ASF Poetry Thread

[2020hindsight]

copied from a tin of Chinese coffee (on internet)

I'll love you dear, I'll love you till China and Africa meet,
and the river jumps over the mountain,
and the salmon sings in the street.
I'll love you till the ocean is folded and hung up to dry
and the seven stars go squawking,
like geese about in the sky.

now why don't we have poetry on our coffee tins like that !!(?)

 

[2020hindsight]

THE WAR CEMETERY IN A FAR OFF LAND.

they lie in distant meadows close to where they fell to earth,
they died among their comrades, unreal courage, and real worth,
will we bring one home ? re-bury him beside his hometown gates?
well maybe – yet I’m guessing they’ll rest just as well with mates.
and visited by home town reprobates.

they lie in fields in Europe where the Anzac name was made,
we visit them in cemeteries where mothers since have prayed,
the world moves on, new battles, now we’re friends with Turk and Hun,
a brief life in the saddle, and a brief time in the sun,
we pat their headstone - then we too move on.

 

[2020hindsight]

perhaps we call those graveyards just a little part of home
perhaps they'll let us say our land extends across the foam
or take a kookaburra there on Anzac day each year
to fight off any home sick thoughts - and give the lads some cheer.
and lift their spirits with a toasted beer.

 

[2020hindsight]

THOUGHTS ON WAKING

I rise from bed in a trancelike state
and make some toast and honey,
unlike my bank, my lungs expanding,
heartrates on the money,
some kookaburra laughs outside,
his mate said something funny,
each second day is overcast
each second day is sunny.

I slept with lids of thickest velvet
totally opaque.
no sounds I heard, nor cat nor dog,
till in the morn I wake,
so what, my bank's in sharp decline!
(and it's doesn't have a brake),
to underrate a lungful of air
would be my greatest mistake.

 

[2020hindsight]

Thought for the day .. (Adam Lindsay Gordon) (repost)

"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.

https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=82852&highlight=oxygen#post82852

 

[2020hindsight]

The Raven- Edgar Allen Poe - Vincent Price (fair warning - it's a long one )

 

[2020hindsight]

QUOTH THE FROGMOUTH "NOT ANY MORE"

Ah, distinctly I remember twas that night of the great knee trembler
in the caravan in Port Kembla, bouncing on the lino floor
then that frogmouth owl appearing, sat there on the wheel just peering
suddenly he started cheering “is this what they call hardcore?”
interspersed with wildest clapping – quoth the frogmouth –
“encore! more”

Salt and pepper shakers shattered Madge and I were all that mattered
imagine how the neighbours chattered - what was going on inside?
soon the carhorns started honking, hey you two cut out the bonking
sleepless in Seattle’s one thing – but your shock absorbers fried
still, a memory’s quite a fun thing – quoth the frogmouth
“what a ride.”

These days in a morning dreary, blinking blind and blanket bleary
with my coco pops exploding as I eat my feast and fill
whilst I watched the frogmouth landed, nodded knowingly and candid
interspersed with piebald crapping, there upon my window sill
“Howdy partner” I said tapping, “my, how time has caught us napping”
quoth the frogmouth “one keeps rapping”
“suddenly we’re over the hill”

There we sat and reminisced, wine-soaked birdseed, soon got pissed
reminisced about Port Kembla, and the couple on the floor
“life’s a bitch, but never bore.”
smiled the frogmouth “not any more”

 

[2020hindsight]

.... ps A friend is into wild life rescue - had a couple of tawny frogmouth chicks in his garage / toolshed. I borrowed his toolshed to drill some aluminium - those frogmouths watched my every move for half a day

 

[2020hindsight]

suppose the count to "bomb Iran" (convert its border to a moat)
exceeds the count to build a bridge - would that mean we're too sad to vote?

 

[2020hindsight]

IDEAS FOR THE SUMMIT

Number one- the flues need cleaning
this pollution’s quite demeaning
let the power stations preen themselves -
put carbon deep in hills;
then my second slogan placard -
“eat more cabbage” - raw (and chew hard)
then my third point - “fight the flatulence”
with charcoal flavoured pills.

Number four – since charcoal’s buried
why not “charge” it, get it married
with the methane it can carry to the
bottom of the well?,
drop these gas sinks (used but once)
to the devil and his bunch
so that farts are locked forever
in those far off depths of hell.

Number five is clean the creek out
so the kids don’t drug- and freak-out
and to teach ‘em bout some honest joy
in fun filled swimming holes,
let them swing out on a rope,
much more fun that pot or dope,
and to plant a tree for future ropes
and die contented souls.

