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Blog Details for "In the World Where I Live"
In the World Where I LiveIn the World Where I Livepoetry blog for poets who love poems, poetics, lyrics, songs, rhymes, prose, blank verse, sonnets, odes, ballads, literature, and stuff.
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Vast Perspective
2008-03-24 04:50:00 On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer By John Keats Much have I travelled in the realms of gold,And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;Round many western islands have I beenWhich bards in fealty to Apollo hold.Oft of one wide expanse had I been toldThat deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne;Yet did I never breathe its pure sereneTill I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:Then felt I like some watcher of the skiesWhen a new planet swims into his ken;Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyesHe stared at the Pacific -and all his menLooked at each other with a wild surmise - Silent, upon a peak in Darien. &nbs p; More About: Perspective , Vast
Inspirational Transports
2008-03-05 05:54:00 Another World By Hank EdsonIf from birth to hear music, one were transported: Another world; if from life, from the conception One were surrounded in melody As the only expression; If music hung in the air, like notes of oxygen, Their breath to mean survival? If until death even in your soul you could never Speak no, read no, hear no evil But only paint only one image, One thousand words for all; If your humanity sat perched upon an easel, You would inspire. If in time your dance should lose its sense of balance, Effortlessly you may float in the magnitudes higher Over life, through the heavens Of creation's desire; If you unburden your thoughts of time's tightwire: Oh, Angelic Vision! Copyright © Hank Edson 2008 More About: Inspirational
Anticipation
2008-03-04 04:25:00 Vienna By Billy Joel Slow down, you crazy child.You're so ambitious for a juvenile, &n bsp; & nbsp; But then if you're so smart, ; &nbs p; Tell me, why are you still &nb sp; &n bsp; So afraid? Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?You better cool it off before you burn it out. & nbsp; You got so much to do &nb sp; &n bsp; And only so many hours ; In a day. But you know that when the truth is toldThat you can get what you want or you can just get old.&nbs...
Recollection
2008-02-28 18:39:00 Leipzig &nbs p; By Thomas Hardy Scene-The Master-trademen’s Parlour at the Old Ship Inn, Casterbridge. Evening.“Old Norbert with the flat blue cap— & nbsp; A German said to be—Why let your pipe die on your lap, & nbsp; Your eyes blink absently?”—“Ah!...Well, I had thought ‘til my cheek was wet &n bsp; Of my mother-her voice and mienWhen she used to sing and pirouette, & nbsp; And tap the tambourine“To the march that yon street-fiddler plies: ; She told me ‘twas the sameShe’d heard from the trumpets, when the Allies ; Burst on her home like flame.“My father was one of the German Hussar...
Visitation
2008-02-27 23:46:00 The Bells of Aix-en-Provence By Hank EdsonA stranger here, I know not where they are, I know not where they call from, but I hear Their startling voices shaking in the air, Arriving all at once from everywhere Like disconcerting angels, loud and clear, Straightening me up, seated in my chair. My heart fills with the present, light and bare~ This annunciation within my ear: Receive and share, we are near and yet far. Copyright © Hank Edson 2008 More About: Visitation
Opening of the Heart
2008-02-23 21:59:00 Dweller &nbs p; on the &n bsp; & nbsp; Threshold&nb sp; By Van Morrison I’m a dweller on the thresholdAnd I’m waiting at the doorAnd I’m standing in the darknessI don’t want to wait no more I have seen without perceivingI have been another manLet me pierce the realm of glamourSo I know just what I am &nb sp; &n bsp; I’m a dweller on the thresholdAnd I’m waiting at the doorAnd I’m standing in the darknessI don’t want to wait no more & nbsp; Feel the angel of the presentIn the mighty crystal fireLift me up consume my darknessLet me travel even higher ; &n... More About: Opening , Heart , The Heart
Winged Ascent
2008-02-22 04:06:00 White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field By Mary Oliver Coming downout of the freezing skywith its depths of light,like an angel,or a Buddha with wings,it was beautifuland accurate,striking the snow and whatever was therewith a force that left the imprintof the tips of its wings—five feet apart—and the grabbingthrust of its feet,and the indentation of what had been runningthrough the white valleysof the snow— and then it rose, gracefully,and flew back to the frozen marshes,to lurk there,like a little lighthouse,in the blue shadows—so I thought:maybe deathisn’t darkness, after all,but so much lightwrapping itself around us—as soft as feathers—that we are instantly wearyof looking, and looking, and shut our eyes,not without amazement,and let ourselves be carried,as through the translucence of mica,to the riverthat is without the...
