Since so many people are returning to school, I thought perhaps poetry might come up in English/Lit classes. Would you like to share some of yours with us? I found this one in Kilaeil's Signature at TES, that's all I know about it.

~Kilaeil~

"...From the east comes a ship, Loke holds the oar
A demon army with swords that rip, shall join the final war
The army of the dead arrives, Heimdall blows his horn
Calling Gods out to die, before the world can be reborn..."

Maybe we should include favorite famous quotes as well, here's one of mine:

"Whatever does not kill us, only serves to make us stronger ..." Nietzsche = and I first became aware of this quote while watching the movie 'Conan' starring Arnold Swartzenegger.

Oooo! Poetry! Later on I'll post my poem I did in Creative Writing. Personally I didn't think it was spectacular or anything, but I guess my teacher really liked it since she gave me 98% on it. I'll post it later since it's on a different computer, I'm currently at work

As for quotes, most of the ones I like are usually found in music lyrics. You can see a few in my signature...

I also like goofy quotes. Heck, I was in the midst of creating a Word Document that just consisted of funny quotes from this one webcomic I read called 8-bit Theatre. Then I became more involved here at Chorrol, so I kinda got bored of that. Here's one of those from the top of my head:

"Mmmm paintchips and powerlines! My childhood rocks!" - Fighter

ee cummings' Nobody loses all the time

("And down went Uncle Sol- and started a worm farm.")

Rudyard Kipling- too many to count, but particularly Chant-Pagan:

"Me that 'ave been what I've been --
Me that 'ave gone where I've gone --
Me that 'ave seen what I've seen --"

I'm not a big fan of poetry by any stretch of the imagination, but if i had to choose a favourite poem it would be September 1913 by W. B. Yeats

In case any of you don't know it, here it is:

What need you, being come to sense,
But fumble in a greasy till
And add the halfpence to the pence
And prayer to shivering prayer, until
You have dried the marrow from the bone;
For men were born to pray and save;
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.

Yet they were of a different kind,
The names that stilled your childish play,
They have gone about the world like wind,
But little time had they to pray
For whom the hangman's rope was spun,
And what, God help us, could they save?
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.

Was it for this the wild geese spread
The grey wing upon every tide;
For this that all that blood was shed,
For this Edward Fitzgerald died,
And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone,
All that delirium of the brave?
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.

Yet could we turn the years again,
And call those exiles as they were
In all their loneliness and pain,
You'd cry `Some woman's yellow hair
Has maddened every mother's son':
They weighed so lightly what they gave.
But let them be, they're dead and gone,
They're with O'Leary in the grave.

But i'm not even all that fond of that one lol

Nice guys ... I figure everyone likes some kind of poetry - beit song lyrics perhaps. They are perfectly valid in this topic too. Metal Mallet, I look forward especially to reading your original poetry.

Here is the poem I had to memorize and recite in 5th grade ... complete with spreading my arms up and gesturing, pretending I was a tree:

Trees

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

by Joyce Kilmer.

Okay, I'm home now and have access to my poem. It's called No Respect.



You think of me just as an insignificant speck, don’t you?

Something just for you to carelessly step on every day.

You’re absolutely fine with that.

That just goes to show you how much respect I get.

I provide, I nurture, I create, and I shelter.

Yet I’m the subject of scorn from everyone.

At least your children understand me,

With their bright eyes and playful hands.

I could spend hours upon hours soaking up the sun with them,

Getting wet and reaping blissful havoc of the Great Outdoors.

Yet as soon as your sights lie on your precious little one spending time with me,

I end up battered, assaulted, and “cleansed” away.

No respect at all I tell ya.

The most spectacularly amusing part about it is that you don’t think I affect you.

Let me dish you the dirt.

I’m always with you.

Whether it is the collar of your shirt, or just the tiniest little cranny,

Like your nails, a wrinkle of skin, or a shoe bottom.

I’m hanging out there, violating your “cleanliness is next to godliness”.

I surround your home, heck, I could be the foundation of your home!

I mould your clay and purify your water.

Most significantly, I’m your eternal partner.

For there’s six feet of me embracing you for eternity once you die.



I'm not one to do rhymes so I basically wrote a free form poem. Hope you've enjoyed it.

I thought of one on my own (OMG, I'm in Eighth Grade, too!), but:

My name is Abu
I play a Kazoo
I live in a Canoe
I eat and I chew
I pee and I poo
And I like to go outside, too!

This I made up about my cat. Obviously, the part about the Kazoo and the Canoe are made up! Yes, I named myself after one of my cats.

Never again.

Huh? I don't get it- Why can't guys like cats and be cool at the same time? Kitties rule!

