Favourite Poems

[mouse007]

Here's a place to share your favourite poems or ones that have touched you.

 

A personal favourite is Lang Leav so I'll start by sharing a couple of hers.

 

The One

 

I don't want you to love me because I'm good for you,

because I say and do all the right things. Because I am

everything you have been looking for.

 

I want to be the one you didn't see coming. The one who gets

under your skin. Who makes you unsteady. Who makes you

question everything you have ever believed about love. I 

want to be the one who makes you feel reckless and out of

control; the one you are infuriatingly and inexplicably

drawn to.

 

I don't want to be the one who tucks you into bed; I want to

be the reason why you can't sleep at night.

 

At Last

 

Love looks pretty on you. Makes you soft, tender, proud.

Makes you sit up and take notice. Gives you a home to set

down your things.

 

What a blessing it is, to have music and dancing and

poetry. What a gift it is, to look at someone and say,

 

I'm so happy to have found you -- at last, at last, at long,

long last -- you're here.

 

 

[Lmangla]

am not really a poem person but when I first heard this one, I loved it. maybe because it reflected a cynicism as well as a kind of wonder that is hard to describe but I could really relate to....

 

Love is Not All (Sonnet XXX) by Edna St. Vincent Millay

 

Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink

Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;

Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink

And rise and sink and rise and sink again;

Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,

Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;

Yet many a man is making friends with death

Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.

It well may be that in a difficult hour,

Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,

Or nagged by want past resolution’s power,

I might be driven to sell your love for peace,

Or trade the memory of this night for food.

It well may be. I do not think I would.

[Lmangla]

1 hour ago, Lawyerh said:

@Lmangla Interesting poem.

 

Indeed love can't even satisfy hunger. But still the lost of love can drive people nuts as well. 

yea thats what made the poem very striking for me. even liked the cynicism where the writer says they might trade love for food -- and that does happen. for practical reasons, people sometimes reject love but we would like to think that we would choose love. guess the poem really shows that we want practical comforts but we also ache for love which sometimes isn't that practical at all...

[mouse007]

5 hours ago, Lmangla said:

yea thats what made the poem very striking for me. even liked the cynicism where the writer says they might trade love for food -- and that does happen. for practical reasons, people sometimes reject love but we would like to think that we would choose love. guess the poem really shows that we want practical comforts but we also ache for love which sometimes isn't that practical at all...

 

Interesting poem. To me, this line resonated the most: "Love is not all"

 

Like I think the writer was saying that so many people pine after love and make finding it their ultimate goal in life. But it's not everything in life and even with an abundance of love, one can go hungry or homeless or destitute. It's kinda like a sobering reminder that Love isn't the be all, end all. It takes more than love to survive.

 

[Lmangla]

12 hours ago, mouse007 said:

 

Interesting poem. To me, this line resonated the most: "Love is not all"

 

Like I think the writer was saying that so many people pine after love and make finding it their ultimate goal in life. But it's not everything in life and even with an abundance of love, one can go hungry or homeless or destitute. It's kinda like a sobering reminder that Love isn't the be all, end all. It takes more than love to survive.

 

you know I didn't read this poem in a book. I actually heard it in an interview. so there was this show that I used to watch and the channel did a spotlight on the actress that played the mom character. so the interview was a short one. maybe 10 minutes max?

 

anyway, in regards to a question (maybe it was about her personal life?? don't remember), she said "let me answer this with a poem I love". I was expecting to totally zone out at this point but then she started "love is not all" and I was hooked.. it wasn't just the great voice and delivery but it was like she used her life experience to reflect in those words and you could hear it..

 

so I wanted to know where this poem was from and on a whim, actually wrote to the channel saying I really enjoyed the interview and was curious where this poem was from. to my surprise, they actually emailed back a few weeks later with a copy of the poem!

 

3 hours ago, angelangie said:

 

yes for all we have always thought love is all...

 

however there is more in life than just love  

yea angelangie.. I am reminded of this old local movie where the dad will keep telling his son "kiddo, love is only part of life. part. not all." maybe the reason we think love is all because unlike other goals like career or education, you can't just make love happen. it is not that simple.