Number six, adopt a frog
take it with you when you jog
teach it how to live with man and smog
and how to catch a fly,
number seven, use your brain
and don’t follow men insane
…..
number ninety - burn the chainsaws
learn to love the earth and sky.

learn to love your fellow critters
earn the love of earth and sky.

 

[2020hindsight]

MORE IDEAS FOR THE SUMMIT

101 recycled earswax
102 and cycling bivouacs
103 and climbing flagpoles
and encourage more boot-scooters,
next is fibre to the nodes,
next is digital abodes,
then there’s old recycled roads made out of
one year old computers.

next new GM three foot corn
and short GM types of lawn -
don’t need mowing after sowing
no more mowers spitting hay,
and it comes in different colours,
green or if preferred there’s others,
so that people who hate “greenies’
might prefer theirs “concrete grey”.

next that long sought Bill of Rights
as to how to sort out fights
between people without passion
- and the others – and the force,
also who can hold a gun,
who can cull the deer for fun,
and/or whether culls extend to
third world countries without laws.

then perhaps some referenda
where republic’s the agenda,
how to let the country grow up
how to stand its six foot height,
stead of hunched or on our knees
trying oh so hard to please
bonnie Charlies overseas somewhere
in lands where day is night.

proper Charlies overseas who dare
us, “come us - fight or flight!!”

then the pensioners might say
“spin the world the other way”
that tomorrow I am younger
and the next I’m fit and strong,
Soon Adonis is upon us,
just one week Lord, call it bonus,
of this life and all its magic
that is wasted on the young,

just one encore of this magic Lord,
just one more verse of song.

 

[2020hindsight]

speaking of Adonis..

1. "Hold that thought dear , I'll be right back after I take the dogs for a walk! "

2. "Venus, I told you to go easy with that leaf that looks like tomato plant!"

3. "Honey it's 10 o'clock, we've been at it all night - and the head shepherd will be getting REAL pissed off!"

4. "Adonis ! - you nearly forgot to do up that button on your shoulder strap!"

5. "Adonis ! I'm not gonna let you leave until you promise to call at the grocers and get another can of Leggos"!

6. "Adonis! - wait! - Fred over there just said the weather bureau is predicting scattered thunderstorms with hail!"

&. "Nope ! - not until you tell me what you think of my hair in a bun!"

9. "And then (I think I heard the Choreographer right) - I throw my left leg over your right shoulder..."

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

Adonis - He is an annually-renewed, ever-youthful vegetation god, a life-death-rebirth deity whose nature is tied to the calendar. ... His name is often applied in modern times to handsome youths.

 

[2020hindsight]

......
http://www.reconnections.net/thorn_birds.htm

THE THORN BIRDS
By Colleen McCullough

Long Ago, there was a bird who sang just once in its life.
From the moment it left its nest, it searched for a thorn tree.
and it never rested until it found one.

Then it began to sing more sweetly
than any other creature on the face of the earth.
And singing, it impaled its breast on the longest, sharpest thorn.

But as it was dying, it rose above its own agony
to out-sing the lark and the nightingale.

The thorn bird pays its life for that one song
and the whole world stills to listen
and God, in His heaven ~smiles.

As its best was bought only at the cost of great pain.

Driven to the thorn, with no knowledge of the dying to come.

But when we press the thorn to our breast,
We know........
We understand.....
And still......we do it.

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

The book's title refers to a mythical bird that searches for thorn trees from the day it is hatched. When it finds the perfect thorn it impales itself, singing the most beautiful song ever heard as it dies.

http://www.rhymezone.com/r/gwic.cgi...xi//&Word=lean'd+her+breast+up-till+a+thorn#w

XXI. Poem Shakespeare

As it fell upon a day
In the merry month of May,
Sitting in a pleasant shade
Which a grove of myrtles made,
Beasts did leap, and birds did sing,
Trees did grow, and plants did spring;
Every thing did banish moan,
Save the nightingale alone:

She, poor bird, as all forlorn,
Lean'd her breast up-till a thorn
And there sung the dolefull'st ditty,
That to hear it was great pity:
'Fie, fie, fie,' now would she cry;
'Tereu, tereu!' by and by;
That to hear her so complain,
Scarce I could from tears refrain;

For her griefs, so lively shown,
Made me think upon mine own.
Ah, thought I, thou mourn'st in vain!
None takes pity on thy pain:
Senseless trees they cannot hear thee;
Ruthless beasts they will not cheer thee:
King Pandion he is dead;
All thy friends are lapp'd in lead;

All thy fellow birds do sing,
Careless of thy sorrowing.
Even so, poor bird, like thee,
None alive will pity me.
Whilst as fickle Fortune smiled,
Thou and I were both beguiled.
Every one that flatters thee
Is no friend in misery.