Love's Surrender
2008-02-19 04:52:00 Would Be Lovers By Hank EdsonWould be lovers! Every human being Good or bad, tough or tender, In hope or in despair, We all do hunger for the light And know not why. Please do not struggle With this hunger and this light. Let it be meaningless on paper, But recognize the essence Is what we all together share. Bare witness to this nature Embraced with your existence Infinite and pure; Silent and solitary Your faith lies hidden there. Let go of everything But the very center For your heart is where you are And in searching you are offering Patiently to die. Would be lovers! Every human being Longs to swoon and be born again Eternally united With the source of inspiration At one with the light, the heart aware. Copyright © Hank Edson 2008 More About: Surrender
Spurned Love
2008-02-16 20:22:00 Romeo and Juliet By Mark KnopflerA lovestruck Romeo sings a street-side serenadeLaying everybody low with me a lovesong that he made.Finds a convenient streetlight, steps out of the shade,Says something like: “You and me babe how about it?”Juliet says: “Hey, its Romeo! You nearly gimme a heart attack!”He’s underneath the window. She’s singing: “Hey la, my boyfriend’s back!You shouldn’t come around here—singing up at people like that.”“Anyway, what you gonna do about it?” “Juliet, the dice were loaded from the startAnd I bet and you exploded in my heartAnd I forget: the movie song…When you gonna realize: it was just that the time was wrong! ; &nbs p; &nb sp; &n bsp; & nbsp; ... More About: Love
The Poet's Solitaire
2008-02-15 18:58:00 One Art By Elizabeth BishopThe art of losing isn't hard to master;so many things seem filled with the intentto be lost that their loss is no disaster.Lose something every day. Accept the flusterof lost door keys, the hour badly spent.The art of losing isn't hard to master.Then practice losing farther, losing faster:places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel. None of these will bring disaster.I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, ornext-to-last, of three loved houses went.The art of losing isn't hard to master.I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gestureI love) I shan't have lied. It's evidentthe art of losing's not too hard to masterthough it may look like (Write it!) like disaster. More About: Solitaire
Singular Intention
2008-02-04 04:49:00 By Hank EdsonDon’t want to climb no mountain,I don’t ever want to fly,Don’t ever want to count upAll the stars in the sky.Don’t want to cross no ocean,There’s no seas I wanna dive,No fortunes to collect,Or fancy cars to drive.I don’t ever want to tell youAll the crazy things I’ve doneCuz the only thing I wantIs to be your number one.Lord knows I’m not the savior;I don’t understand his role.I’ve never had that passionAnd I lack his self-control.The president I’m notFor I would not tell his lies.I never ever could cast downWeapons from the skies.I don’t want to be your leaderNot by any god or gun,But by your side I’d dieJust to be your number one.I don’t hope to always laugh,I sure don’t want to get too high,I don’t need to play with deathOr to search for reasons why.I don’t need to find myself.I don’t want a place to hide.I don’t have to prove the truthOf these thin... More About: Intention
Unique Beings With All the Same Center
2008-02-03 01:35:00 One By BonoIs it getting betterOr do you feel the sameWill it make it easier on you now You got someone to blameYou say...One loveOne lifeWhen it's one needIn the nightOne loveWe get to share itLeaves you baby if you Don't care for itDid I disappoint youOr leave a bad taste in your mouthYou act like you never had loveAnd you want me to go withoutWell it's...Too lateTonightTo drag the past out into the lightWe're one, but we're not the sameWe get to Carry each otherCarry each otherOne...Have you come here for forgivenessHave you come to raise the deadHave you come here to play JesusTo the lepers in your headDid I ask too muchMore than a lotYou gave me nothingNow it's all I gotWe're oneBut we're not the sameWell we Hurt each otherThen we do it againYou sayLove is a templeLove a higher lawLove is a templeLove the higher lawYou ask me to enterBut then you make me crawlAnd I can't be holding onTo what you gotWhen all you got is hurtOne loveOne bloodOne li... More About: Unique , Center
More Serpentin Innuendo
2008-01-31 06:48:00 XXVIII. Le Serpent Qui Danse By Charles Baudelaire(Translation provided below)Que j’aime voir, chère indolente, & nbsp; De ton corps se beau,Comme une étoffe vacillante, Miroiter la peau!Sur ta chevelure profonde &nb sp; Aux âcres parfums,Mer odorante et vagabonde &n bsp; Aux flots bleus et bruns,Comme un navire qui s’éveille & nbsp; Au vent du matin,Mon âme rêveuse appareille & nbsp; Pour un ciel lointain.Tes yeux, où rien ne se révèle &nb sp; De doux ni d’amer,Sont deux bijoux froids où se mêle &n...
