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Posting this early so I don’t forget on New Year’s.
Here it is, y’all; The Poetry Challenge Topic. Any and All are welcome to join.
Challenge: Read one poem a day for the month of January.
- Psalms work if you can’t find or don’t have time for anything else.
- If you miss a day, no stress. The point is to develop a stronger relationship with word-craft, not dump extra stress into anyone’s life.
- Whenever you join the challenge, go ahead and post a list of your favorite poets or poems here, if you’d like to share. That way no one has to scramble around to try and find something decent to read.
- Technically the challenge starts January First, but if anyone wants to jump in earlier–or later–that’s perfectly fine too.
*Blows whistle* Have at it, y’all!
A cup of tea is cheaper than therapy.
*Commenting so I come back to this*
I am out of signature ideas
Since I’m being forced to write poetry, (which is horrid) I may as well read it, (which is fun).
?For our Blessed Lady's sake, bring us in good ale!?
Been relying on psalms for the last few days of chaos, but at last, I’ve made it here to post a favorite poet and couple poems.
The Late Passenger – C. S. Lewis
The sky was low, the sounding rain was falling dense and dark, // And Noah’s sons were standing at the Window of the Ark.
The beasts were in, but Japhet said, ‘I see one creature more // Belated and unmated there come knocking at the door.’
‘Well let him knock,’ said Ham, ‘Or let him drown or learn to swim. // We’re overcrowded as it is; We’ve got no room for him.’
‘And yet it knocks, how terribly it knocks.’ said Shem, ‘It’s feet // Are hard as horn–but oh the air that comes from it is sweet.’
‘Now hush,’ said Ham, ‘You’ll waken Dad, and once he comes to see // What’s at the door is sure to mean more work for you and me.’
Noah’s voice came roaring from the darkness down below, // ‘Some animal is knocking. Take it in before we go.”
Ham shouted back, and savagely he nudged the other two, // ‘That’s only Japhet knocking down a brad-nail in his shoe.’
Said Noah, ‘Boys, I hear a noise that’s like a horse’s hoof.’ // Said Ham, ‘Why, that’s the dreadful rain that drums upon the roof.’
Noah tumbled up on deck and out he put his head; // His face went grey; his knees were loosed, he tore his beard and said,
‘Look, look! It would not wait. It turns away. It takes its flight. // Fine work you’ve made of it, my sons, between you all to-night!
‘Even if I could outrun it now, it would not turn again // –Not now. Our great discourtesy has earned its high disdain.
‘Oh noble and unmated beast, my sons were all unkind; // In such a night what stable and what manger will you find?
‘Oh golden hoofs, oh cateracts of mane, oh nostrils wide // With indignation! Oh the neck wave-arched, the lovely pride!
‘Oh long shall be the furrows ploughed across the hearts of men // Before it comes to stable and to manger once again,
‘And dark and crooked all the ways in which our race shall walk, // And shrivelled all their manhood like a flower with broken stalk,
‘And all the world, oh Ham, may curse the hour you were born; // Because of you the Ark must sail without the Unicorn.’
A cup of tea is cheaper than therapy.
The Saboteuse — C. S. Lewis
Pity hides in the wood,
The years and tides,
The earth, the bare moon,
Death and birth,
The freezing skies, the sun
and the populous seas
Against her, one and all,
Are furiously incensed.
They have clashed spears to drown
The noise of her tears;
They whetted swords. Still
They cannot forget.
Her faint noise in the wood
Destroys all,
A soul-tormenting treason
Threatening revolt.
They beat with clamorous gongs
And din with hammers.
To stun so light a noise.
They fear if once
Pity were heard aloud
In the strong city,
Topless towers would fall,
Engines stop.
Horribly alarmed, they have levied
Their war and armed
All natural things against her.
From horns and stings,
Mandibles, claws, paws
And the human hand,
From suns and ice, like a deer
Pity runs;
Lest, if she went in peace,
While they slept,
(So they believe) the slow-
Descending stream
Would grow to a pool, spread,
Widen and overflow
And creep forth from the wood,
Grown strong and deep.
And they would wake at morning
And find a lake
Lapping against their walls,
Mining, sapping,
Patiently eating away
The strong foundations
Of the towers of pain, rising
An inch in an hour;
Till the compassionate water
Would ripple and plash
Far overhead, and the Powers
Lay drowned and dead
Below, sharing the dark
With shark and squid
And the forgotten shapes
Of rotting wheels.
Therefore they woke destruction
Against her and invoked
The Needs of the Sum of Things
And the Coming Race
And the Claims of Order – oh all
The holiest names
Known in our hearts. They even
Included her own.
A cup of tea is cheaper than therapy.
One of my favorite poems!!! ??
Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes
By Thomas Gray
’Twas on a lofty vase’s side,
Where China’s gayest art had dyed
The azure flowers that blow;
Demurest of the tabby kind,
The pensive Selima, reclined,
Gazed on the lake below.
Her conscious tail her joy declared;
The fair round face, the snowy beard,
The velvet of her paws,
Her coat, that with the tortoise vies,
Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes,
She saw; and purred applause.
Still had she gazed; but ’midst the tide
Two angel forms were seen to glide,
The genii of the stream;
Their scaly armour’s Tyrian hue
Through richest purple to the view
Betrayed a golden gleam.
The hapless nymph with wonder saw;
A whisker first and then a claw,
With many an ardent wish,
She stretched in vain to reach the prize.
What female heart can gold despise?
What cat’s averse to fish?
Presumptuous maid! with looks intent
Again she stretch’d, again she bent,
Nor knew the gulf between.
(Malignant Fate sat by, and smiled)
The slippery verge her feet beguiled,
She tumbled headlong in.
Eight times emerging from the flood
She mewed to every watery god,
Some speedy aid to send.
No dolphin came, no Nereid stirred;
Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heard;
A Favourite has no friend!
From hence, ye beauties, undeceived,
Know, one false step is ne’er retrieved,
And be with caution bold.
Not all that tempts your wandering eyes
And heedless hearts, is lawful prize;
Nor all that glisters, gold.
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