ASF Poetry Thread

Further to the advantages of carrot vs stick below .. just exercising the grey stuff on the question of black v white

Maybe Friendship is as Easy as Intention

instead of pollies parroting (like Heffernan or Harradine)
or pointing at those clueless lesser races
I wish they’d seek more clarity that eyesight gains from carotene
and trade em worn out shoes (and missing laces).

instead of vicious people we might check our visual purple
that stuff that penetrates where light is lacking
our eyes might probe the darkness, lighten up and lessen starkness
(and maybe seek some expert help,- black tracking).

do I hear that lonely voice, of one Barnaby re- Joyce?
who fights against the fickleness of yes-men
who pleads a case eyes moist, cause the words that he has voiced
have been forged with sweat and tears and blood of best men.

sure they didn’t get to space when they were a lonely race
and the "flying stick" was praps their best invention
but the lessons and the vibes we should foster in all tribes
is that friendship is as easy as intention.

Here's a poem I've just cooked up. I guess it's a combination of these two - correction :- it makes reference to Burns, however much more infinitely superior his efforts "compar'd wi' me"
a) To A Mouse (R. Burns)
https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=92612&highlight=sleekit#post92612

b) Parent's Blessings (2020Hindsight)
which proposes a lackadaisical attitude to parenting (if you read it, please treat references to "clearing land" as metaphorical
https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=86060&highlight=blessings#post86060

Lol just an aside , I wanted to search for that ASF post above that I'd already made on "To A Mouse", so I asked for all posts/threads with the word "mouse", lol - guess how many posts there are on computer mouses? lol -

thought for the day ...
Maybe you can think of "the present only toucheth thee" as in fact a very prophetic poem by Robbie with a view to application to computer mouses ? Where the person sitting two feet under and behind the keyboard "casts his e'e forward, tho' we canna see, and guess an' fear" - and the (computer) mouse is by comparison blessed??

- naah doesn't quite work does it - in those days of the Romantic poets, mice (and men) had hearts!

"Still thou art blest, compar'd wi' me, The present only toucheth thee:
But, Och! I backward cast my e'e. On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see, I guess an' fear!"

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WORLDLY WISE or WISELY WORLDLY

I’m glad I didn’t listen to advice in younger day
where I’d have missed so many young mistakes
I now ‘ken’ ways of men and mice that oft-times gang a'gley
and friendship real and true, and ratty fakes.

And If my kids would ask me what it means, this “worldly wise”
I’d blunder through some theories hiding doubt
I’d probably change some colour with a heap of half white lies
(like Walls of China keeping rabbits out).

But easier to turn it from a concept to a verb
“kids, wisely live but wordly” I can state!
“and even Chinese Rabbits ken this ‘wisely wordly’ blurb
live early, let the 'worldly wise' come late.”

And it’s house foundations, post-wise, and its partly horse and cart
and in my opinion “understanding word”
for this question of the “most wise”, is it Homer praps - or Bart ??~|!
is it just the “lesser foolish” of the herd.?

some claim I’m 'Careless Shepherd', then so be it I suppose
But gladly I reject that for a start
For a shepherd tends to naïve sheep. ...:sheep:
.......... As any meets them knows
my kids and sheep are fifty miles apart.

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you ask "example of living wisely but worldly" ?
for instance , kids, when it comes to chatting up the opposite sex -
beware of potential mothers-in-law hiding behind the door with a waddy

mouse singing "you sexy thing" to a cheese

And another - when the magic lets you down, don't give up - improvise!! lol
Ratatouille : Emile's Magic Trick

gee there are some clever animations on youtube
here's one about the importance of friendship... - and friends repaying friendship
(you have to take it right through to the finish )
Pixar Movie or Sony image works - The ChubbChubbs

mind you , to modern kids, 'worldiness' is more a measure of your cell phone reception

here's one "in search of pleasure-o-rama " (?) (subtitled) - (bit longer and slower than the others - up to you. )
I can say with 100% confidence that the Earth is the closest place to meeting that desription (provided you stay , ... down -to -earth )
The Astronuts (L'Astro-Poère)

