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"churchyard" poems
TWO loves had I. Now both are dead, And both are marked by tombstones white. The one stands in the churchyard near, The other hid from mortal sight. The name on one all men may read, And learn who lies beneath the stone; The other name is written where No eyes can read it but my own. On one I plant a living flower, And cherish it with loving hands; I shun the single withered leaf That tells me where the other stands. To that white tombstone on the hill In summer days I often go; From this white stone that nearer lies I turn me with unuttered woe. O God, I pray, if love must die, And make no more of life a part, Let witness be where all can see, And not within a living heart.
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17.7k
Dead Love
The steeples are white in the wild moonlight, And the trees have a silver glare; Past the chimneys high see the vampires fly, And the harpies of upper air, That flutter and laugh and stare. For the village dead to the moon outspread Never shone in the sunset's gleam, But grew out of the deep that the dead years keep Where the rivers of madness stream Down the gulfs to a pit of dream. A chill wind blows through the rows of sheaves In the meadows that shimmer pale, And comes to twine where the headstones shine And the ghouls of the churchyard wail For harvests that fly and fail. Not a breath of the strange grey gods of change That tore from the past its own Can quicken this hour, when a spectral power Spreads sleep o'er the cosmic throne, And looses the vast unknown. So here again stretch the vale and plain That moons long-forgotten saw, And the dead leap gay in the pallid ray, Sprung out of the tomb's black maw To shake all the world with awe. And all that the morn shall greet forlorn, The ugliness and the pest Of rows where thick rise the stones and brick, Shall some day be with the rest, And brood with the shades unblest. Then wild in the dark let the lemurs bark, And the leprous spires ascend; For new and old alike in the fold Of horror and death are penned, For the hounds of Time to rend.
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12k
Hallowe'en in a Suburb
The thing, he said, would come in the night at three From the old churchyard on the hill below; But crouching by an oak fire's wholesome glow, I tried to tell myself it could not be. Surely, I mused, it was pleasantry Devised by one who did not truly know The Elder Sign, bequeathed from long ago, That sets the fumbling forms of darkness free. He had not meant it - no - but still I lit Another lamp as starry Leo climbed Out of the Seekonk, and a steeple chimed Three - and the firelight faded, bit by bit. Then at the door that cautious rattling came - And the mad truth devoured me like a flame!
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10.4k
The Messenger
Mum had been gone a couple of months, six I think… (An ordinary day, feeling hollow but doing OK) …when I realised I could get rid of the sofa. I thought it was ugly, she thought it was a bargain. A sofa’s not a keepsake and it was certainly no heirloom. I’d not inflict it on my kids. I got rid. If I could’ve had her back then? I would’ve done. Even if it meant keeping the sofa. Redecorated. Bought a new telly. Spent frivolous amounts of cash on scatter cushions. She disliked scatter cushions. I thought they were cosy. My little boy drew on one of the cushions. On purpose. I was about to smack the back of his legs… (Mum would have, she smacked me when I was little) … I stopped. I never wanted to. Had known all along, somehow forgotten. If I could’ve had her back then? I would’ve done. But she would not smack my children. Mum had been gone a year… (Planting bulbs, feeling conspicuous carrying a shovel ‘round the churchyard) …and I missed her. It was as hot as the day she died. There was no breeze up on that hill, no cloud. Beautiful views stretched right out to the sea. My little boy had grown, he helped carry water and dig holes. My baby was learning to walk, she wobbled on uneven turf between the headstones. I wanted Mum to see. If I could’ve had her back then? I would’ve done. No question. Mum had been gone three years… (Bulbs were doing OK. There was nothing left to plant that rabbits wouldn't nibble) …and I realised it was time to move on. I kept the ghosts quiet while agents showed people round. The house sold. We moved away. A warm, terraced place in a small town by the sea. Dad died. Mum has been gone eight years and I miss her. Looking out from the Downs across cliff-top and sea, the churchyard seems nothing more than a soft-grey fleck on the green edge of town. If I could bring her back now? Everything’s changed. Ghosts exist. They sit in empty chairs and speak kettle-whistle. Wishing us well.
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Apr 15, 2015
Apr 15, 2015 at 2:34 PM UTC
Perspective
Mum had been gone a couple of months, six I think… (An ordinary day, feeling hollow but doing OK) …when I realised I could get rid of the sofa. I thought it was ugly, she thought it was a bargain. A sofa’s not a keepsake and it was certainly no heirloom. I’d not inflict it on my kids. I got rid. If I could’ve had her back then? I would’ve done. Even if it meant keeping the sofa. Redecorated. Bought a new telly. Spent frivolous amounts of cash on scatter cushions. She disliked scatter cushions. I thought they were cosy. My little boy drew on one of the cushions. On purpose. I was about to smack the back of his legs… (Mum would have, she smacked me when I was little) … I stopped. I never wanted to. Had known all along, somehow forgotten. If I could’ve had her back then? I would’ve done. But she would not smack my children. Mum had been gone a year… (Planting bulbs, feeling conspicuous carrying a shovel ‘round the churchyard) …and I missed her. It was as hot as the day she died. There was no breeze up on that hill, no cloud. Beautiful views stretched right out to the sea. My little boy had grown, he helped carry water and dig holes. My baby was learning to walk, she wobbled on uneven turf between the headstones. I wanted Mum to see. If I could’ve had her back then? I would’ve done. No question. Mum had been gone three years… (Bulbs were doing OK. There was nothing left to plant that rabbits wouldn't nibble) …and I realised it was time to move on. I kept the ghosts quiet while agents showed people round. The house sold. We moved away. A warm, terraced place in a small town by the sea. Dad died. Mum has been gone eight years and I miss her. Looking out from the Downs across cliff-top and sea, the churchyard seems nothing more than a soft-grey fleck on the green edge of town. If I could bring her back now? Everything’s changed. Ghosts exist. They sit in empty chairs and speak kettle-whistle. Wishing us well.
