattered with dawn’s breath. It’s sad to see

His pedestal, with sculptor’s name a mystery,

Scarce legible in the shadow of an arbour.

 

Oh, it’s sad to see the empty pedestal

All bare! And melancholy fancies entering

Wander through my dream, where deep chagrin

Calls up a future solitary and fateful.

 

Oh, it’s sad! – And you feel it, yes, you too,

Touched by the sight, though your roaming eye

Toys with the gold and crimson butterfly

Skimming the debris on the pathway strewn.



Edited by Don Quixote - 22-Mar-2012 at 17:37
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22-Mar-2012 at 02:41
Verlaine:

To Clymène

 

          (Fêtes Galants: A Clymène)

 

Mystical singing-birds,

Romances without words,

Dear, because your eyes

  The shade of skies,

 

Because your voice, strange

Vision that must derange,

Troubling the horizon

  Of my reason,

 

Because the rare perfume

Of your swanlike paleness,

Because the innocence

  Of your fragrance,

 

Ah, because all your being,

Music so piercing,

Clouds of lost angels,

  Tones and scents,

 

Has by soft cadences

With its correspondences,

Lured my subtle heart, Oh

  Let it be so!



Edited by Don Quixote - 22-Mar-2012 at 02:41
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