PS I'm not preaching believe me, just having fun with this subject : 2twocents

SOME DUDE WHO HAD THE SMARTS

it’s about our time on earth
it’s about our worldly worth
it’s about the fact we land and leave alone
it’s about a chat and chortle
with a fellow pilgrim mortal
it’s about the fact we miss em when they’re gone

its what happens to our souls
it’s about magnetic poles
its about regression y and z, x rated
it’s what grief and grave unfolds
it’s about those damned black holes
it’s about the billion ways that we’re deflated.

it’s about the smallest suture
that could link our past and future
making us appear an insignifi - cance
it’s the 14 giga years
and the zillion mother’s tears
in the labour wards of evolution’s dance.

1-2-3 quadrillion stars
with their planet dodgem cars
and the sandgrains, one of which could be our sun,
take our 25meg tideline
metre deep and 5K wideline
that’s the number of those grains, of which it’s one.

its about the atoms in us
from formation through to finis
where there’s also just as many minute parts,
it’s too hard to comprehend
it will warp your mind and bend…
.....
I suggest invent “Some Dude" who had the smarts.

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PS
Australia has a total 25,760 km (16,000 miles) of coastline.
(ignore the lesser “perimeter road” which is only about 16,000 km).
The number of sand grains (ok coarse sand grains ) ( assume 1mm x 1mm x 1mm) in a perimeter beach 25,000 km long x 5 km wide x 1m deep would be
125,000,000,000,000,000,000; which is pretty close to the number of stars in the (currently observable) universe, namely:-
123,000,000,000,000,000,000.

13.7 billion years (gigayears) since the big bang

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damocles

THE LIGHTNING ROD OF DAMOCLES

Damocles was some Greek figure, lived beneath a hair-pin trigger
of a giant dagger horse-hair-held above him
and that’s how we all live really, there’s a sword up there so nearly
ready waiting, god of lightning, fear or love him.

I quite like a bit of skiing – specially prior to my seeing
a movie of some fellow having fun..
till some Sword of Damocles mixed with avalanching trees
made the population smaller there by one

there was no way he’d outrun it, even jet propelled and gun it
as he charged the steep incline as if midair
you can see it to this day, where he turned an instant grey
and the cliff marks where it caught him like a bear

there’s a monument there gaping where he gave up on escaping
but today …it’s just a peaceful scene in sun
once a scary white apartment, now a scar on the escarpment
where that skier screwed his final scoring run.

It’s a bit like that I spose, just as well one never knows
whence the lightning bolt the big guy shoots will come
maybe out there on some slope ?
……….. loving life and loving hope ?
maybe home with dog? and TV? and your mum?

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This is just a whisker/(horse-hair-thread ? ) like Gordon's poem, "Potter's Clay", Fytte 6 (of 8) found here :-
http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/poetry/ThePoemsofALAdamLindsayGordon/chap4.html

2020hindsight said:

sword of Damocles

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I Will Survive - Aliensong (only 40 secs )

I'm sorry but I really don't find much enjoyment in poetry... It really doesn't phase me... how come?

insider said:

I'm sorry but I really don't find much enjoyment in poetry... It really doesn't phase me... how come?

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Insider - ok try this when you go for your next jog ..

or after a beer or whatever ...
ever been to the races ? lol
try expressing the exuberance of riding a horse over a jump in a steeplechase better than Adam Lindsay Gordon does

"Oh the vigour with which the air is rife !
The spirit of joyous motion;
The fever, the fullness of animal life,
Can be drained from no earthly potion!
The lungs with the living gas grow light,
and the limbs feel the strength of ten,
While the chest expands with its madd'ning might
GOD'S GLORIOUS OXYGEN.