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17
Say this city has ten million souls, Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes: Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us. Once we had a country and we thought it fair, Look in the atlas and you'll find it there: We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now. In the village churchyard there grows an old yew, Every spring it blossoms anew: Old passports can't do that, my dear, old passports can't do that. The consul banged the table and said, "If you've got no passport you're officially dead": But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive. Went to a committee; they offered me a chair; Asked me politely to return next year: But where shall we go to-day, my dear, but where shall we go to-day? Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said; "If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread": He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me. Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky; It was ****** over Europe, saying, "They must die": O we were in his mind, my dear, O we were in his mind. Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin, Saw a door opened and a cat let in: But they weren't German Jews, my dear, but they weren't German Jews. Went down the harbour and stood upon the quay, Saw the fish swimming as if they were free: Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away. Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees; They had no politicians and sang at their ease: They weren't the human race, my dear, they weren't the human race. Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors, A thousand windows and a thousand doors: Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours. Stood on a great plain in the falling snow; Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro: Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.
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6.6k
Refugee Blues
Say this city has ten million souls, Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes: Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us. Once we had a country and we thought it fair, Look in the atlas and you'll find it there: We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now. In the village churchyard there grows an old yew, Every spring it blossoms anew: Old passports can't do that, my dear, old passports can't do that. The consul banged the table and said, "If you've got no passport you're officially dead": But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive. Went to a committee; they offered me a chair; Asked me politely to return next year: But where shall we go to-day, my dear, but where shall we go to-day? Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said; "If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread": He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me. Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky; It was ****** over Europe, saying, "They must die": O we were in his mind, my dear, O we were in his mind. Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin, Saw a door opened and a cat let in: But they weren't German Jews, my dear, but they weren't German Jews. Went down the harbour and stood upon the quay, Saw the fish swimming as if they were free: Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away. Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees; They had no politicians and sang at their ease: They weren't the human race, my dear, they weren't the human race. Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors, A thousand windows and a thousand doors: Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours. Stood on a great plain in the falling snow; Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro: Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.
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36
The day you died I went into the dirt, Into the lightless hibernaculum Where bees, striped black and gold, sleep out the blizzard Like hieratic stones, and the ground is hard. It was good for twenty years, that wintering -- As if you never existed, as if I came God-fathered into the world from my mother's belly: Her wide bed wore the stain of divinity. I had nothing to do with guilt or anything When I wormed back under my mother's heart. Small as a doll in my dress of innocence I lay dreaming your epic, image by image. Nobody died or withered on that stage. Everything took place in a durable whiteness. The day I woke, I woke on Churchyard Hill. I found your name, I found your bones and all Enlisted in a cramped necropolis your speckled stone skewed by an iron fence. In this charity ward, this poorhouse, where the dead Crowd foot to foot, head to head, no flower Breaks the soil. This is Azalea path. A field of burdock opens to the south. Six feet of yellow gravel cover you. The artificial red sage does not stir In the basket of plastic evergreens they put At the headstone next to yours, nor does it rot, Although the rains dissolve a ****** dye: The ersatz petals drip, and they drip red. Another kind of redness bothers me: The day your slack sail drank my sister's breath The flat sea purpled like that evil cloth My mother unrolled at your last homecoming. I borrow the silts of an old tragedy. The truth is, one late October, at my birth-cry A scorpion stung its head, an ill-starred thing; My mother dreamed you face down in the sea. The stony actors poise and pause for breath. I brought my love to bear, and then you died. It was the gangrene ate you to the bone My mother said: you died like any man. How shall I age into that state of mind? I am the ghost of an infamous suicide, My own blue razor rusting at my throat. O pardon the one who knocks for pardon at Your gate, father -- your hound-bitch, daughter, friend. It was my love that did us both to death.
