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Dreams of Sepia Oct 2015
Rugby-bruised September
has bowed out
beckoning in
October with it’s conkers,
changing leaves
& pumpkin harvests
the stars are calling
far off winter light,
the badger
in his den
believes
& Keats, that bright star
I read
& dwell on summer past
composing odes & songs
to summer days
remembering
the swallow’s soar
above the Sea
I had a love and my dear love left;
And I could not comprehend his leaving:
O why did you run? My heart’s bereft,
And sore from all this grieving.

O loving heart, why did you lie?
To be forsaken, wherefore and why?
You had a life and a world before me;
Was it I who stopped you being free?

I gave you gifts and wished to please,
What affliction could I not appease?
A literal update of "I had a dove" rewritten to describe a break up.
Graff1980 Jun 2015
Look at the lovely Lord Byron
Sweet John Keats
And Percy Shelley
What an awesome group
Of poets
Bet they were really romantic
beth fwoah dream May 2015
i lean against an oak tree in a glade
to watch apollo fall behind the hill,
the sunlight in the west begins to fade,
as evening closes in, a sudden chill.
the nightingale sings songs of yesterday
an arching song that lifts my spirits high,
the robin in the branches drills a lay,
as sunset breathes and reaches to the sky.
the sunlight falls in opal on the ground,
a song of heaven, darkness has no place,
the world is hushed with hardly any sound
and i can sense her passion and her grace
  and still the sunlight drifting through the leaves,
  holds back the last of day that darkness weaves.

that darkness weaves, that churlish empty sound,
which deafens moments reaching in their gold,
desire or dream, the chains that hold us bound,
the drowning spirit lifts and then is bold.
while nature rests her head upon the land
and bird song fills the avenues of trees,
her vision is ethereal and grand,
a haunting inspiration on the breeze.
i'll echo songs of summer centuries,
that mock and hint their ebony array,
the wind calls out like wild and distant seas
as through the peaceful glade the light of day,  
   that held its last soft breath of falling light,
   in hollow sorrows dreams of quiet night.

the soul finds solace, time enough to rest,
the beauty of the earth is here to see
and where the light still lingers in the west,
i see a glimpse of sweet eternity.
so blindly now the day will sink and fall,
the light that holds the tenderness recedes
and my lost hopes their last enchantment call,
as that last glimpse of daylight leaves the meads.
while questions of the heart flow like a stream,
with tender echoed strings that fall so far,
as cheery revelations clear the dream,
of softly fallen evening's gentle star.
   so with imagination’s dying spark
   the day so leaves us here the tranquil dark.
Leigh May 2015
.
"Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter"
John Keats, Ode On A Grecian Urn.


.
I'm never sure how I should take his silence,
It's not by choice, that much I know.
For he is a piper painted on porcelain,
Left to inspire a dreamer in an Ode.

His immortal canopy never sheds a leaf,
But offers no shade - frozen in time -
And as it was written, he never came to life and played
His fair maiden her melodious rhyme.

It sits on his lips as they chip and crack;
A dry mouth, a pipe for melodies made.
Sadly for the piper, I don't share Keats' hope
As he said of his maiden, 'She cannot fade'.

This brave boy's riff will remain dormant,
Haunting and quiet - laid on porcelain,
As I can't help this overwhelming jealousy
Of the notes he'll never play trapped within.

How they reel through my mind but leave nothing -
Not a sound or a ripple of waves,
Whereas mine float a while and decay with little grace,
The dotted-quavers left fading on staves.

I'm never sure how I should take his silence,
It's not by choice, that much I know.
Yet I envy more than words his lifetime in a moment,
In a world in which I wait and watch things grow.
.

If something grows, it must grow old.
This is a tribute to a poem that has always stuck with me: Ode on a Grecian urn.

.
Dark bat, would I were curious as thou art-
Like a tea-tray twinkling at night,
And lying with eternal wings apart
Til morning when you end your flight,
And spend the day at your raven-like desk
Chanting incantations old and obscure
With lyrics obscene and Kafkaesque
Quoting first Foucault, then Sassure -
No-yet still puzzling, still remarkable
A black beacon amid shades of grey -
Elusive, and in pursuit quite snark-able.
To you I am drawn as a ****** to ****
I’ll be your muse and you’ll be my death.
A sonnet I wrote for an eccentric guy with a Lewis Carroll/general literature fixation. It's the only sonnet that I have a record of writing and I'm quite happy with it even though it doesn't completely scan.
Theodore Bird Feb 2015
Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art...*
Perhaps not so much.
It would be better to burn, yes;
     to witness the trembling of a thousand suns,
to thumb each tremor of the human heart.
Surely it would be better to burn;
     but to fade, to die with bright sensation,
to linger in the memory of some ancient constellation.
Sam Hain Oct 2014
"No, no, go not to Lethe..."
                —John Keats

Ignore them, though they call you,—all the pills
   And liquor teasing playfully from the drawer,—
The leather belt, half on the chair, that spills
   Into a single loop onto the floor;
Fashion no crown of thorns with poisoned darts;
   And let the vulture fly an aimless flight
      That sees him make in vain each listless sweep
Till he forsakes his stalking and departs;
   For soon you'll blink into a dreamless night,
      And sleep Endymion's never-waking sleep.

O.O
What gave you your direction?
What made you want to write?
What ever was the reason
that saw you editing all night?

Perhaps you loved Lord Byron
or for you was Poe the man
or maybe Keats or Dr. Seuss,
with his green eggs and ham.

What had you writing poetry?
Who did you want to be?
The answer to that question
is an easy one for me.

You'll probably howl
when you hear of my choice.
He's hardly a Jane Austin
or Helen Steiner Rice.

And it wasn't Charlotte Bronte
who gave to me the thrill.
But a little fat comedien
with the name of Benny Hill.

As a youngster I remember
his rather raunchy rhymes
that some would look at with contempt
but they did that in those times.

I just remember that he creased me up
and I would laugh and laugh all day.
I would memorise and tell to friends
when we all went out to play.

As the years went on and I read the greats
everything grew in my mind.
I read and read my poetry
anything that I could find.

But of all the brilliant scholars
that have written and do still.
None will grace my heart and make me feel
like that poet Benny Hill.
29 August 2014
Neha D Jul 2014
I watch the prom Dance,
In an awkward stance,
my friends walk in with dates,
and the excitement Abates.
Alone in a corner,
I mope like a mourner,
With no partner to dance with,
No gentleman to prance with.
Amidst the mirth and cheers,
My eyes fill up with tears.

I rush out into the open air,
And by Jove! I see Voltaire!
With his satirical charms,
He draws me in his arms.
As I sway to the beats,
I'm waltzing with Keats.
Causing my funny bone to arouse,
Enters P.G.  Wodehouse!
Using nonchalant wittiness,
He acknowledges my prettiness.
And then walks in Shakespeare,
Who  wipes away my tear,
And my senses curdle like curds,
As he showers me with words.
While I repress the excited child,
I'm swaying with Oscar Wilde.
I'm rendered helplessly mute,
With his phrases so astute.
With a proposal so verse-y,
I'm serenaded by Shelly  B. Percy.
And before this fantasy can spoil,
I fox trot with  Conan Doyle.

And thus literally seduced,
into putty I'm reduced.
I am platonic-ally smitten,
By the genius of what they've written.
The dating circus can’t make me cry,
because a host of paramours have I.
I've never been to prom. No one asked me to prom during High School or college. And while that saddened me, I found solace and acceptance in the arms of my Literary heroes.  
Here's to them :)
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