poems unforgota

When a Woman Loves a Man
by David Lehman
When she says margarita she means daiquiri.
When she says quixotic she means mercurial.
And when she says, "I'll never speak to you again,"
she means, "Put your arms around me from behind
as I stand disconsolate at the window."
He's supposed to know that.
When a man loves a woman he is in New York and she is in Virginia
or he is in Boston, writing, and she is in New York, reading,
or she is wearing a sweater and sunglasses in Balboa Park and he
is raking leaves in Ithaca
or he is driving to East Hampton and she is standing disconsolate
at the window overlooking the bay
where a regatta of many-colored sails is going on
while he is stuck in traffic on the Long Island Expressway.
When a woman loves a man it is one ten in the morning
she is asleep he is watching the ball scores and eating pretzels
drinking lemonade
and two hours later he wakes up and staggers into bed
where she remains asleep and very warm.
When she says tomorrow she means in three or four weeks.
When she says, "We're talking about me now,"
he stops talking. Her best friend comes over and says,
"Did somebody die?"
When a woman loves a man, they have gone
to swim naked in the stream
on a glorious July day
with the sound of the waterfall like a chuckle
of water rushing over smooth rocks,
and there is nothing alien in the universe.
Ripe apples fall about them.
What else can they do but eat?
When he says, "Ours is a transitional era,"
"that's very original of you," she replies,
dry as the martini he is sipping.
They fight all the time
It's fun
What do I owe you?
Let's start with an apology
Ok, I'm sorry, you dickhead.
A sign is held up saying "Laughter."
It's a silent picture.
"I've been fucked without a kiss," she says,
"and you can quote me on that,"
which sounds great in an English accent.
One year they broke up seven times and threatened to do it
another nine times.
When a woman loves a man, she wants him to meet her at the
airport in a foreign country with a jeep.
When a man loves a woman he's there. He doesn't complain that
she's two hours late
and there's nothing in the refrigerator.
When a woman loves a man, she wants to stay awake.
She's like a child crying
at nightfall because she didn't want the day to end.
When a man loves a woman, he watches her sleep, thinking:
as midnight to the moon is sleep to the beloved.
A thousand fireflies wink at him.
The frogs sound like the string section
of the orchestra warming up.
The stars dangle down like earrings the shape of grapes.
posted by sarfun, 7:55 AM | link | 1 comments |
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somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
by E. E. Cummings
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look will easily unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose
or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands
posted by sarfun, 7:50 AM | link | 0 comments |
How Do I Love Thee?

How Do I Love Thee?
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
posted by sarfun, 7:49 AM | link | 0 comments |
posted by sarfun, 7:48 AM | link | 0 comments |
Poems for Weddings

Poems for Weddings
The "blessed bond of board and bed" is how Shakespeare once described marriage. "It is leviathan," wrote Denise Levertov on the same subject, "and we in its belly looking for joy." Or frantic Gregory Corso, imagining his own nervous wedding, described it this way:
I kiss the bride all those corny men slapping me on the backShe's all yours, boy! Ha-ha-ha! And in their eyes you could see some obscene honeymoon going on--Then all that absurd rice and clanky cans and shoesNiagara Falls! Hordes of us! Husbands! Wives! Flowers! Chocolates!
What occasion calls for poetry--or inspires the writing of poetry--more than a wedding? Indeed, there is a long and rich tradition linking poetry to the marriage ceremony, beginning with the Greeks, who invented a form known as the epithalamium. This was a song in praise of the bride and bridegroom, sung at the door of the nuptial chamber on the wedding night. The song blessed the couple and predicted their happiness, often alluding to various nymphs, gods, and goddesses. The epithalamium was employed as a literary form for the first time by Sappho, who wrote:
Raise up the roof-tree--a wedding song! High up, carpenters--a wedding song! The bridegroom is coming, the equal of Ares, much bigger than a big man.
The form was popular with Roman writers such as Ovid, Catullus, and Claudian, but it was lost until the Renaissance, when it was revived by poets like Edmund Spenser, John Donne, Ben Jonson, Pierre Ronsard, and Torquato Tasso. Spenser's "Epithalamion" is among the finest examples of English wedding poems. Written for the author's own wedding, the poem consists of 23 stanzas meant to represent each hour of the wedding day.
posted by sarfun, 7:47 AM | link | 0 comments |
JESUS WORD'S
We Don't Have To Feel Bad
From a "New Age" perspective:
Sometimes we slip into "always" or "never" attitudes, where things seem black or white ("never" grey) and we are either high on the wings of hope or deep in the gulf of hopelessness. Beware! If you find yourself thinking something "always" or "never" happens, it cannot be true. Yet the certainty of "always" is preferred because it does away with the anxiety of uncertainty. Remember that uncertainty is movement and change .... the very stuff and source of creativity. Embrace the uncertainty and watch the anxiety melt away. — Linda Peterson at Life By Design.