The Party Life
2008-01-28 06:33:00 Yevtushenko Sings of the Day-After-Tomorrow* Adapted by Hank Edson Adam and Eve lived independently,Independently, Noah built the ark,But the Devil’s compulsive industryAnd his army—spoke to parties after dark. So politics passed into every apple—The serpent’s pride and inventions of warWere but seeds to sting the hungry people,Worms to devour their nourishing core. Thus, politics grew into garden police,And assigned the separate countries—officers.Then enslaved each soul to endless increase,Spilling themselves into large party coffers. But where do the people with no party stand?Where send the lost and broken familyCaught between Maidanek and Magadan—Where is escape between Auschwitz and My Lai? One day our great-great grandchildren will tireOf all these savage parties come and gone,Will choose their freedom by setting fireThese mad empty doctrines—our Babylon. When the world’s garden admits... More About: Life , Party , The Party
Man Misguides
2008-01-26 09:54:00 Eclipse By John DenverThe sun is slowly fadin’ in the western skySometimes it takes forever for the day to endSometimes it takes a lifetimeSometimes I think I’ll never see the sun againThere’s a heavy smog between me and my mountainsIt’s enough to make a grown man sit and cryIt’s enough to make you wonderIt’s enough to make the world roll up and dieI think it’s kind of interesting the way things get to beThe way that people work with their machinesSerenity’s a long time comin’ to meIn fact I don’t believe I know what it meansIn the east a shaded moon is hangin’ lazilyI do believe I saw the old man smileI do believe I didI do believe he’s been laughin’ all the whileI think it’s kind of interesting the way things get to beThe way that people work with their machinesSerenity’s a long time comin’ to meIn fact I don’t believe I know what it means any mo...
The Earth Presides
2008-01-25 04:32:00 OZYMANDIAS By Percy Bysshe Shelley I met a traveller from an antique landWho said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. Near them on the sand,Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frownAnd wrinkled lip and sneer of cold commandTell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.And on the pedestal these words appear:"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains: round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away. More About: Earth
Gaia's Grace
2008-01-21 21:16:00 The Earth Laughs and the Earth Cries By Hank EdsonThe Earth laughs and the Earth cries Beneath the hoards of crazy people: “The United States of America, Russia, China, Japan, Iran— What crazy names they have given me! Oh, it would be a wonderful laugh If it were only a novel or on a map. But look how they build these heavy walls to patrol And then do nothing but steal from each other. And while they are building their cities By cheating my infinite spirit, They forget they are made of my dust. They know not that they belong to me Much more than I belong to them. My nature is pure of division, Perfect in every way. Oh, Man, Accept my superiority, Confess your ignorant intentions, And allow my merciful nature To bring grace to each craving heart— A balance that may survive!” Copyright © Hank Edson 2008 More About: Grace
Manifest Destiny
2008-01-19 22:50:00 The Last Resort By Don Henley She came from Providence, The one in Rhode Island, Where the old world shadows hang Heavy in the air. She packed her hopes and dreams Like a refugee, Just as her father came Across the sea. She heard about a place People were smilin'. They spoke about the red man's way, And how they loved the land. And they came from everywhere To the Great Divide, Seeking a place to stand Or a place to hide. Down in the crowded bars, Out for a good time, Can't wait to tell you all, What it's like up there. And they called it paradise; I don't know why. Somebody laid the mountains low While the town got high. Then the chilly winds blew down Across the desert Through the canyons of the coast To the Malibu Where the pretty people play Hungry for power To light their neon way And give them things to do. Some rich men came and raped the land; Nobody caught 'em. Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, And Jesus-people bought 'em. And they called it para... More About: Destiny
A Sufi Saint Sings
2008-01-16 02:39:00 Enraptured By Moulana Shah MaghsoudTr. Seyedeh Nahid Angha, Ph.D. Do you know me, oh dear heart?I am but life from the Beloved.Not just mere clay but ratherThe light of the heart breathed into the heart of dust.I am the soul of the spirit,My heart resides beyond the spheres.My life springs forth from His commanding,Earth from heaven, life hid in dust.I fall like the crying rainUpon the smiling flower,As I remain upon this globe in smiles and in tears.Divine willed and said, “I am—both life and body!”Gaze forth at destiny and seeHow life is hid in the body.Pure mirror of my heart’s reflecting Divine light,Truth’s image cast onto my being.The hidden guide of truthfulnessAccompanied me on a safe journeyFrom dark nafs to life’s water searchingFor the Divine, a quest eternal and deserving.Like nonexistence I appear concealedFrom beginning to the end.Guarded by Divine, its no... More About: Sufi , Saint , Sings
Infinitude and Dispossession
2008-01-09 04:39:00 The Dancers of Solstice By Hank Edson And then later came the greater knowledge, an understanding of the penetration, the light this time, that magnificent blazing force miles upon millions of miles high in the sky making the most succulent blue but an arid dry thirst. And my body all the while underneath that unceasing fire which, though self contained, feasted, absorbing the life fluid out of the already thin disguise of vapor. My body now this desert, I knew the heat generating in the nothingness between was what I had once called my soul. As if anything could be mine anymore and I lay prone and windless, helplessly ranged in the dunes of a tired history. My eyes parching for the sun’s sweat tears of mercy. It was then that began the dance, as if in answer to my prayers, a sensual nourishment in its silent inferno. I don’t know how many of them there were. More than I could know, each sculpting, massaging, licking my sandy skin as...