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6.6k
Electra On Azalea Path
The day you died I went into the dirt, Into the lightless hibernaculum Where bees, striped black and gold, sleep out the blizzard Like hieratic stones, and the ground is hard. It was good for twenty years, that wintering -- As if you never existed, as if I came God-fathered into the world from my mother's belly: Her wide bed wore the stain of divinity. I had nothing to do with guilt or anything When I wormed back under my mother's heart. Small as a doll in my dress of innocence I lay dreaming your epic, image by image. Nobody died or withered on that stage. Everything took place in a durable whiteness. The day I woke, I woke on Churchyard Hill. I found your name, I found your bones and all Enlisted in a cramped necropolis your speckled stone skewed by an iron fence. In this charity ward, this poorhouse, where the dead Crowd foot to foot, head to head, no flower Breaks the soil. This is Azalea path. A field of burdock opens to the south. Six feet of yellow gravel cover you. The artificial red sage does not stir In the basket of plastic evergreens they put At the headstone next to yours, nor does it rot, Although the rains dissolve a ****** dye: The ersatz petals drip, and they drip red. Another kind of redness bothers me: The day your slack sail drank my sister's breath The flat sea purpled like that evil cloth My mother unrolled at your last homecoming. I borrow the silts of an old tragedy. The truth is, one late October, at my birth-cry A scorpion stung its head, an ill-starred thing; My mother dreamed you face down in the sea. The stony actors poise and pause for breath. I brought my love to bear, and then you died. It was the gangrene ate you to the bone My mother said: you died like any man. How shall I age into that state of mind? I am the ghost of an infamous suicide, My own blue razor rusting at my throat. O pardon the one who knocks for pardon at Your gate, father -- your hound-bitch, daughter, friend. It was my love that did us both to death.
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46
What happened on Weehawken Heights, that warm midsummer’s day? There are several versions of the “truth” but none for sure can say. The Principals were both well known: Hamilton and Burr. Aaron Burr had made the challenge, Hamilton would not demur. Hamilton choose pistols as the weapons Then Burr proposed the site. Per the Irish Code Duello It was all proper and right. Dueling was illegal, so the Seconds looked away so they could plausibly deny that they had seen the fray. Each man walked off ten paces, and Mister Pendleton yelled “Pre-sent”! Most think that Hamilton fired first; wide and right, his shot was spent. Aaron Burr was deadly accurate: His shot, its target found: Alexander Hamilton, wounded, swooned upon the ground. “this wound is mortal, Doctor.” was all Hamilton could say. They bore him to the City where he passed on the following day. Aaron Burr also fled the scene, evading prosecution. He had “Full Satisfaction”, this hero of the Revolution. What is full satisfaction when Burr’s Star was past its season? He never more held public trust, indeed, stood trial for treason. A person can be haunted by a ghost that none can see. Burr’s brilliance had been blighted by a sort of infamy. Towards the end of his own life Burr said of his enemy: “{Had I known}The world was wide enough for Hamilton and me.” On July 11, 1804, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr fought the most famous duel in American history. These two heroes of the Revolution were political enemies and Hamilton had done much to exclude Burr from the Presidency and from the  New York  governorship.  Burr,feeling he had been defamed by Hamilton's published remarks demanded the "Full Satisfaction" of a duel.  My account generally follows the account of the historian, Joesph Ellis. Any errors are my fault. Any items in quotes are words ascribed to these two famous individuals.  Aaron Burr never after held public office and eventually stood trial for treason for his alleged attempt to set up an independent country in the territory Jefferson purchased from France. After several years living in France, Burr returned to New york where he faded into obscurity. Alexander Hamilton is buried in the churchyard of Trinity Church in downtown New york. Towards the end of his life, Burr remarked: "Had I read Sterne more and Voltaire less, I should have known the world was wide enough for Hamilton and me."[35]
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Jan 17, 2012
Jan 17, 2012 at 7:04 AM UTC
Full Satisfaction
What happened on Weehawken Heights, that warm midsummer’s day? There are several versions of the “truth” but none for sure can say. The Principals were both well known: Hamilton and Burr. Aaron Burr had made the challenge, Hamilton would not demur. Hamilton choose pistols as the weapons Then Burr proposed the site. Per the Irish Code Duello It was all proper and right. Dueling was illegal, so the Seconds looked away so they could plausibly deny that they had seen the fray. Each man walked off ten paces, and Mister Pendleton yelled “Pre-sent”! Most think that Hamilton fired first; wide and right, his shot was spent. Aaron Burr was deadly accurate: His shot, its target found: Alexander Hamilton, wounded, swooned upon the ground. “this wound is mortal, Doctor.” was all Hamilton could say. They bore him to the City where he passed on the following day. Aaron Burr also fled the scene, evading prosecution. He had “Full Satisfaction”, this hero of the Revolution. What is full satisfaction when Burr’s Star was past its season? He never more held public trust, indeed, stood trial for treason. A person can be haunted by a ghost that none can see. Burr’s brilliance had been blighted by a sort of infamy. Towards the end of his own life Burr said of his enemy: “{Had I known}The world was wide enough for Hamilton and me.” On July 11, 1804, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr fought the most famous duel in American history. These two heroes of the Revolution were political enemies and Hamilton had done much to exclude Burr from the Presidency and from the  New York  governorship.  Burr,feeling he had been defamed by Hamilton's published remarks demanded the "Full Satisfaction" of a duel.  My account generally follows the account of the historian, Joesph Ellis. Any errors are my fault. Any items in quotes are words ascribed to these two famous individuals.  Aaron Burr never after held public office and eventually stood trial for treason for his alleged attempt to set up an independent country in the territory Jefferson purchased from France. After several years living in France, Burr returned to New york where he faded into obscurity. Alexander Hamilton is buried in the churchyard of Trinity Church in downtown New york. Towards the end of his life, Burr remarked: "Had I read Sterne more and Voltaire less, I should have known the world was wide enough for Hamilton and me."[35]
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46
The sweetest blossoms die. And so it was that, going day by day Unto the church to praise and pray, And crossing the green churchyard thoughtfully, I saw how on the graves the flowers Shed their fresh leaves in showers, And how their perfume rose up to the sky Before it passed away. The youngest blossoms die. They die and fall and nourish the rich earth From which they lately had their birth; Sweet life, but sweeter death that passeth by And is as though it had not been:-- All colors turn to green; The bright hues vanish and the odors fly, The grass hath lasting worth. And youth and beauty die. So be it, O my God, Thou God of truth: Better than beauty and than youth Are Saints and Angels, a glad company; And Thou, O Lord, our Rest and Ease, Art better far than these. Why should we shrink from our full harvest? why Prefer to glean with Ruth?
