Wednesday, 9 February 2011

John Donne knew how to write a love poem


Busy old fool, unruly Sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
Late schoolboys, and sour prentices,
Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride,
Call country ants to harvest offices,
Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
Thy beams, so reverend and strong
Why shouldst thou think?
I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,
But that I would not lose her sight so long:
If her eyes have not blinded thine,
Look, and tomorrow late, tell me
Whether both the'Indias of spice and mine
Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with me.
Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,
And thou shalt hear: "All here in one bed lay."

She'is all states, and all princes I,
Nothing else is.
Princes do but play us; compar'd to this,
All honour's mimic, all wealth alchemy.
Thou, sun, art half as happy'as we,
In that the world's contracted thus;
Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
To warm the world, that's done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere.

Monday, 7 February 2011

Queen poem

Catharine Howard 1525 –1542



Before I arrived at court
I had to darn my dresses.
Now the King desires
To posses me, I am given
The very best velvet to cover
My plump limbs.

Rubies, sapphires to wind
Around my neck,
And pearls to hang from my
Pretty white ear lobes.
The King whispers how
He is hard for me.

His breath smells of rotten meat,
His vast bulk repulses me.
He places a golden
Circlet on my auburn hair,
I allow him to grope my breasts.
A diamond ring; his hands
Bruise my thighs.

My family control this.
Grasping power as I satisfy
The royal bull.
A wisp of a Queen.
Pulled like sheer cloth,
Tenuously keeping all
Contented.

How I long for youth;
Smooth skinned young
Men to caress and love
Me until I become liquid.
So all I can see is light
And I forget the King.

Friday, 4 February 2011

At the heart of the ridiculous, the sublime

I recently wrote a poem about an Iglu and have been thinking about snow and surviving in that hostile environment. I then read The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge and I thought it was a wonderful book. It evoked Scott and his party at the Antarctic to me in such a vivid way. I was flicking through a poetry anthology and found this excellent villanelle by Derek Mahon, the refrain and Oates last words keep running through my mind. I keep thinking of Oates and Birdie, the brave but foolish mission. How beautiful the Aurora must have been, overlooking the tragic frozen death.


Captain Lawrence Oates

Antarctica - Derek Mahon

‘I am just going outside and may be some time.’
The others nod, pretending not to know.
At the heart of the ridiculous, the sublime.

He leaves them reading and begins to climb,
goading his ghost into the howling snow;
He is just going outside and may be some time.

The tent recedes beneath its crust of rime
And frostbite is replaced by vertigo:
At the heart of the ridiculous, the sublime.

Need we consider it some sort of crime,
This numb self-sacrifice of the weakest? No,
He is just going outside and may be some time –

In fact, for ever. Solitary enzyme,
Though the night yield no glimmer there will glow,
At the heart of the ridiculous, the sublime.

He takes leave of the earthly pantomime
Quietly, knowing it is time to go:
‘I am just going outside and may be some time.’
At the heart of the ridiculous, the sublime.

Oates with the ponies he was in charge of caring for.

Next poetry event in worcester city

poetry at parole parlate: worcester

I heard this guy last night, he is a really, really great poet. Such sensitive/brutal poetry, makes the listener pay attention, his name is Ray Antrobus: check him out here

Thursday, 3 February 2011

lightness of being and the unbearableness thereof

Not lacking in ego, just my body feels like it takes up very little space in this world today. Shadows weigh nothing at all and are painful. I feel like I will float away if given a good push. Dandelion clock. Bones are lacking in substance. The boys run around me and I strive to make them hear me. Maybe I have lost my voice and no sound is coming out?

Tuesday, 1 February 2011

love

Burning with desire, even the children notice the cut in the air and sense the unsaid meaning in everyday conversation. Parents have to remember they are lovers sometimes.