D. H. Lawrence

Perhaps D. H. Lawrence is better known for his novels, plays and essays… but he also wrote some beautiful poetry:

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930).  Amores.  1916.

IN A BOAT   See the stars, love,   In the water much clearer and brighter   Than those above us, and whiter,   Like nenuphars.     Star-shadows shine, love,   How many stars in your bowl?   How many shadows in your soul,   Only mine, love, mine?     When I move the oars, love,   See how the stars are tossed,   Distorted, the brightest lost.   —So that bright one of yours, love.     The poor waters spill   The stars, waters broken, forsaken.   —The heavens are not shaken, you say, love,   Its stars stand still.     There, did you see   That spark fly up at us; even   Stars are not safe in heaven.   —What of yours, then, love, yours?     What then, love, if soon   Your light be tossed over a wave?   Will you count the darkness a grave,   And swoon, love, swoon?

From Bartleby.com

“Of the Open Sky” by John Ruskin

Extracted from John Ruskin’s, Of the Open Sky

Modern Painters I, Part II, Section III:

 

“It is a strange thing how little in general people know about the sky. It is the part of all creation in which nature has done more for the sake of pleasing man, more, for the sole and evident purpose of talking to him and teaching him, than in any other of her works, and it is just the part in which we least attend to her. There are not many of her other works in which some more material or essential purpose than the mere pleasing of man is not answered by every part of their organization; but every essential purpose of the sky might, as far as we know, be answered, if once in three days, or thereabouts, a great, ugly black rain cloud were brought up over the blue, and everything well watered, and so all left blue again till next time, with perhaps a film of morning and evening mist for dew. And instead of this, there is not a moment of any day of our lives, when nature is not producing scene after scene, picture after picture, glory after glory, and working still upon such exquisite and constant principles of the most perfect beauty, that it is quite certain it is all done for us, and intended for our perpetual pleasure. And every man, wherever placed, however far from other sources of interest or of beauty, has this doing for him constantly… the sky is for all; bright as it is, it is not “too bright, nor good, for human nature’s daily food,” it is fitted in all its functions for the perpetual comfort and exalting of the heart, for the soothing it and purifying it from its dross and dust. Sometimes gentle, sometimes capricious, sometimes awful, never the same for two moments together; almost human in its passions, almost spiritual in its tenderness, almost divine in its infinity, it is surely meant for the chief teacher of what is immortal in us, as it is the chief minister of chastisement or of blessing to what is mortal. And yet we never attend to it, we never make it a subject of thought…”

 

(With special thanks to “The Cloud Appreciation Society.”   See link under “Favorite Sites” as my source for this post. )

from Basho…

Won’t you come and see
loneliness? Just one leaf
from the kiri tree.

Poetry Reading at the Poet House in Evansville, Indiana

‘Had a great time tonight at the Third Tuesday Poetry Reading series at the Poet House & Art Emporium in Evansville, Indiana, hosted by William Sovern.  Tonight was an all-female review with Grace Strange, Susan Stark, Kara Beth Rasure, Mariah Sheppard, Jean Ann Kizer and “yours truly.”

  Here are some photos:

 

Mariah Sheppard, Jessica Thompson and Susan Stark (left to right)

Kara Beth Rasure

Grace Strange, Jessica Thompson, Jean Ann Kiser (left to right)

It’s the birthday of Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961)

The man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without.

– Quotation by Hemingway

This Lunar Beauty…

This Lunar Beauty (by W H Auden)

 

This lunar  beauty

Has no history
Is complete and early,
If beauty  later
Bear any feature
It had a lover
And is another.

This like a dream
Keeps other time
And daytime is
The loss of this,
For time is inches
And the heart’s changes
Where ghost has haunted
Lost and wanted.

But this was never
A ghost’s endeavor
Nor finished this,
Was ghost at ease,
And till it pass
Love shall not near
The sweetness here
Nor sorrow take
His endless look.

It’s the birthday of: Nelson Mandela (born 1918)

After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

 

Quotation by Nelson Mandela

It’s the birthday of: Hunter S. Thompson (1937 – 2005)

The Edge… there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.  

 

Quotation by Hunter S. Thompson

 

He was born in Louisville, Kentucky… the place of my birth

Camping Fever

The weather is glorious! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have camping fever BIG TIME…

Poetry Reading

I’ll be reading my poetry at the Poet House & Art Emporium at 105 Adams Avenue, Haynie’s Corner Arts District, in Evansville, Indiana next Tuesday, July 21 (7 pm – 10 pm).  Other performers include Jean Ann Kizer, Sarah Nellis, Mariah Sheppard, Susan Stark, Grace Strange and singer/songwriter Kara Beth Rasure