Poem of the Day - 02/24/07
Wisdom and War
Wisdom and War
We do not care-
That much is clear.
Not enough
Of us care
Anywhere.
We are not wise-
For that reason,
Mankind dies.
To think
Is much against
The will.
Better-
And easier-
To kill.
-Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
Love the Langston Hughes! Thanks so much for bringing the poetry into our lives every day, you and all the others that bring them forth.
Here’s another verse for you, from our very own Scribe, Nov. 2005. Very special to me. Hope she won’t mind my posting it here but it is a beauty:
Ode To Storytellers
those having lived lives
from the inside out
collecting indelible impressions
like precious stones
set aside for polishing
in right time
walk lightly on the surface
of this world
preoccupied often
by inner muse
evading capture
by place, person
or permanence
even when this is longed for
roaming ahead, behind, beside
present awareness
recording, always recording
on invisible slates
ever seeking essential solitude
in the rushbustle of life
growing up and out and past
adopted identities
desperately desired
that never fit for long
for muses must run naked
or they cannot run
at all
~ by Scribe
Comment by shirlstars — February 24, 2007 @ 12:44 am
Wow, another awesome poem from scribe. :O
I am glad to post poems when I can and glad when others do, too. I hope I’m not pushing Everybody’s favorite poems to the side with my early postings like this, but I’m usually so excited about a poem I have to just post it right away! LOL!
Comment by blueneck — February 24, 2007 @ 12:51 am
I have the honor and pleasure to spend the day today with poet David Whyte. He did an intro to the day last night and ended talking about our time in the dark. So here’s a poem of his about that:
Sweet Darkness
When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.
When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.
Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.
There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.
The dark will be your womb
tonight.
The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.
You must learn one thing:
the world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.
~ David Whyte ~
Comment by nlinstpaul — February 24, 2007 @ 7:56 am
Shirl, I honestly don’t remember even writing that one at all, and thanks for resurrecting it here. You gave it back to me at a perfect moment when I needed to read it again, too.
blueneck, I hope you never restrain yourself in any way here; your postings and poems fit wherever they land and are always meaningful and very thought provoking.
In fact, let me share my little theory. I sincerely believe the arts are one of the remaining hopes for healing the wounds we’ve inflicted on each other and on this planet. I think each art form, whether its poetry, music, visual arts, danc, all of them..pass along the best of what is within humankind, and also carry along whatever larger “guidance: is available to us from “wherever” it may originate. It conveys all that words and actions alone cannot.
So those that can paint,sing, write, dance, and create beautiful things are compelled by forces within them, to do so and to share their creations. Those who may not yet have fully discovered their own creative giftedness or given birth to it’s full expression, have an incredibly ability to “spot” these works, pluck them up, then bring them to places like this, where they can reach even more people.
In a world growing darker, those who can create bits of light, via the arts, and those who so willing help spread it around, are, in my humble opinion, doing every bit as much for America as anyone in uniform or at street protests or in office or in any lofty well lauded position. So I say ONward!
Comment by scribe40 — February 24, 2007 @ 8:17 am
Omg Nanc, that Whyte poem gave me chills. I wish I could be with you today in being with this guy…and please, please share as much of it with us as you can, ok?
“the sweet confinement of your aloneness”.
ahhhh..I can’t stand it! Those incredible perfect phrases..
Comment by scribe40 — February 24, 2007 @ 8:20 am
Thanks for sharing nl, that’s an awesome poem, indeed.
scribe, you are such a treasure. I feel blessed to be in your e-sphere. And where would artists be if appreciaters like me and Everybody weren’t here? The poetry I find and share is my best attempt at sharing some things special that I recognize to have meaning beyond words. Poets always amaze me and I am soooo happy to be an essential part of the link of artist-appreciater whenever I can. It gives me the chance to bask in the glory of positive human achievement and fills me with the will to go ONward.
