The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Wed 5/31/06)

[RetroLounge]

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver

********************

RL

If you have a request for a certain Poet, post their name in the thread and I will find a poem by them and post it...

if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[lizziegrace]

1. Thank you for the reminder...

:hug:

[miss_american_pie]

2. And along that line

i thank you God for most this amazing


i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
wich is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

ee cummings

[RetroLounge]

6. Love this poem...

the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky...

:hi:

RL

[swimboy]

3. Exactly

awareness and gratitude make a beautiful prayer

we work and strive and when I think that everybody dies it is pretty much a mindf**k.

but it's a beautiful and thrilling mystery.

:pals: :hug: :hi:

edited to add:

there truly IS a freakin' damn lot of difference between "Who made the grasshopper?" and "Who made THIS grasshopper?'!

:loveya:

[wildhorses]

4. In Summer Time.

When summer time has come, and all
The world is in the magic thrall
Of perfumed airs that lull each sense
To fits of drowsy indolence;
When skies are deepest blue above,
And flow'rs aflush, then most I love
To start, while early dews are damp,
And wend my way in woodland tramp
Where forests rustle, tree on tree,
And sing their silent songs to me;
Where pathways meet and pathways part,
To walk with Nature heart by heart,
Till wearied out at last I lie
Where some sweet stream steals singing by
A mossy bank; where violets vie
In color with the summer sky,
Or take my rod and line and hook,
And wander to some darkling brook,
Where all day long the willows dream,
And idly droop to kiss the stream,
And there to loll from morn till night-
Unheeding nibble, run, or bite
Just for the joy of being there
And drinking in the summer air,
The summer sounds, and summer sights,
That set a restless mind to rights
When grief and pain and raging doubt
Of men and creeds have worn it out;
The birds' song and the water's drone,
The humming bees' low monotone,
The murmur of the passing breeze,
And all the sounds akin to these,
That make a man in summer time
Feel only fit for rest and rhyme.
Joy springs all radiant in my breast;
Though pauper poor, than king more blest,
The tide beats in my soul so strong
That happiness breaks forth in song,
And rings aloud the welkin blue
With all the songs I ever knew.
O time of rapture! time of song!
How swiftly glide thy days along
Adown the current of the years,
Above the rocks of grief and tears!
'Tis wealth enough of joy for me
In summer time to simply be.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. My dear wildhorses......

Who wrote this?

It is amazingly beautiful.......

It makes me weep for its beauty.......

[wildhorses]

11. Paul Laurence Dunbar

:hi:

http://www.libraries.wright.edu/special/dunbar/poetryindex/in_summer_time.html

[djeseru]

5. Thank you RL.

I'm looking forward to my grasshopper days...

[BlueIris]

7. ACK. Stop posting poems that make me cry.

:-)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. My dear RetroLounge.......

How this poem speaks to me! These last lines especially:

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?


What do I plan to do? Live like I mean it!

Love whom I wish......

And be fully alive the whole time!

I embrace my life fully!

Thank you for this wonderful selection today!



:loveya: :hug: :loveya:

[NNadir]

10. That was an excellent poem. Thanks.