Thus the measured stroke, on elastic sward,
Of the steed three parts extended,
Hard held, the breath of his nostrils broad,
With the golden ether blended;
Then the leap, the rise from the springing turf,
The rush through the bouyant air,
And the light shock landing - the veriest serf
Is an emporer then and there.

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PS but no doubt you're right as far as the amateur stuff I put up goes (i.e. I'm not pretending it's anything flash here)...

"some of em heavy and tug at your lead
but most of em breezy and light
and those that are heavy or hard to read
...
it's because they were easy to write "

Gentle Peace
Heather Z. Hanna


If I could give you a gift
It would be peace.
Peace of mind
Peace of Heart

Gentle Peace

Peace of mind
would be for you to know
that someone loves you.

No expectations
where none were given.
Just let yourself know that it's okay,
And it's a compliment
to your kindness to have touched
This Heart
in a way so special,
That peace of mind and Heart
Is the only gift
I wish for you.

probably a new tack to the quest for peace ng - but I just scribbled some lines based on gordon lightfoot's line in Edmund Fitzgerald ( as posted by wayneL - great song )
Just that the cook always seems to feature in these nautical misadventures


https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=170210&highlight=fitzgerald#post170210

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin.
Fellas, its too rough to feed ya.
At seven p.m. a main hatchway caved in, he said
Fellas, its been good tknow ya

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THANK GOD FOR THE COOK

the first mate hollered halyard and the master hollered mizzen
and the bollard lost its billiards and the windspeed cups went whizzen
and the bilgepump vanes were groaning and the skipper cried “we’ll drown”
to a man the crew were moaning,.... but the cook just held his frown.

the lightning rod alighted in some baggy wrinkled stays
and their faces all alerted in some badly wrinkled ways
and the homerun sound of baseball bat as boom came "whooshing" past
and some tall guy hollered ‘timber’ to the spluttering of splintering mast

.... but the cook said calmly “scuttle her”, down went the drowning skuppers
down went the skippers slippers and down went their fancy uppers
down went that full of strife boat and the million matchstick mast
and they jumped into the lifeboat, and released their recent past

the cook cried out "you ripper!!" as the sea turned into rides
like some lunatic big dipper, made of vertically aligned tides
…

then ...
....... he calmly passed out croissants . and a friendly cup of tea
“with a giant nip of whisky boys – this last drink here’s on me.”!!

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Celeste

The cargo of 1701 barrels of alcohol was intact, though when it was eventually unloaded in Genoa, nine barrels were noted as being empty. A six-month supply of food and water was aboard. All of the ship's papers except the captain's logbook were missing. The last log entry was dated November 24 and placed her 100 miles west of the Azores. The last entry on the ship's slate showed her as having reached the island of Santa Maria in the Azores on November 25th.

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but then of course, Marie Celeste , a story known to many
I wonder who would place their bets on who killed skipper Kenny
the crew and all their traces sank, the boat sailed on in mirth
and nearly made the dogger bank, and third and fourth of firth.

and 1700 barrels of their best booze still intact !
you'd have to guess some frightful fate, some alian attack
what man in half their right mind would jump overboard of all things!!
hek !! once they're empty - barrels make most excellent of waterwings !!

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All Things Drink

Fruitful earth drinks up the rain;
Trees from earth drink that again;
The sea drinks the air, the sun
Drinks the sea, and him the moon.
Is it reason then, d'ye think,
I should thirst when all else drink?

Anakreon (Translated by Thomas Stanley)

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http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/anakreon.html#3

Beauty

HORNS to bulls wise Nature lends;
Horses she with hoofs defends;
Hares with nimble feet relieves;
Dreadful teeth to lions gives;
Fishes learn through streams to slide;
Birds through yielding air to glide;
Men to courage she supplies;
But to women these denies.
What then give she? Beauty, this
Both their arms and armor is:
She, that can this weapon use,
Fire and sword with ease subdues.