Comment by blueneck — February 24, 2007 @ 11:00 am
blue neck, I recently joined a writer group, all guys it turns out. They are all focused like laser beams on getting their work published in print in important places. So of course, it all has be be perfectly done, perfectly finished according to all the publishing worlds rules. Oh my how they are struggling and suffering over this. I used to also. For many years.
Then I gave all of that up and began writing for sheer joy of it only. It was incredible how it all flowed out then, carving it’s own channels. THEN I discovered the internet, and my life as a writer was complete! Better than complete, it was nirvana! In a single morning I can create a piece of work, see it published on no end of websites, and get immediate feedback from readers! All for free, don’t need an agent, it’s available 24/7 and I get to do it in my jammies!! Thats a helluva lot bigger reward than money or “fame” in my book.
These poor fellas in that grop are just appalled that I fling my stuff hither and yon into cyberspace under just a screen name! (My gawd! What if someone STEALS IT??!!) So what? Plenty more where that came from. They think I am insane and I think they are!
Oh. About basking in the glory of human achievement?
That’s cool as long as you don’t forget to bask in your own on occasion as well, and don’t forget there is also a poet in you somewhere.
Comment by scribe40 — February 24, 2007 @ 12:47 pm
Scribe, you and I are so on the same page. And what a shocker that is, eh?
“(My gawd! What if someone STEALS IT??!!) So what? Plenty more where that came from. They think I am insane and I think they are!”
I have said for many years now, no one can steal from me what I freely give them. Never had anything stolen from me in my life, not physical belongings and not any creative stuff. It is pretty hard to even lay claim to the creations, after all they were given freely to me, I just don’t think they “belong” to me but to whomever connects with them.
And when I factor in (not that I do) the universal laws around giving, I can’t imagine why I would ever want to keep such things to myself as in “owning them.” What you give out is magnified a 1000 times and those rewards are beyond priceless.
Right on my friend, right on!
Plenty-o-hugs
Shirl
Comment by shirlstars — February 24, 2007 @ 3:08 pm
Nancy, thanks for that fabulous poem! It’s one of those WOW things that is so on the mark it brings up feelings of amazement and gratitude.
I too envy your day with the poet. Revel in it and please do share as much as you wish to with us about your experience.
Hugs and more
Shirl
Comment by shirlstars — February 24, 2007 @ 3:12 pm
poetry can also provide new ways of seeing/thinking/feeling/perceiving, & provoke us into our own discoveries
as may be obvious by now, i devoted a good bit of my life to reading/trying-to-write-, and hanging out on the edges of ‘the scene’
broken & feeling all too well what oppen once named “Failure and the guilt / Of failure,” I still try to climb outta the hole now ‘n then, and remain an Enthusiast - & self-appointed ‘promoter,’ to put in eye the unknown, the forgotten & neglected poets of our time & those who came before - my own immersion in what Anne Waldman has lablled an Outrider Tradition of poetics that unites throughout all times & places
Comment by arcturus1 — February 24, 2007 @ 3:44 pm
I’m home from my day with Whyte and am “full and running over” with thoughts. I don’t take notes - especially at something like this, because for me it tends to distract me from listening and absorbing.
But I do have one kernel to share. David talks alot about the importance of conversation - be it with our friends/loved ones, co-workers, ourselves or the natural world.
With that as a backdrop, he talked about writing the poem I quoted in my Where Nancy Comes From diary here.
He first attempted to write this poem after seeing Van Gogh self portraits. So he thought poets should be able to do self portrait poems. He put that title at the top of the page and waited to see what came - thinking it would be a description of his face.
The words that did come, however, were “It doesn’t interest me if there is one god or many gods.” He explained that this was a question that had been forced on him throughout his life, but wasn’t the conversation he was interested in. He followed that line with “I want to know if you belong or feel abandonded.”
At the end of the day today, he asked us to spend some time thinking about the conversations that are being forced on us and the ones we really need to have. To do this, fill in the blanks…
It doesn’t interest me……
I want to know….
Comment by nlinstpaul — February 24, 2007 @ 6:18 pm