ATOT Poetry Thread

[Orsorum]

Doesn't matter how good or how bad, poetry is an art form, a method of expressing our innermost thoughts or our most banal idlings. I also believe that some of the best ways of divining our own thoughts are to read other peoples' poetry. Some of my favorites:

I Would Like to Describe
by Zbigniew Herbert

I would like to describe the simplest emotion
joy or sadness
but not as others do
reaching for shafts of rain or sun

I would like to describe a light
which is being born in me
but I know it does not resemble
any star
for it is not so bright
not so pure
and is uncertain

I would like to describe courage
without dragging behind me a dusty lion
and also anxiety
without shaking a glass full of water

to put it another way
I would give all metaphors
in return for one word
drawn out of my breast like a rib
for one word
contained within the boundaries
of my skin

but apparently this is not possible

and just to say - I love
I run around like mad
picking up handfuls of birds
and my tenderness
which after all is not made of water
asks the water for a face
and anger
different from fire
borrows from it
a loquacious tongue

so is blurred
so is blurred
in me
what white-haired gentlemen
separated once and for all
and said
this is the subject
and this is the object

we fall asleep
with once hand under our head
and with the other in a mound of planets

our feet abandon us
and taste the earth
with their tiny roots
which next morning
we tear out painfully

 

[Orsorum]

The Waking
by Theodore Roethke

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

 

[FoBoT]

Seventeen quick breaths
Sixteen men on dead man's chest
One pirate haiku

 

[CorCentral]

Ode to Bill

There's a guy who's name is O'Reilly
Who says if you want me to lie, well I'm sorry
But then again if I tried, I'd get the left on my side
Just to prove they are fuller of Blarney!

 

[darkxshade]

I was once a man
Until I stumbled upon this thread
Posted words of rhythm
And lost the card instead

 

[Farang]

The Raven as read by Christopher Walken

 

[oiprocs]

Uhh, my sig for now, until I grab my writing pad and type out what I wrote in that.

 

[oiprocs]

I'm sick of going to school with all these fools
Who mope around all day and don't use their brains as tools
The mind is way too cool to be mistreated and abused
They fancy the lives of others
It's Hollywood that they covet
They don't focus on real issues and so they aren't productive
How foolish of a society
Have we created it's probably
Karma for all the tragedy America has made happily
I stand before you saddened
Speaking what I've been seeing
More importantly what you're living
You don't know that you're sinning
Every day that you don't stand with me
Is reflective of how you fail to see
That our world is full of fallacies, malice and fucked up strategies

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Most poems rhyme
But this one doesn't

 

[Madwand1]

Hello, Hello Henry

My neighbor in the country, Henry Manley,
with a washpot warming on his woodstove,
with a heifer and two goats and yearly chickens,
has outlasted Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill
but something's stirring in him in his dotage.

Last fall he dug a hole and moved his privy
and a year ago in April reamed his well out.
When the country sent a truck and poles and cable,
his daddy ran the linemen off with birdshot
and swore he'd die by oil lamp, and did.

Now you tell me that all yesterday in Boston
you set your city phone at mine, and had it ringing
inside a dead apartment for three hours
room after empty room, to keep yours busy.
I hear it in my head, that ranting summons.

That must have been about the time that Henry
walked up two miles, shy as a girl come calling,
to tell me he has a phone now, 264, ring two.
It rang one time last week--wrong number.
He'd be pleased if one day I would think to call him.

Hello, hello Henry? Is that you?

- Maxine Kumin

 

[oiprocs]

I'm acting so damn crazy when I try to spit like Jay-Z
No emcee's pace can faze me for I refuse to be lazy
I only have so much time to send my message through my rhymes
To live a long life is fine as long as you're always on the grind
Whether it be chasing after dimes or turning pennies into dimes
All that's fine
It urks my soul I go berserk
To hear that slackers are at work
These stinking jerks are wasting life
Their every breath is death's delight
Some kids die young they had no chance
To even smile they set no plans
No holding hands with that special girl
No chance to learn lessons they deserve
No chance to grab a book and read about the world and history
The history of the humankind or how divine the sun does shine
Instead the hands were dealt for all
And death was on their calling card
They dialed up a terrible flight
In which there was no measurable light
Instead the darkness came despite
The fact that they had seen no light

 

[oiprocs]

America the terror
You laugh now but know better
When terror becomes hypocrisy
When used as a form of democracy
Michael Moore said it best
We the Sickos out in the west
'Cause we don't take care of our people
Our attempts at sympathy are feeble
What will it take to wake us up?
Why does it say In God We Trust
When really it means In Hate We Lust?

 

[oiprocs]

I'm a deadly emcee
Walking so deafly with ease
Rhyming so steadly so please
Don't hate that makes us enemies
What am I deadly you tease?
Well don't be fretful but see
When I step to the mic and let off a soundbite
I bring a crowd to its knees
I'm not a prophet like Jeeez-us
I'm an artist that neeeds-a
Good audience to feeel-the
Straight truth that I heeed-uh


Hahaha. Yeah. Got kinda lost with that one.

 

[SSSnail]

One time at night
Thirsty as hell so I gott up
Reaching for the flashlight
Fumbling around for my drinking cup
Instead grabbed the fleshlight
Next you guys know what's up...