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4.9k
Sweet Death
A lowly hill which overlooks a flat, Half sea, half country side; A flat-shored sea of low-voiced creeping tide Over a chalky, weedy mat. A hill of hillocks, flowery and kept green Round Crosses raised for hope, With many-tinted sunsets where the slope Faces the lingering western sheen. A lowly hope, a height that is but low, While Time sets solemnly, While the tide rises of Eternity, Silent and neither swift nor slow.
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4.3k
Birchington Churchyard
When I came last to Ludlow Amidst the moonlight pale, Two friends kept step beside me, Two honest friends and hale. Now **** lies long in the churchyard, And Ned lies long in jail, And I come home to Ludlow Amidst the moonlight pale.
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3.6k
When I Came Last To Ludlow
A wind came up out of the sea, And said, “O mists, make room for me.” It hailed the ships and cried, “Sail on, Ye mariners, the night is gone.” And hurried landward far away, Crying “Awake! it is the day.” It said unto the forest, “Shout! Hang all your leafy banners out!” It touched the wood-bird’s folded wing, And said, “O bird, awake and sing.” And o’er the farms, “O chanticleer, Your clarion blow; the day is near.” It whispered to the fields of corn, “Bow down, and hail the coming morn.” It shouted through the belfry-tower, “Awake, O bell! proclaim the hour.” It crossed the churchyard with a sigh, And said, “Not yet! In quiet lie.”
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3.6k
Daybreak
I laughed in places Where Laughter was not asked for, In granite market towns Beneath refugee palm trees shivering. Running from giant hands That were covered in car wash fluids, The back of children's heads imprinted On their palms. I laughed during disciplinary procedures, Before authority figures With cornflakes in their red beards And my laughter crept over the edges of their flowerbeds And the grass laughed with me. I laughed at funerals, The sounds of horses beyond the churchyard And a messenger ran down the aisle panting and exhausted, He had a message for my laughter ' Quick you must come at once'. I laughed during marital feuds, Laughter rising out of its own body above broken guitars and dried up bonsai, Above all the things I said That contradict me now. I laughed during serious films, The tulips drooping on top of the T.V. The sun slumped against the door, Behind heavy curtains I mistook for pigs on hooks. I laughed over exercise books, Above algebra and history Behind impossible bra straps That appeared out of acne and ink flicked backs. I laughed at the swimming pool Hiding birthmarks like stains, Drowning above the water saying 'I am a fish I must get back in!'. I laughed in surgeries among migraines and told my mother that robots were taking over, in the same rooms where they removed my brothers' verucas And I saw the doctors small blade escape through the window. I laughed during friends confessions, In between the silences of repeated songs While pantomime dames walked past windows make-up running in black and yellow rain. I'm laughing while making coffee in a campervan, I'm laughing because its a monday morning, Because everyone else is busy, Because we have an oil lamp from a pound-shop Burning beneath the sound of rain on the roof, Because the radio's silent….. And because sausages are best done slowly.