New Jersey Nirvana
2007-12-24 01:39:00 Blinded By The Light By Bruce Springsteen Madman drummers bummers and Indians in the summer With a teenage diplomatIn the dumps with the mumps As the adolescent pumps his way into his hatWith a boulder on my shoulder feelin' kinda older I tripped the merry-go-roundWith this very unpleasing sneezing and wheezing The calliope crashed to the groundSome all-hot half-shot was headin' for the hot spot Snappin' his fingers clappin' his handsAnd some fleshpot mascot was tied into a lover's knot With a whatnot in her handAnd now young Scott with a slingshot finally found a tender spot And throws his lover in the sandAnd some bloodshot forget-me-not Whispers daddy's within earshot Save the buckshot turn up the bandAnd she was blinded by the lightCut loose like a deuce another runner in the nightBlinded by the lightShe got down but she never got tight, but she'll make it alrightSome brimstone bar... More About: New Jersey , Nirvana , Jersey
Mystic Trance
2007-12-23 03:18:00 Kubla Khan By Samuel Taylor Coleridge In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree:Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea.So twice five miles of fertile groundWith walls and towers were girdled round:And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;And here were forests ancient as the hills,Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slantedDown the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!A savage place! as holy and enchantedAs e'er beneath a waning moon was hauntedBy woman wailing for her demon-lover!And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,A mighty fountain momently was forced:Amid whose swift half-intermitted burstHuge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and everIt flung up moment... More About: Trance
The Relationship Between Form and Content
2007-12-18 05:41:00 The Diamond Life By Hank Edson The first wisdom came in the pride of sunlight, watching the dazzling rays perform their miracles of passage. The brilliant diffusions, the quiet reflections: much more than a mirror, this body of facets in smooth perfect precision. Its solid hallways, entrances of content, windows of crystallized vision. The thought becoming the thing, over and over again; not transversion, but transcendence, the perfect medium for light’s pure energy. Unified in a coexistence lucid but stable, who could say which entered which? Was it the light that grew more endowed, more abstract, a spontaneous lumination? Or was it the jewel’s impossible concentration, the finesse of the diamond life, the absolute strength in its rigid sensitivity, knowing each as each, a meaning for the whole identity? Its prophetic evolution simultaneously organic, rational, hinting beyond at values still indiscernible in its untried depths, what we call the... More About: Relationship , Content , Form
Naive Infinity
2007-12-18 04:48:00 Wondering Where The Lions Are by Bruce Cockburn Sun's up, uh huh, looks okayThe world survives into another dayAnd I'm thinking about eternitySome kind of ecstasy got a hold on meI had another dream about lions at the doorThey weren't half as frightening as they were beforeBut I'm thinking about eternitySome kind of ecstasy got a hold on meWalls windows trees, waves coming throughYou be in me and I'll be in youTogether in eternitySome kind of ecstasy got a hold on meUp among the firs where it smells so sweetOr down in the valley where the river used to beI got my mind on eternitySome kind of ecstasy got a hold on me And I'm wondering where the lions are...I'm wondering where the lions are... Huge orange flying boat rises off a lakeThousand-year-old petroglyphs doing a double takePointing a finger at eternityI'm sitting in the middle of this ecstasyYoung men marching, helmets shining in the sun,Polished as precise like the brain behind the gun(Should be!) they got me thinking... More About: Naive , Infinity
Earthly Sentences
2007-12-07 01:36:00 Adam’s Curse By W.B. YeatsWe sat together at one summer's end, That beautiful mild woman, your close friend, And you and I, and talked of poetry. I said, 'A line will take us hours maybe; Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought, Our stitching and unstitching has been naught. Better go down upon your marrow-bonesAnd scrub a kitchen pavement, or break stonesLike an old pauper, in all kinds of weather; For to articulate sweet sounds togetherIs to work harder than all these, and yetBe thought an idler by the noisy setOf bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymenThe martyrs call the world.' ; &nbs p; &nb sp; &n bsp; & nbsp; And thereuponThat beautiful mild woman for whose sakeThere's many a one shall find out a... More About: Sentences , Sentence