 

[oiprocs]

Back in high school
We had one phone line
The internet was a nice tool
But I never had my time
My brother clogged the net all day
Age of Empires was his nightly stay
Curious was I to see
Where he spent his time daily
Popped in one afternoon
In and out of threads he zoomed
What is ATOT I asked?
And who just P-W-N'd your ass?
It's a forum he replied
Anyone can apply
And with that little invite
I began to lose sight
Of that thing known as life

 

[JJChicken]

Now I'm lost and I'm weary, so many tears
I'm suicidal, so don't stand near me
My every move is a calculated step, to bring me closer
to embrace an early death, now there's nothin left
There was no mercy on the streets, I couldn't rest
I'm barely standin, bout to go to pieces, screamin peace
And though my soul was deleted, I couldn't see it
I had my mind full of demons tryin to break free
They planted seeds and they hatched, sparkin the flame
inside my brain like a match, such a dirty game
No memories, just a misery
Paintin a picture of my enemies killin me, in my sleep
Will I survive til the mo'nin, to see the sun
Please Lord forgive me for my sins, cause here I come...

 

[pontifex]

i think the only "poetry" most ATOTers know is from rap songs.
posting a poetry thread in AT is like showing opera in prison.

 

[Modeps]

Poetry is rad
Time to get some coffee, dad.
Two creams, no sugar.

 

[Orsorum]

Originally posted by: pontifex
i think the only "poetry" most ATOTers know is from rap songs.
posting a poetry thread in AT is like showing opera in prison.

This is somewhat akin to the opera scene in the Shawshank Redemption.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Orsorum

Originally posted by: pontifex
i think the only "poetry" most ATOTers know is from rap songs.
posting a poetry thread in AT is like showing opera in prison.

This is somewhat akin to the opera scene in the Shawshank Redemption.

I haven't seen Shawshank Redemption. How is it like that?

 

[kranky]

Fight, claw, battle, rage
There is no peace on this earthly stage
There is no joy in this golden cage
And everyone seems fake.

Tired, weak, jaded, bored
We worship tedium as our lord
We use routine to tame the horde
And yet our spirits ache.

Look, hear and understand
It might not be the life we planned
It might not be a Disneyland
But inner peace is at our command
It's something we must take.

 

[manowar821]

Chimely Chime Cho

Whipple dick qweems

Interestedly yours,

The Internat

 

[imported_yovonbishop]

These are my fiance's spur of the moment rants and rhymes:

Nickles

I've got five cents
Eleven dollars
Saved for years
Spent in hours


Ode to the Coot

O ye, information purveyor
Can't grasp the notion
We won't do it now
We'll just do it later

Thoughts flow from your quill
Ink streams from your mind
But it's in the wrong place
For you, sillly old coot
Can't pen in cyberspace

Nor evaluate our prose
Or judge our persons
Because, you've no clue
How much this class blows

Arbitrary this
And arbitrarily that
Don't point the finger
You're stupid,
old twat.


{Untitled}
While not puffing gently on my pipe, whilst adjusting my monocle introspectively, I gently rest myself against a velvet chair and peruse the prose of the greatest human beings the world has ever known; slightly ajar at the utter awe which fills my heart and warms the cockles of my soul, line by line.



The last one isn't quite a poem, but I liked it. The last two on here were ones he wrote trying to express how much he hated one of our poetry classes in college. I thought these were entertaining.

 

[manowar821]

Originally posted by: yovonbishop
These are my fiance's spur of the moment rants and rhymes:

Nickles

I've got five cents
Eleven dollars
Saved for years
Spent in hours


Ode to the Coot

O ye, information purveyor
Can't grasp the notion
We won't do it now
We'll just do it later

Thoughts flow from your quill
Ink streams from your mind
But it's in the wrong place
For you, sillly old coot
Can't pen in cyberspace

Nor evaluate our prose
Or judge our persons
Because, you've no clue
How much this class blows

Arbitrary this
And arbitrarily that
Don't point the finger
You're stupid,
old twat.


{Untitled}
While not puffing gently on my pipe, whilst adjusting my monocle introspectively, I gently rest myself against a velvet chair and peruse the prose of the greatest human beings the world has ever known; slightly ajar at the utter awe which fills my heart and warms the cockles of my soul, line by line.



The last one isn't quite a poem, but I liked it. The last two on here were ones he wrote trying to express how much he hated one of our poetry classes in college. I thought these were entertaining.

I LOVE that second one.

 

[imported_yovonbishop]

Originally posted by: manowar821

Originally posted by: yovonbishop
These are my fiance's spur of the moment rants and rhymes:

Nickles

I've got five cents
Eleven dollars
Saved for years
Spent in hours


Ode to the Coot

O ye, information purveyor
Can't grasp the notion
We won't do it now
We'll just do it later

Thoughts flow from your quill
Ink streams from your mind
But it's in the wrong place
For you, sillly old coot
Can't pen in cyberspace

Nor evaluate our prose
Or judge our persons
Because, you've no clue
How much this class blows

Arbitrary this
And arbitrarily that
Don't point the finger
You're stupid,
old twat.


{Untitled}
While not puffing gently on my pipe, whilst adjusting my monocle introspectively, I gently rest myself against a velvet chair and peruse the prose of the greatest human beings the world has ever known; slightly ajar at the utter awe which fills my heart and warms the cockles of my soul, line by line.



The last one isn't quite a poem, but I liked it. The last two on here were ones he wrote trying to express how much he hated one of our poetry classes in college. I thought these were entertaining.

I LOVE that second one.

Haha, I know. I thought it was awesome for him coming up with it in less than 5 minutes out of sheer spite for our poetry professor