That's not what I meant, but what I did mean was still rude.

So I'm sorry.

Wow, some very interesting creative poems here ... I see why you got a good grade on that one TMM.

And I think it is very cool for guys to like cats ... after all .. tom cats rule the neighborhood! Have you ever noticed that it so often is a huge yellow striped tabby male tabby cat whose in charge of neighborhood cat life?

Power vested upon his paws
He respects none of the laws
He'll rule the world forever
. . . as soon as they invent paw-usable tin-opener!

A little (humoristic, at least I hope so) poem I came up with, now that we started to talk about cats...


. . . (Returns from the depths) anyway, here's another poem I've come up earlier, which has absolutely no rhymes.

Peaces to pieces
Is that all they can do?
We live the new age,
the golden age
And all they think is war
and destruction?

Hate and fear
Oil and gasoline
Is it worth the killing?

A creature of war, human
What does nature mean to a man?
Bugs and insects, dirt and mud
(Cycle of life, about to end)

Sky filled with clouds
Polluted and sick
Scorching the world with acid
And humanity battles itself

Peaces to pieces
Is that all we can do?
We live the new age,
the golden age
And all we think is war
and destruction?

But what can one man do? Nothing (everything)

If I must inflict my poetry on others, I will simply resurrect the following from the "Post Your Poetry" thread. It is "about" something that anyone who lives in the Southern U.S. should recognize.

Green Violence

Transplanted, as were our forebears
Finding new life in the red clay
A manic growth that holds us
In the summer heat
That draws us back when we wander

It softens and hides the shapes of
The hills, as our accent softens our words
And conceals the iron underneath
An explosion of green violence,
Overwhelming and unstoppable as our passions
Makes fantasy monsters of trees whose ancestors
Witnessed true monstrosity

It covers all equally-
The groundhog burrow and the slave shack
The Chevrolet Grandma and Grandpa drove to
Ringgold to get married
Not a native, yet inseparable from
Our image of ourselves
A part of us now,
That covers all, forgives all, grows as our
Children grow,
Not always as we wish, but as it must
Climbing too high, spreading too far, reaching through
The fences we build.

Yes of course treydog!! You are talking about the slow, insidious creeping Kudzew (sp?) invasion! That is what we call it here in Florida ... sounds phonetically like .. Could-zoo. I hate that stuff!

They had to totally tear up and clear and replant our favorite park here called Meade Gardens in Winter Park (it is one of the main features of the Winter Park Boat Tour because the boat canals cut all through it.) Poor Mead looks like an embarrassed Southern Belle stripped down to her bloomers because she fell ingraciously into the mud and Mammy has to relaunder all her finery and redo her hair, etc.

Of course Meade isn't the only place, just a worst example of what is happening all over when left unchecked. The worst thing about Kudzu is that it not only covers everything but shades out and kills everything below it until it kills the very trees that are supporting it and will itself fall to the earth and take over right over the grass itself. Gahhh!!!

We also had a strange vine doing the same thing on our cedar tree at our old studios that I used to constantly pull outa the cedar ... bright orange tiny squash looking fruit with intense shocking pink flesh that the birds ate and spread the seeds of all around....

So Anyway ... I really liked The Wolf's poem too = a real thinker

============
Here is one of my favorites ... I consider Jimmy Buffet to be quite a poet ... a non-thinker, singalong{

A Pirate Looks At Forty
By: Jimmy Buffett
Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call
Wanted to sail upon your waters since I was three feet tall
You've seen it all, you've seen it all

Watched the men who rode you switch from sails to steam
And in your belly you hold the treasures few have ever seen
Most of 'em dream, most of 'em dream

Yes I am a pirate, two hundred years too late
The cannons don't thunder, there's nothin' to plunder
I'm an over-forty victim of fate
Arriving too late, arriving too late

I've done a bit of smugglin', I've run my share of grass
I made enough money to buy Miami, but I pissed it away so fast
Never meant to last, never meant to last

And I have been drunk now for over two weeks
I passed out and I rallied and I sprung a few leaks
But I got stop wishin', got to go fishin'
Down to rock bottom again
Just a few friends, just a few friends

(instrumental)

I go for younger women, lived with several awhile
Though I ran 'em away, they'd come back one day
Still could manage to smile
Just takes a while, just takes a while

Mother, mother ocean, after all the years I've found
My occupational hazard being my occupation's just not around
I feel like I've drowned, gonna head uptown

Coda:
I feel like I've drowned, gonna head uptown

Quote:William Blake ("If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it truly is, infinite.") and from Aldous Huxley's book about psychedelic drugs, The Doors of Perception .... The Doors were named.