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Jun 26, 2015
Jun 26, 2015 at 11:05 AM UTC
i have eaten sausages in many countries
I laughed in places Where Laughter was not asked for, In granite market towns Beneath refugee palm trees shivering. Running from giant hands That were covered in car wash fluids, The back of children's heads imprinted On their palms. I laughed during disciplinary procedures, Before authority figures With cornflakes in their red beards And my laughter crept over the edges of their flowerbeds And the grass laughed with me. I laughed at funerals, The sounds of horses beyond the churchyard And a messenger ran down the aisle panting and exhausted, He had a message for my laughter ' Quick you must come at once'. I laughed during marital feuds, Laughter rising out of its own body above broken guitars and dried up bonsai, Above all the things I said That contradict me now. I laughed during serious films, The tulips drooping on top of the T.V. The sun slumped against the door, Behind heavy curtains I mistook for pigs on hooks. I laughed over exercise books, Above algebra and history Behind impossible bra straps That appeared out of acne and ink flicked backs. I laughed at the swimming pool Hiding birthmarks like stains, Drowning above the water saying 'I am a fish I must get back in!'. I laughed in surgeries among migraines and told my mother that robots were taking over, in the same rooms where they removed my brothers' verucas And I saw the doctors small blade escape through the window. I laughed during friends confessions, In between the silences of repeated songs While pantomime dames walked past windows make-up running in black and yellow rain. I'm laughing while making coffee in a campervan, I'm laughing because its a monday morning, Because everyone else is busy, Because we have an oil lamp from a pound-shop Burning beneath the sound of rain on the roof, Because the radio's silent….. And because sausages are best done slowly.
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54
The withered gorse gives a glint of her golden hue amongst Winters cumular invitation, whose ember leaves mire neath  the creaking boughs. The forge in the village with its hard working blacksmith presides by mornings emerald gown of aconites blithely swaying in the churchyard. The dormant headlands' silent yearnings  jostles, with the arcane wind ; plying against the piebald sky, whose tales refuse to ring hollow.
0
Jan 15, 2014
Jan 15, 2014 at 1:02 PM UTC
Winters yearnings
while you were singing in the churchyard i was sleeping in the ***** barn beside a withered picture of an astronaut and a long beard filled with street secrets while you were burning up in sainthood i was screaming into a melancholy leaf wearing sweat on my miserable ***** and a liar's grin on my face while you were murdering your wife i was milking this dream for all the light and i thanked god on bended knee saying you're a turtle dove in an icebox while you martyred yourself into the ocean i carried you with me on my road to freedom like an aligator stomped hard by a mockingbird or a mermaid shot full of antibirth tablets
0
Feb 19, 2012
Feb 19, 2012 at 10:51 PM UTC
alligator stomped hard by a mockingbird
I A THIN moon faints in the sky o'erhead, And dumb in the churchyard lie the dead. Walk we not, Sweet, by garden ways, Where the late rose hangs and the phlox delays, But forth of the gate and down the road, Past the church and the yews, to their dim abode. For it's turn of the year and All Souls' night, When the dead can hear and the dead have sight. II Fear not that sound like wind in the trees: It is only their call that comes on the breeze; Fear not the shudder that seems to pass: It is only the tread of their feet on the grass; Fear not the drip of the bough as you stoop: It is only the touch of their hands that ***** - For the year's on the turn, and it's All Souls' night, When the dead can yearn and the dead can smite. III And where should a man bring his sweet to woo But here, where such hundreds were lovers too? Where lie the dead lips that thirst to kiss, The empty hands that their fellows miss, Where the maid and her lover, from sere to green, Sleep bed by bed, with the worm between? For it's turn of the year and All Souls' night, When the dead can hear and the dead have sight. IV And now that they rise and walk in the cold, Let us warm their blood and give youth to the old. Let them see us and hear us, and say: 'Ah, thus In the prime of the year it went with us!' Till their lips drawn close, and so long unkist, Forget they are mist that mingles with mist! For the year's on the turn, and it's All Souls' night, When the dead can burn and the dead can smite. V Till they say, as they hear us - poor dead, poor dead! - 'Just an hour of this, and our age-long bed - Just a thrill of the old remembered pains To kindle a flame in our frozen veins, Just a touch, and a sight, and a floating apart, As the chill of dawn strikes each phantom heart - For it's turn of the year and All Souls' night, When the dead can hear, and the dead have sight.' VI And where should the living feel alive But here in this wan white humming hive, As the moon wastes down, and the dawn turns cold, And one by one they creep back to the fold? And where should a man hold his mate and say: 'One more, one more, ere we go their way'? For the year's on the turn, and it's All Souls' night, When the living can learn by the churchyard light. VII And how should we break faith who have seen Those dead lips plight with the mist between, And how forget, who have seen how soon They lie thus chambered and cold to the moon? How scorn, how hate, how strive, we too, Who must do so soon as those others do? For it's All Souls' night, and break of the day, And behold, with the light the dead are away. . . .