Celestial Benedictions
2007-12-05 04:43:00 Making Love to the Stars By Hank Edson In the car we drove to go to the movie We flew, we smoked, talking of love Unadmittedly there on its highway Banking, skimming through rolling hills We observed there a conjunction In its sky tonight we from the city Breathed in the brightness open from stars Were dazzled by its chimes and scales By Venus, Mars, and Jupiter And further below the moon's held darkness Splashed in a silver bowl like sleep Of the truth we gazed dazzled with awe Beneath the roof of our car beneath All space made by our limited sense To measure by which one said of it "That ninety-three million miles of light Was what we called the distance to the sun And our telescopes looked that distance As if that distance were only a hair And looked again as many light miles" It was plain above our lifted heads Before our eyes, we drove, I to say "So much space ~" and the other to reply "And not another sign of life...
The End of an Era
2007-12-05 00:15:00 American PieBy Don McLean A long, long time ago...I can still rememberHow that music used to make me smile.And I knew if I had my chanceThat I could make those people danceAnd, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.But february made me shiverWith every paper I’d deliver.Bad news on the doorstep;I couldn’t take one more step.I can’t remember if I criedWhen I read about his widowed bride,But something touched me deep insideThe day the music died.So bye-bye, miss american pie.Drove my chevy to the levee,But the levee was dry.And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and ryeSingin’, "this’ll be the day that I die."Did you write the book of love,And do you have faith in God above,If the Bible tells you so? Do you believe in rock ’n roll,Can music save your mortal soul,And can you teach me how to dance real slow? Well, I know that you’re in love with him`cause I saw you dancin’ in the gym.You both kicked off your shoes....
The Heart Stops, The Beat Remembers
2007-11-28 03:28:00 THE DAY LADY DIED By Frank O'HaraIt is 12:20 in New York a Friday three days after Bastille day, yes it is 9:59 and I go get a shoeshine because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner and I don't know the people who will feed me I walk up the muggy street beginning to sun and have a hamburger and a malted and buy an Ugly New World Writing to see what the poets in Ghana are doing these days ; &nbs p; &nb sp; &n bsp; & nbsp; ; I go on to the bank and Miss Stillwagon (first name Linda I once heard) doesn't even look up my balance for once in her life and in the Golden Griffin I get a little Verlaine for Patsy with drawings by Bonnard although I do... More About: Heart , Stops , Beat , The Heart , Members
The Beat Goes On
2007-10-30 03:01:00 Roll Over Beethoven by Hank EdsonGod help us, we were all an enchanted mob ; Drowning in an unleashed sea, And you were the leash, the master of us all &n bsp; Drowning in human cacophony And though the most cultured womanhood sobbed ; In love, in heaven, helplessly, The rest of us sang in some bawdy drawl: ; "Roll over Beethoven and say good night. ; &nbs p; &nb sp; Roll over Beethoven, roll! When the sea has risen of its own might, ; &nbs p; &nb sp; All must give up their soul! We who la... More About: Beat , Goes
Hard Hearts and Hard Times
More articles from this author:2007-10-28 02:11:00 We Can't Make it Hereby James McMurtry Vietnam Vet with a cardboard signSitting there by the left turn lineFlag on the wheelchair flapping in the breezeOne leg missing, both hands freeNo one's paying much mind to himThe V.A. budget's stretched so thinAnd there's more comin' home from the Mideast warWe can't make it here anymoreThat big ol' building was the textile millIt fed our kids and it paid our billsBut they turned us out and they closed the doorsWe can't make it here anymoreSee all those pallets piled up on the loading dockThey're just gonna set there till they rot'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to packJust busted concrete and rusted tracksEmpty storefronts around the squareThere's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhereYou don't come down here 'less you're looking to scoreWe can't make it here anymoreThe bar's still open but man it's slowThe tip jar's light and the register's lowThe bartender don't have much to sayThe regular crowd gets thinne... More About: Hard , Times , Hearts 1, 2 |
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