Anakreon (Translated by Thomas Stanley, 1651)

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here's a Cumbrian 's opinion of "nature" vs "palaces"...
(with an accent and a fiery red attitude like that - maybe from the northern parts of Cumbria )

As they say, "wear flat shoes, and watch out for falling sheep" .

I saw a creek yesterday that was running a banker a few days back - trees leaning every which way - bit like Chad Morgan's teeth

FROM THE REDWOOD FOREST TO THE GULF BETWEEN MAN AND NATURE
The river was a torrent just a day or two ago
and all except the redwood tree now leans
It’s naught that worry warrants, just unruly riotous flow
much like our blood when we were in our teens

Today the stream’s more peaceful and it canters nice and slow
in much maturer jodhpurs ‘stead of jeans
and some autumn leaves deceasing radiate their dying glow
and smiling pray to come back evergreens.

But time keeps marching onwards to the redwood’s ticking song
and its rings count floods and tempests through the years
and Nature has been kind to this gentle giant blind
and almost nothing natural it fears.

But the pendulum has swung for this friendly wooden lung
and fear is at its worst since time began
such a God-respectful place till the new boy joined the race
that chainsaw wielding idiot called Man

.. That whale harpooning
species pruning,
“sit on Jesus right hand soon” - ing
self opinioned great bafooning
self claimed lord of all that’s blooming…
blooming self destructive beast …

called Man.

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BLOOD FOR OIL

if you analyse things of this nature
then you’d probably start with a rule
that a man is unlikely to hate ya
unless you’re a psychotic fool
it’s a must that you maintain the high ground
that you balance your taking with give
when the foreigner says “this is my land”
it’s a must that you let this man live…

........ though his accent is strange ,
........ though he’s in your gun’s range,
........ though you’re in some damned army designed to derange
it’s a must that you let this man live.

though the history book’s laden with killers
there are thousands that dance on their graves
while the peace loving future has pillars
that are founded on HONESTY’s slaves
it’s a must that you live by conventions
that are founded in fair firm and free
that are free of those ugly dimensions
that his oilcan’s more value than he……

........ though he dresses in rags
........ and salutes different flags
........ though your army mate killed his whole family and brags
it’s a must that that you let him go free.

If you march in and claim “this is my land”
If you only take lives - and not give,
what right to the moral high ground?
(and what makes you think they'll forgive)?
if you murder young kids in their village
and you only know conquer not kind
but you claim it’s just “lateral spillage”
yet you claim it is “oil intertwined”

........ there were carpenter’s skills
........ Jesus learnt with breast drills
........ now this child has a breast hole through which his life spills
…
and you claim it is “oil intertwined”?!!!

Here's one that was written in the days when Aus (and the world) watched on as East Timorese were being killed.
- similar sentiments I guess.
https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=85342&highlight=timor#post85342
this in turn quotes this website (
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/7112/poems_frconten.htm

HOWL
by Emma Lawrence
....ten thousand people a year
is thirty a day
is one death every forty-five minutes
for a generation
in a country smaller than tasmania their
six litres of blood each
would be just over a million
litres of oil, but
3.25 billion dollars will buy you
quite a showbag
with an unused conscience thrown in

I heard on Radio National last night that the oil used daily by the US military navy and airforce (combined ) - and arguably concerned in large part or small with securing oil into the futute for them ? and us? - is one half of that used by the entire Aussie nation - and obviously much more than many smaller nations out there.

IRRATIONAL RATIONS OF OIL

with the news on I drove home last night
I heard something I thought was quite daft
with an earful of pain and sad plight
and a headful of poetic draught
seems the oil for American might
and the oil for their military shaft
that is used for the purpose of fight
that they use in one day is one half …

of that used by the whole aussie nation !
and it’s not as if we thrive on thrift !
to my ear ..that ‘s a rather large ration
and extinction of oil will be swift.

…….. praps no point in gnashin’ ??
…….. when waste is the fashion ??
…….. in time some election will give them a lashin’ ??
praps wait for some evening shift ??

