Fun Stuff > ENJOY
Post a favorite poem!
VonKleist:
The Shot, Adrian Naef
I hit the paper-basket
lying down in bed
from a distance of 4 meters
elegant
with a flat arc
It was a so-so poem
But a day
like no other in a long time
pwhodges:
At a solemn Musick
An ode by John Milton (1608-1674).
(Modernised spellings.)
Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of heaven’s joy,
Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse,
Wed your divine sounds, and mixt power employ,
Dead things with inbreathed sense able to pierce.
And to our high-raised phantasy present
That undisturbed song of pure concent*,
Aye sung before the sapphire-coloured throne
To him that sits thereon,
With saintly shout and solemn jubilee;
Where the bright Seraphim, in burning row,
Their loud, uplifted angel-trumpets blow,
And the Cherubic host in thousand quires,
Touch their immortal harps of golden wires,
With those just Spirits that wear victorious palms,
Hymns devout and holy psalms
Singing everlastingly;
That we on Earth with undiscording voice
May rightly answer that melodious noise;
As once we did, till disproportioned sin
Jarred against nature’s chime, and with harsh din
Broke the fair music that all creatures made
To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed
In perfect diapason†, whilst they stood
In first obedience, and their state of good.
O may we soon again renew that song
And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long
To His celestial concert us unite,
To live with Him, and sing in endless morn of light.
* Milton originally wrote ‘content’; but ‘concent’ is a later reading (often misprinted as ‘consent’, a different word) meaning harmony or concord of sounds, and thus more appropriate here and maybe what was intended.
† ‘Diapason’ is a word of vague meaning relating to the complete range of notes and harmony. Sigmund Spaeth wrote of this passage: “Diapason represents the harmony between Heaven and Earth as consisting of the interval of the octave, in other words, the most perfect concord excepting the unison”.
The words describe how music can produce a religious rapture in the listener, perhaps even harking back to a performance attended by Milton himself. The Sirens (taken from Plato’s Republic) moved the spheres on which heavenly bodies sat, producing music; Voice here represents this natural ‘music of the spheres’, and Verse represents the heavenly order symbolised by the angelic choirs.
Hairy Joe Bob:
What a lovely thread. I've got too many favourites to count but I've recently been reading (and listening to) Murray Lachlan Young. This is definitely my favourite of his.
Simply Everyone's Taking Cocaine
From Mayfair to Morden from Soho to Sidcup
From Richmond to Dalston through old Regents park
From Borough to Bayswater, Crouchend to Clapham.
From Debden to Tooting beneath Marble arch.
There are daughters of ministers children of clergy
There are amiable honarables barristers verging
On every single section of today’s society
Have thrown figs to the wind and embraced with such glee
The most wonderful pastime to have come around in years
Yes policemen and plumbers road sweepers and peers
Simply everyone’s taking Cocaine
Well last weekend I rode the Millennium wheel
From above and beneath I heard giggle and squeal
For instead of enjoying fine views all about
All the tourists were busily racking them out
Even those from the west of Ukraine
Simply everyone’s taking Cocaine
In the marathon runners are running with glee
With a vigour quite plain for spectators to see
It’s a marvel how thousands have slashed at their times
By at regular intervals hoofing a line
They’ve been stoking it up like a train
Simply everyone’s taking cocaine
Well I saw a young fireman helmet in hand
With a placard declaring we need thirty grand.
When I asked him to justify such an increase
He said “we have to buy it unlike the police”
Then he left for his villa in Spain
Saying everyone’s taking cocaine
Well I saw fizzy Sipworth attempting to eat
Inexplicably missing the most of her teeth
I said Fizzy your gummy what gives you old wag
She said “snorting Peruvian from the pound bag”
Then she laughed like a Portuguese drain
Simply everyone’s taking cocaine
Well I saw aunty Millie, her nose in a cast
I asked how would she manage her hourly blast
“She said needs must dear boy though it may seem a farce
I’ve been having it blown up the old Khyber Pass
By an elderly friend from Bahrain”
Simply everyone’s taking Cocaine
Uncle Percy set off on his great expedition
I said Percy you look in the peek of condition
“Quite so dear boy I’m a jack in the box
Since I purchased a sack of Bolivian rocks
From a couple I met on a plane ”
Simply everyone’s taking Cocaine
In the jungle old Percy’s supply was near done
He said this lack of chang is impeding my fun
When a barer discovered the wreck of a plane
Fairly stuffed to the gunnels with bales of Cocaine
For a year did he chatter and gurn
His remains were returned in an urn
Well the vicar proclaimed it the poorest of taste
To be scattering ashes all over the place
And if as he suspected, the powder were pure
“We should snort the old goat off the rectory floor”
So he chopped out old Percy in lines
Well at first aunty Millie declined
But she quickly gave in when the reverend stepped in
And assured her that Percy would waggle his chin
If he heard that his very last blast
Was a trip up the old Khyber Pass?
Then we all shouted hip hip hooray
Simply everyone’s taking Cocaine
For bus drivers are tooting it
Jockey’s are hoofing it
DJ’s are spinning it
Gamblers winning it
Forces manoeuvring it
Cleaners are hoovering it
Models are booked on it
Anglers hooked on it
Pensioners drawing it
Footballers scoring it
Technicians miking it
PA’s are biking it
Producers are trying it
AnR men denying it
Publishers collecting it
Lawyers protecting it
Artists are begging it
Some of them pegging it
It seems like it’s simple there’s no one to blame
For the whole of this nation is taking Cocaine
Simply everyone’s taking Cocaine
Oh how gay it all seems and how bright we all are
How much fun we are having and Oh what a lark
To have blistering jousting and sharp repartee
Oh please less less, less, about you
And please more, more, more, about me
And here he is performing it. Hilarious! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EZJUS72CWQ
Also, a John Hegley one: Pat
I said Pat
you are fat
and you are cataclysmically desirable
and to think I used to think
that slim was where it's at
well not any more Pat
you've changed that
and love yourself
and flatter yourself
and shatter their narrow image of the erotic
and Pat said
what do you mean FAT?
Rose:
Some great picks in this thread. My favorite poem is "I know a man" by Robert Creeley. It's best when he would read it out loud, I heard it on NPR and stopped my car to listen. That good.
"As I sd to my
friend, because I am
always talking,—John, I
sd, which was not his
name, the darkness sur-
rounds us, what
can we do against
it, or else, shall we &
why not, buy a goddamn big car,
drive, he sd, for
christ’s sake, look
out where yr going.
jwhouk:
Not necessarily a favorite, but a recent "discovery":
Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again.
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