[Lmangla]

22 minutes ago, angelangie said:

 

yes we cant make it happen....we do hunger for it...however there will be times we should just live life as it is....having it will make your life seems meaningful however without it we can always make the best out of it

true but it can a hard challenge to live life as it is especially when you see those time markers like holidays and birthdays pass by.... but like you said, just because it is not there, does not mean we can't make the best out of life. fighting! 

[Lmangla]

8 minutes ago, angelangie said:

 

very well said my friend......

 

yes seeing others basking in love does trigger something inside you some of the times....however when you look on and try to think of the things you have instead sometimes it does make it better  

true... thats why too much fluffy feels in rom-com sometimes makes me feel like my tooth is being pulled! hahahaha.... but watch a detective/weekend/daily/melo series and it makes you feel better about your life. hahahaha

[lyrically aesthetic]

me no study

me no care

me go marry a millionaire

if he dies

me no cry

me go marry another guy 

[YayArea]

Why not write one

While we can

Than worry about

What could have been

Favor the favorites

Forgive the ingrates

Savor the grapes

 Sweet, sour,

All shades of your drapes

3 hours ago, lyrically aesthetic said:

me no study

me no care

me go marry a millionaire

if he dies

me no cry

me go marry another guy 

Haha Best poem. Better than Lang Leav, better than Shakespeare

[TiNaDo]

I have so many to choose from, just took the first that came to my mind:

 

did you think i was a city
big enough for a weekend getaway
i am the town surrounding it
the one you've never heard of
but always pass through
there are no neon lights here
no skyscapers or statues
but there is thunder
for i make bridges tremble
i am not street meat i am homemade jam
thick enough to cut the sweetest
thing you lips will touch
i am not police sirens
i am the crackle of a fireplace
i'd burn you and you still
couldn't take your eyes off of me
cause i'd look so beautiful doing it
you'd blush
i am not a hotel room i am home
i am not the whiskey you want
i am the water you need
don't come here with expectations
and try to make a vacation out of me

― Rupi Kaur, Milk and Honey

[thistle]

So many poems.....but perhaps just for today it's the 8th Fit of The Hunting of the Snark.....somehow it seems appropriate to living in the confusion of a world with CoVid

 

 

They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;

   They pursued it with forks and hope;

They threatened its life with a railway-share;

   They charmed it with smiles and soap.

 

They shuddered to think that the chase might fail,

   And the Beaver, excited at last,

Went bounding along on the tip of its tail,

   For the daylight was nearly past.

 

"There is Thingumbob shouting!" the Bellman said,

   "He is shouting like mad, only hark!

He is waving his hands, he is wagging his head,

   He has certainly found a Snark!"

 

They gazed in delight, while the Butcher exclaimed

   "He was always a desperate wag!"

They beheld him—their Baker—their hero unnamed—

   On the top of a neighbouring crag,

 

Erect and sublime, for one moment of time,

   In the next, that wild figure they saw

(As if stung by a spasm) plunge into a chasm,

   While they waited and listened in awe.

 

"It's a Snark!" was the sound that first came to their ears,

   And seemed almost too good to be true.

Then followed a torrent of laughter and cheers:

   Then the ominous words "It's a Boo—"

 

Then, silence. Some fancied they heard in the air

   A weary and wandering sigh

That sounded like "-jum!" but the others declare

   It was only a breeze that went by.

 

They hunted till darkness came on, but they found

   Not a button, or feather, or mark,

By which they could tell that they stood on the ground

   Where the Baker had met with the Snark.

 

In the midst of the word he was trying to say,

   In the midst of his laughter and glee,

He had softly and suddenly vanished away—

   For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.

[jeijei]

 

 

 

 

I like Rumi and Neruda's poems. And the following: 

 

from e.e. cummings' somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond

(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

 

from the movie Shape of Water 

Unable to perceive the shape of you, I find you all around me. Your presence fills my eyes with your love. It humbles my heart, for you are everywhere. 

[kmsl]

Mad Girl's Love Song by Sylvia Plath 

 

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

 

-----

all time fave tbh