I have always liked poetry, and do enjoy all different poems and poets.....and often I read somehting and think 'oh, I do like this.' and then it is gone in a flash, because I never remember the author..which is a shame...so, the last few years I have tried to save things that mean somehting to me, and that made me smile or grin...I have also gone through phases when I have thoroughly enjoyed doing a bit of rhyming!(In the most ordinary, spur of the moment way...)we used to have a great thread going on the Backyard, sometimes someone brings it up again, for fear of it disappearing forever into cyber space...no idea if it would,disdappear that is!...we would all join in, everyone would add a poem or two, or just a few lines, as the mood took us..I remember we had such fun doing that...it was a bit like an invisible ball, someone would throw out a line or two, to be caught up by someone else....harmless fun, and always better than doing the housework say I!! (I think it may have been called 'do you fancy playing a new game? it might still be out there!)
so, here are some of my favourites.....just a small collection....
the first one is such a lovely poem, the first time I really heard it and it meant somehting to me was at the funeral of the only Daughter of our very good friends, a lovely young woman cut down in her prime...I kept it by me since, and then last autumn we heard it read out at the funeral of the wife of one of Jeff's good friends.....she was such a lovely woman, and when I heard the frist few lines it all came back to me...I think it is such a good poem, and says it all..
You can shed tears...
you can shed tears that she has gone
or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray she will come back
or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her
or it can be full of the love you have shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
you can remember her and only that she's gone
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
you can cry and close your mind be empty and turn your back
or you can do what she'd want,smile,open your eyes and love and go on.
Friends....E. Dickinson
They might not need me;but they might.
I'll let my head be just in sight.
A smile as small as mine might be
Precisely their necessity!
(so very true)
the next poem I absolutely love, and have written into the card of a young girl at her wedding, I htink it says it all!
The Bargain.
My true love hath my heart,and I have his
by just exchange one for another given.
I hold his dear and mine he cannot miss,
there never was a better bargain driven:
my true love has my heart, and I have his!
His heart in me keeps him and me in one,
my heart in him his thoughts and senses guides;
he loves my heart, for once it was his own,
I cherish his because in me it bides;
my true love hath my heart,and I have his!
Sir Philip Sisney.
Common Sense !
'theres' been an accident' they said,
'Your servant's cut in half., he's dead!
'Indeed' said Mr. Jones, 'and please
send me the half that's got my keys!' (always loved that, short and to the point..)
Here lies the man Richard
here lies the man Richard
and Mary,his wife,
their name was Pritchard,
they lived without strife.
and the reason was plain:
they abounded in riches
they had no care or pain
and the wife wore the breeches!
epitaph, Chelmsford Cathedral, Essex
being an incurable romantic, I love the next poem...and it has been read out at weddings...I htink it describes weddings and marriage or partnership to a tee...
Now you will feel no rain.
Now you will feel no rain,for each of you will be a shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no loneliness for you;now there is no more loneliness.
Now you are two bodies, but there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwellling place, to enter into your days together.
And may your days be good, and long on the earth.
Reindeer Report..
Chimneys: colder.
Flightpaths: busier.
Driver:Christmas (F).
Still baffled by postcodes.
Children:more.
and stay up later.
Presents:heavier.
Pay: frozen.
Mission in spite
of all this
accomplished.. U.A. Fanthorpe