…….. hell it’s minutes to midnight
…….. bolt-down-the-big-lid night
…….. whether this time or next time or maybe grand-kid-night
praps wait for some evening shift - ??
and one overdue grandchildren gift ??

…….. it’s ir-rational waste !!
…….. that must squarely be faced !!
…….. and it’s not as if oil can be copied and paste !!
we must give our front foresight a lift.

Further to discussion of East Timor, and - MORE GENERALLY - the thousands of innocents who are killed in "war" - including Iraqis of course - here's a poem I posted back there (in two halves over two posts) ... just not sure that I'd put it together as a full poem. The last verse is about the out-of-control pro-Indon-militia attacking the nuns - not typical these days thank goodness - thanks to the UN and Cosgrove and his boys. But these days kids are being killed in Iraq, and ... ahh I 've said it already.

THE HEARTBEAT OF THE BATTLEFIELD DRUMMER BOY

they found Bits of his drum on the old battlefield, four Centuries after the fact
with its Shoulderstrap rotting with blood congealed, and a Slice where a sword had hacked,
'twas a Job he'd been handed, his destiny sealed, "to Keep morale intact",
- and he'd Marched out in front with the cards he was dealed
- and he Gave it his best, though hed rather have reeled
- and he Drummed till the yells in his ear canals peeled
and he Honoured his boyhood pact.

if you Knew where to look, and you knew how to read, the Footprint signs hidden below
then you'd Find where his small boots confrontd the steed, of some Giant and mounted foe,
and he'd Shook in the stare of the murderous breed who had challenged his drumstick's blow,
- but one Swipe of that sword made the red blood bleed,
- and he'd silenced the heartbeat, the home teams lead
- and the boy's so-small soul had so-soon been freed
to some Place where the bravest go.

no more "Rat-a-tat-tat", amid battlefield yell, to "ADVANCE" or to "HOLD THAT DAMNED LINE!!!"
no more Marching down hills to the bloodiest Hell, where each five of us faced nine,
and the Plaque-stone now shows where the drummer boy fell, where Now grows that aging pine,
- but it's "twigs" lie uneasy, and hard to quell,
- ahh , it's after the fact and the funeral bell,
- but at Dusk there's a drumming ( you'd swear ) in the dell,
.....and his brave little footprints SHINE.
.... see them FACE ever FORWARD, to drum his own knell,
and they terminate there - by the shrine

A VERSE FOR EAST TIMOR

one could Write the same verse ( perhaps sadder and worse), of the Recent East Timor insanity.
but I Kinda prefer the 400 year hearse, as a buffer against inhumanity,
and the Part of the drummer is played by a nun, or a farmer defending his family,
- and the cavalry cruel will be played by some fool
- who's been taught, oohh such hatred, in some half-baked school
- and machettes for swords, make it all the more brutal
and for drumbeats, the psalms of "the Lamb".

FUTURE-O-PHOBIA on behalf of the WORLD'S CHILDREN.

fear of ignorance, or learning (Sophophobia, Misosophy)
fear of wisdom, fear of words (Misosophy:, Verbophobia)
fear of matches, fear of burning (0,Pyrophobia)
fear of lonely, fear of herds (Autophobia: Agoraphobia)
fear of chatting up some pub chick (Anthropophobia)
fear of emphasis uncouth
fear of saying “****” in public
perhaps to underline some truth

fear of hiding, fear of bullet (Claustrophobia, Traumatophobia)
fear of low and fear of height (Depression-a-phobia?, Altophobia)
fear of nothing in our gullet (Hunger)
fear of “critically- light”(Starvation)
fear of home, and fear of foreign (Ecophobia, Xenophobia)
fear of yellow, fear of red (Xanthophobia, Eurotophobia)
fear of f***ing for a florin (Staying Alive anyhow you can)
fear of homeless, fear of dead. (0, Necrophobia)