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3k
All Souls
I A THIN moon faints in the sky o'erhead, And dumb in the churchyard lie the dead. Walk we not, Sweet, by garden ways, Where the late rose hangs and the phlox delays, But forth of the gate and down the road, Past the church and the yews, to their dim abode. For it's turn of the year and All Souls' night, When the dead can hear and the dead have sight. II Fear not that sound like wind in the trees: It is only their call that comes on the breeze; Fear not the shudder that seems to pass: It is only the tread of their feet on the grass; Fear not the drip of the bough as you stoop: It is only the touch of their hands that ***** - For the year's on the turn, and it's All Souls' night, When the dead can yearn and the dead can smite. III And where should a man bring his sweet to woo But here, where such hundreds were lovers too? Where lie the dead lips that thirst to kiss, The empty hands that their fellows miss, Where the maid and her lover, from sere to green, Sleep bed by bed, with the worm between? For it's turn of the year and All Souls' night, When the dead can hear and the dead have sight. IV And now that they rise and walk in the cold, Let us warm their blood and give youth to the old. Let them see us and hear us, and say: 'Ah, thus In the prime of the year it went with us!' Till their lips drawn close, and so long unkist, Forget they are mist that mingles with mist! For the year's on the turn, and it's All Souls' night, When the dead can burn and the dead can smite. V Till they say, as they hear us - poor dead, poor dead! - 'Just an hour of this, and our age-long bed - Just a thrill of the old remembered pains To kindle a flame in our frozen veins, Just a touch, and a sight, and a floating apart, As the chill of dawn strikes each phantom heart - For it's turn of the year and All Souls' night, When the dead can hear, and the dead have sight.' VI And where should the living feel alive But here in this wan white humming hive, As the moon wastes down, and the dawn turns cold, And one by one they creep back to the fold? And where should a man hold his mate and say: 'One more, one more, ere we go their way'? For the year's on the turn, and it's All Souls' night, When the living can learn by the churchyard light. VII And how should we break faith who have seen Those dead lips plight with the mist between, And how forget, who have seen how soon They lie thus chambered and cold to the moon? How scorn, how hate, how strive, we too, Who must do so soon as those others do? For it's All Souls' night, and break of the day, And behold, with the light the dead are away. . . .
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63
Raindrops collect in the cracks of the windowsill. Tears acrobat out of my almond eyes, My heart is a black flower crumbling in ashes. I would die a hundred times for my heart to meet yours. The wet magnolia petals in the churchyard root my weeping into the ground. Tylenols for the depths of fever, in sunrise of morning, my eyes are stained pink. Dreams of never-ending fall from atop a building, coming to you. Mist of pine-needles brush stone-carved grave beneath me, Whisper prayer to beloved on my knees, roses, daisies, marigolds in vase water the beauty of him.
0
Oct 27, 2012
Oct 27, 2012 at 11:42 PM UTC
Roses, dasies & marigolds
There was a Boy; ye knew him well, ye cliffs And islands of Winander! many a time, At evening, when the earliest stars began To move along the edges of the hills, Rising or setting, would he stand alone, Beneath the trees, or by the glimmering lake; And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth Uplifted, he, as through an instrument, Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls That they might answer him.—And they would shout Across the watery vale, and shout again, Responsive to his call,—with quivering peals, And long halloos, and screams, and echoes loud Redoubled and redoubled; concourse wild Of jocund din! And, when there came a pause Of silence such as baffled his best skill: Then, sometimes, in that silence, while he hung Listening, a gentle shock of mild surprise Has carried far into his heart the voice Of mountain-torrents; or the visible scene Would enter unawares into his mind With all its solemn imagery, its rocks, Its woods, and that uncertain heaven received Into the ***** of the steady lake. This boy was taken from his mates, and died In childhood, ere he was full twelve years old. Pre-eminent in beauty is the vale Where he was born and bred: the churchyard hangs Upon a slope above the village-school; And through that churchyard when my way has led On summer-evenings, I believe that there A long half-hour together I have stood Mute—looking at the grave in which he lies!
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2.6k
There Was A Boy
Old Meg she was a Gipsy, And liv'd upon the Moors: Her bed it was the brown heath turf, And her house was out of doors. Her apples were swart blackberries, Her currants pods o' broom; Her wine was dew of the wild white rose, Her book a churchyard tomb. Her Brothers were the craggy hills, Her Sisters larchen trees-- Alone with her great family She liv'd as she did please. No breakfast had she many a morn, No dinner many a noon, And 'stead of supper she would stare Full hard against the Moon. But every morn of woodbine fresh She made her garlanding, And every night the dark glen Yew She wove, and she would sing. And with her fingers old and brown She plaited Mats o' Rushes, And gave them to the Cottagers She met among the Bushes. Old Meg was brave as Margaret Queen And tall as Amazon: An old red blanket cloak she wore; A chip hat had she on. God rest her aged bones somewhere-- She died full long agone!