By changing your thinking,
You change your beliefs;
When you change your beliefs,
You change your expectations;
When you change your expectations,
You change your attitude;
When you change your attitude,
You change your behavior;
When you change your behavior,
You change your performance;
When you change your performance;
You Change Your Life!
— Stuart Levy

I don't have to think/feel ...
because ...

I'm too tired
Jesus Christ said “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I can't go on
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.“ Therefore, “boast all the more gladly” about your weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on you.

I'm not smart enough
“Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God's grace.”

I'm not able
“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”“We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.”

I'm not getting better
“He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

I can't compete
“If God be for me, who can be against me.”

I'm all alone
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” —Deuteronomy 31:6 and Hebrews 13:5 “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

I don't know what to do
“A man's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way?” Proverbs 20:24 “God gives wisdom to all men generously and without reproach who ask Him for it.”

I feel trapped
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” 1Corinthians 3:17 and “It was for freedom that Christ set me free.”

I can't stand it
“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

I never get a break
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, who have been called according to his purpose.”

I'm afraid
“God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, and love and a sound mind.” 2nd Timothy 1:7 “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.”

I'm worried
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7 “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

It's impossible
“What is impossible with men is possible with God.”

I have lost everything
Christ will “provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.”

I don't have enough faith
“think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” I am a failure “In all things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”

I'm not strong enough
“The Lord is the strength of my life.” —Psalm 27:1 “Though the fig tree should not blossom, And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail, And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold, And there be no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord GOD is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds' feet, And makes me walk on my high places.”

People are getting away with murder
“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense everyone according to his deeds.”

I can't forgive myself
“There is no condemnation for those who love God and are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:1 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

I am useless
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.”

Nobody loves me
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

There is no hope for me
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.”

My Tears
By Prince


Let my tears flow like the river
And Let my heart ache
I will write an elegy of suffering
I am lost and broken lover.

Let the heart break
Let my ribs break into parts
Who cares, let my body grow numb
And Let me lie among the deads.

Let the storm blow
Let the sea waves wash me away
Let the eagle pick my eyes
And let the hyenas tears me apart
What is life without you?

Let me be graved into the bog
Where my bones and flesh will rot
Let my veins never carry blood
And Let my eyes be plucked up
I don’t want to live this life.

Woe, Woe to me
That I love
Woe to me that I gave my heart
Woe to me that I am born
And I am down and broken?

Oh love! Precious love!
Don’t mock at my downfall
Enjoy and Enjoy clap your hands
For you know not my body and mind groans
For the lost love,


Be in peace, be in love
Let me be reject and lost
Never will I come to your door
With my begging bowl
Be in peace my loveThough I suffer in this painful sore.
posted by sarfun, 10:41 PM | link | 0 comments |
Live your life like the wind
Live your life like the wind.
Speed up when necessary,
And know when to slow down.
Slow down when life pushes so hard and fast,
You cannot consume anymore air.
Slow down when you can't see
Where you're going Or where
you're coming from.
Take time to stop and realize
What you have right in front of you
When you cannot find what you're looking for.
When you cannot find what you want in someone else,
Look inside of yourself.
Don't sweat the small things,
And make the best of the big things.
Cherish the experiences you've had,
And use the lessons you've learned.
Our lives are rubber bands,
Bending and stretching to fit
Even the most awkward situations.
You can adapt to anything,
Regardless of its size or shape.
You just have to realize and use
What you have in your own hands.