fear of cold, and fear of heat (Frigophobia Thermophobia)
fear of looting packs at large (Harpaxophobia)
fear of messy, fear of neat (Fastidious, Unfastidious?)
“fear of shooting” says the Sarge
fear of moon, and fear of sunbeams (Lunaphobia Heliophobia)
fear of romance, fear of stars (Philophobia Siderophobia)
fear of Venus, fear of mungbeans (Gynophobia)
fear of men (of war) from Mars. (Misanthropy)

fear of flying, fear of driving (Aerophobia Amaxophobia)
fear how long to dinner time (Hunger)
fear of nations that are striving (Third World)
or are starving for a dime (Starvation)
fear of looking in a mirror, (Spectrophobia)
fear of looking less than best
fear of oil accounts and terror
intertwined and Hell-possessed. (Hadeophobia)

fear of justice for a person
lest they have their say in court
fear of words that contradict the ones
you’ve carefully been taught
fear of verdicts that don’t suit ya,
fear of international laws
fear FOR children and their future,
FOR their blood in fearful wars.

fear FOR children, fear of poisons (Pedophobia Toxophobia)
fear of poisoning their mind
fear of thunder, fear of lightning (Tonitrophobia Astraphobia)
fear of cannon fire unkind (Traumatophobia)
fear FOR children, fear of trembling (Tremophobia)
fear of whirring dentist drills (Dentophobia)
fear of first night nerves and stumbling (Topophobia)
fear of rocket fire that kills.

fear of ghosts, and fear of darkness (Phasmophobia Nyctophobia)
fear of things that might be there (Psychophobia)
fear of logic-in-Iraq-ness,
fear of thoughts outside the square
fear of fire, and of inferno (Pyrophobia)
fear of maniacs untame
fear of loading up extinguishers
with fuel that fosters flame.

fear of Russia, fear of Suez, (Russophobia)
fear of Moslems, fear of French (Islamophobia, Gallophobia)
fear of British, fear of US (Anglophobia US-ophobia ?)
fear of appetites unquenched (Gluttony)
fear of small and childish coffins (Mycrophobia, 0)
fear of wasting too much wood
fear of oil controlled endorphins
fear of meeting with our Lord.

fear of underestimation
of His sense of humour broad
fear of sampling His damnation
and to feel HIS “shock and awed”
when he points out Jesus’s teachings
have been pretty much ignored
….
fear he’ll wince at our “beseechings”
fear the justice of His sword. (Anthropo-deity-ophobia)

http://www.ojohaven.com/fun/phobias.html

THE GREAT GLOBAL WARMING SWIM-BLE

we are running out of oil , perhaps I’ll put my money there
maybe short on mortal coil, of this planet and its air
praps ‘the answer’s in the soil’, as some Goonshow clown would claim
praps hold back from banking money in philosophies insane.

praps I’ll bet on global warming going downhill at a pace
praps I’ll bet on freakish storming and go short on human race
praps I’ll bet on hell for humpback whales and coral reefs in woe
praps I’ll bet on f***wit pollies saying “gee I didn’t know”

praps it’s long on shonky scientists, spin doctors and the like
praps it’s long on paid defy-entists concocting backflip pike
those who claim the earth is cooling or who claim it’s sun alone
but just who they think they’re fooling, and which dog they’re throwing bone.

manipulation ? maybe - where old Maggie was concerned
manipulation ? maybe - that's until these facts we’ve learned
manipulation ? maybe - that the sun is uninvolved
but worst of all pretend the roll of man is still unsolved.

It’s prompted me to want to see more data and more thorough
and maybe documentary by David Attenborough
………
If I want to buy a gherkin then I’ll check out channel 4
and I’ll ask that dimwit Durkin, is he liar? or Al Gore?

Rome is burning, true confessor, while the fiddler madly plays
while some oil-rich-paid professor argues red-faced in the blaze
... 'Bout this warming that we're facin' - do the humans die or whales?
As the self styled Lords of Creation - either way , the human fails.