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2.3k
Meg Merrilies
When I share two or three days of the week to compose poetry I find myself on the exam session when severe merciless teachers ask us to write about “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard!” Elegies mostly are unprepared and never find time to turn to the appropriate types! They ask me on and on...and I ask them in the consulting area that how can we turn my blossomy song to elegies unwritten about the parish of those people, long time ago had been lost exactly on the exam time? How could you expect me to turn my naïve feeling to one of the catastrophic ones? > < > time is over time is up time is running time flies > < > Teachers shout, “ HURRY UP” when will they shut up?   I usually haunt by the bundle of words and circled with tumults of ideas as shining and variable as stars that like the savage river rush out to make me drowned. Very rarely I could find a way to breathe out. Elegies swirling randomly again and again to pose the question about whom shall we very soon defined, Mum?   >...O darlings...< …motionless corpse, wandering ghost, dead people around, >.. not stars..< >...O… no..<   Is there anybody nowadays to think about the “Country Churchyard” and elegies very appropriate to them at all, what a destiny! what a force! while a long time ago they were bestowed to the grand history of all mankind. O…no… Poor elegies remain unborn and sad in my thought…not forever… they laugh…and laugh…I can hear them, time is over and I’m a failure. < < < The blank sheet is going to be filled by songs wearing the long red robe of emotional loves or lust…they are tired of black mourning cloth of demise! they laugh and laugh and laugh since > < I 'm a murderer…tapping with dirk ….or strangling with a heavy rope of my heart….bloodshed everywhere: drops from my fingers to the height.  shout, scream and cry, they were innocent,  don' t want to die.  I can hear them. > < They are killed not to stay further in a cemetery of churchyard but to be born with a new style, either failure or corrupt…
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Jan 23, 2019
Jan 23, 2019 at 6:42 AM UTC
Elegy Written in Mourning of the Young Songs!
When I share two or three days of the week to compose poetry I find myself on the exam session when severe merciless teachers ask us to write about “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard!” Elegies mostly are unprepared and never find time to turn to the appropriate types! They ask me on and on...and I ask them in the consulting area that how can we turn my blossomy song to elegies unwritten about the parish of those people, long time ago had been lost exactly on the exam time? How could you expect me to turn my naïve feeling to one of the catastrophic ones? > < > time is over time is up time is running time flies > < > Teachers shout, “ HURRY UP” when will they shut up?   I usually haunt by the bundle of words and circled with tumults of ideas as shining and variable as stars that like the savage river rush out to make me drowned. Very rarely I could find a way to breathe out. Elegies swirling randomly again and again to pose the question about whom shall we very soon defined, Mum?   >...O darlings...< …motionless corpse, wandering ghost, dead people around, >.. not stars..< >...O… no..<   Is there anybody nowadays to think about the “Country Churchyard” and elegies very appropriate to them at all, what a destiny! what a force! while a long time ago they were bestowed to the grand history of all mankind. O…no… Poor elegies remain unborn and sad in my thought…not forever… they laugh…and laugh…I can hear them, time is over and I’m a failure. < < < The blank sheet is going to be filled by songs wearing the long red robe of emotional loves or lust…they are tired of black mourning cloth of demise! they laugh and laugh and laugh since > < I 'm a murderer…tapping with dirk ….or strangling with a heavy rope of my heart….bloodshed everywhere: drops from my fingers to the height.  shout, scream and cry, they were innocent,  don' t want to die.  I can hear them. > < They are killed not to stay further in a cemetery of churchyard but to be born with a new style, either failure or corrupt…
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40
A pregnant lass with eyes of glass has never learned to cope. Once set adrift her fall was swift, she slid a slipp’ry slope - She casts the Curse, the Holy Verse, and shoots a shot of dope, And stalks discreet Asylum Street her daily horoscope - The stray was struck by random truck which was her only hope. Well, Banjo Boy, with little joy, he strums her life entire: “The wayward waif was never safe; her stars were dark and dire. Born midst the rues and avenues where lack and want aspire Where no one heeds the childish needs that little ones require; Where faith survives in tempest lives, a swirl within the briar, Infinity grinds as time unwinds, until the winds expire. Her last caprice? The final peace that no one could deny her - Whipped by the flood, stray beads of blood are spattered on the spire; Though beads of sweat are cool and wet, cold clotted blood is dryer.” Though broken there, she’s fled the snare with dying thoughts serene. And now she’s dead, the rumours spread:  “her age? a sweet 16, With child, ***** her soul dyed red, her body so unclean.” A place is sought where she can rot, avoiding churchyard scenes, In limey pits, as well befits, behind forbidding screens; And all the while a dirge is styled on tattered tambourines Which echo through the human zoo in valleys of the Queens. Without rejoice, in hissing voice, near soil that’s seldom trod “In pious role, God bless my soul”, was mouthed with mitred nod, Neath scarlet trim with black, and grim, behind a robed facade - “She’ll burn in hell and sulphur smell”, spat Priest and man of god. Well, angels sweet with cloven feet, they sing in girl’s attire, But Banjo Boy, he’s playing coy while chanting in the choir: “The clueless search within the church to find what they desire - Beyond the nave, a gravelled grave, the final Rectifier” And when he’s through, without ado, he stacks some stones nearby her.