Words are easy, like the wind;
Faithful friends are hard to find:
Every man will be thy friend
Whilst thou hast wherewith to spend;
But if store of crowns be scant,
No man will supply thy want.
If that one be prodigal,
Bountiful they will him call,

And with such-like flattering,
'Pity but he were a king;'
If he be addict to vice,
Quickly him they will entice;
If to women he be bent,
They have at commandement:
But if Fortune once do frown,
Then farewell his great renown

They that fawn'd on him before
Use his company no more.
He that is thy friend indeed,
He will help thee in thy need:
If thou sorrow, he will weep;
If thou wake, he cannot sleep;
Thus of every grief in heart
He with thee doth bear a part.

These are certain signs to know
Faithful friend from flattering foe.

 

[2020hindsight]

speaking of expatriates - who became dual patriots..
this is what is written on Stevenson's tomb on a hill overlooking Apia, Samoa...

Robert Louis Stevenson
REQUIEM

UNDER the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he long'd to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

Author Robert Louis Stevenson, famous for his pirate novel, Treasure Island and also known as 'Tusitala' (the Samoan name for teller of tales - or writer of tales), spent the last four years of his life in Samoa. When Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife, Fanny, decided to stay in Samoa in 1889, they bought 314 acres of virgin land on the slopes of Mount Vaea above Apia and named the estate Vailima - or Five Waters because five streams crossed the property.

They cleared about eight acres and lived there in a small shack for nearly a year. This rough existence didn't last long, however, and in 1891 they built the first part of a mansion. When it was completed, the house had five bedrooms, a library, a ballroom large enough to accommodate 100 dancers, and the only fireplace in Samoa. The Stevensons even shipped 72 tons of furniture from England!

It’s a poignant and peaceful spot with a panoramic view. Fanny died in America in 1914 and her ashes were later buried with Robert. Her plaque, which bears her Samoan name Aolele (Floating Cloud, perhaps after her restless spirit), also has Stevenson’s words…


Teacher, tender comrade, wife,
A fellow-farer true through life
Heart whole and soul free,
The August Father gave to me.

 

[noirua]

I am an Aussie Chinaman
as it's easy for all to see,
honoured are all before me
and justice, my girt by sea.

Aiming to be a good person
visiting all these countries,
seen to be of good virtue
Prime Minister and we'll see.

Aiming to rule all Australia
as far as the eye can see,
how long will that surely be
yes, guessed it, it'll be 2020.

Then I'll be your first President
and honoured you'll certainly be,
continuing visiting the continents
please deliver your trust in me.

Rudd for President, by noirua

 

[2020hindsight]

THE 2020 SUMMIT AWAKENING OF ORIGINAL THOUGHT

I’m guessing that the mind expanding drug has hit its nerve
we’re suddenly encouraged to contribute and observe
and would you guess! ideas and thought! are suddenly in fashion!
and who knows maybe spirit and exuberance and passion

 

[doogie_goes_off]

To think what is to be thunk
Is better than to be drunk
But to be drunk and to think
Is what I thunk I just did

Written in the spirit of Dr Seuss. And no I'm not drunk - just bored, better do some work now!

 

[golfmos123]

As an Irishman some generations back, I love a good limerick.

This is a good one although it is a few years old now..... To appreciate it fully, you need to know that Kaczynski is the Unabomber who sent a number of mail bombs to universities and airlines between 1978 and 1995.

Said Bill Clinton to a young Miss Lewinsky
We'd best not leave clues like Kaczynski
You look quite a mess
So take the hem of your dress
And wipe that stuff off of your chinsky....

 

[2020hindsight]

golf these are modified from rather rude originals. :-

There once was a fellow named Mike
who went for a ride on a bike
the bike hit some ruts
and knocked off his hat -
and what do you think of that?.

There once was this brick-laying dude
who laid bricks with short pants, almost nude
a girl down the back
shouted out "crack"!
just like that! right out loud! bloody rude!.

 

[2020hindsight]

In days of old when knights were bold
and girls wore metal britches,
the knights all carried can openers
- the tricky sons of bitches