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May 31, 2013
May 31, 2013 at 8:07 AM UTC
A Pregnant Lass
A pregnant lass with eyes of glass has never learned to cope. Once set adrift her fall was swift, she slid a slipp’ry slope - She casts the Curse, the Holy Verse, and shoots a shot of dope, And stalks discreet Asylum Street her daily horoscope - The stray was struck by random truck which was her only hope. Well, Banjo Boy, with little joy, he strums her life entire: “The wayward waif was never safe; her stars were dark and dire. Born midst the rues and avenues where lack and want aspire Where no one heeds the childish needs that little ones require; Where faith survives in tempest lives, a swirl within the briar, Infinity grinds as time unwinds, until the winds expire. Her last caprice? The final peace that no one could deny her - Whipped by the flood, stray beads of blood are spattered on the spire; Though beads of sweat are cool and wet, cold clotted blood is dryer.” Though broken there, she’s fled the snare with dying thoughts serene. And now she’s dead, the rumours spread:  “her age? a sweet 16, With child, ***** her soul dyed red, her body so unclean.” A place is sought where she can rot, avoiding churchyard scenes, In limey pits, as well befits, behind forbidding screens; And all the while a dirge is styled on tattered tambourines Which echo through the human zoo in valleys of the Queens. Without rejoice, in hissing voice, near soil that’s seldom trod “In pious role, God bless my soul”, was mouthed with mitred nod, Neath scarlet trim with black, and grim, behind a robed facade - “She’ll burn in hell and sulphur smell”, spat Priest and man of god. Well, angels sweet with cloven feet, they sing in girl’s attire, But Banjo Boy, he’s playing coy while chanting in the choir: “The clueless search within the church to find what they desire - Beyond the nave, a gravelled grave, the final Rectifier” And when he’s through, without ado, he stacks some stones nearby her.
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30
Spot of my youth! whose hoary branches sigh, Swept by the breeze that fans thy cloudless sky; Where now alone I muse, who oft have trod, With those I loved, thy soft and verdant sod; With those who, scatter’d far, perchance deplore, Like me, the happy scenes they knew before: Oh! as I trace again thy winding hill, Mine eyes admire, my heart adores thee still, Thou drooping Elm! beneath whose boughs I lay, And frequent mus’d the twilight hours away; Where, as they once were wont, my limbs recline, But, ah! without the thoughts which then were mine: How do thy branches, moaning to the blast, Invite the ***** to recall the past, And seem to whisper, as they gently swell, “Take, while thou canst, a lingering, last farewell!” When Fate shall chill, at length, this fever’d breast, And calm its cares and passions into rest, Oft have I thought, ’twould soothe my dying hour,— If aught may soothe, when Life resigns her power,— To know some humbler grave, some narrow cell, Would hide my ***** where it lov’d to dwell; With this fond dream, methinks ’twere sweet to die— And here it linger’d, here my heart might lie; Here might I sleep where all my hopes arose, Scene of my youth, and couch of my repose; For ever stretch’d beneath this mantling shade, Press’d by the turf where once my childhood play’d; Wrapt by the soil that veils the spot I lov’d, Mix’d with the earth o’er which my footsteps mov’d; Blest by the tongues that charm’d my youthful ear, Mourn’d by the few my soul acknowledged here; Deplor’d by those in early days allied, And unremember’d by the world beside.
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2.2k
Lines Written Beneath An Elm In The Churchyard Of Harrow
Spot of my youth! whose hoary branches sigh, Swept by the breeze that fans thy cloudless sky; Where now alone I muse, who oft have trod, With those I loved, thy soft and verdant sod; With those who, scatter’d far, perchance deplore, Like me, the happy scenes they knew before: Oh! as I trace again thy winding hill, Mine eyes admire, my heart adores thee still, Thou drooping Elm! beneath whose boughs I lay, And frequent mus’d the twilight hours away; Where, as they once were wont, my limbs recline, But, ah! without the thoughts which then were mine: How do thy branches, moaning to the blast, Invite the ***** to recall the past, And seem to whisper, as they gently swell, “Take, while thou canst, a lingering, last farewell!” When Fate shall chill, at length, this fever’d breast, And calm its cares and passions into rest, Oft have I thought, ’twould soothe my dying hour,— If aught may soothe, when Life resigns her power,— To know some humbler grave, some narrow cell, Would hide my ***** where it lov’d to dwell; With this fond dream, methinks ’twere sweet to die— And here it linger’d, here my heart might lie; Here might I sleep where all my hopes arose, Scene of my youth, and couch of my repose; For ever stretch’d beneath this mantling shade, Press’d by the turf where once my childhood play’d; Wrapt by the soil that veils the spot I lov’d, Mix’d with the earth o’er which my footsteps mov’d; Blest by the tongues that charm’d my youthful ear, Mourn’d by the few my soul acknowledged here; Deplor’d by those in early days allied, And unremember’d by the world beside.
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34
I walk along beside you each and every day watching over what you do listening out for what you say Advice I try to give it and yet it goes unheard It's like I speak but you wont listen not even to a single word It's probably the same for all parents just like me it's hard to make children listen it's hard to make them see It hurts to know you cry at night as you go off to sleep to hear my daughter sobbing to see the tears she weeps If only you could talk to me I could help I'm sure you'd find But instead the words always the same "Hey Dad, oh, never mind" But now as you sit in the churchyard I hear you ask me why but no more words can you get out before you start to cry Why is it I'm so useless as you sit here all alone and shed tears at the graveside of... just who's name is on the stone! Oh my god it cant be true please say it isn't so Is the why that you were asking me why I had to go?
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Aug 1, 2010
Aug 1, 2010 at 12:15 PM UTC
Gone