Po-mz

A Great Emily Brontë Poem Collected And Shared By Tony Johansen

STARS

Ah! why, because the dazzling sun
Restored our earth to joy
Have you departed, every one,
And left a desert sky?

All through the night, your glorious eyes
Were gazing down in mine,
And with a full heart’s thankful sighs
I blessed that watch divine!

I was at peace, and drank your beams
As they were life to me
And revelled in my changeful dreams
Like petrel on the sea.

Thought followed thought—star followed star
Through boundless regions on,
While one sweet influence, near and far,
Thrilled through and proved us one.

Why did the morning dawn to break
So great, so pure a spell,
And scorch with fire the tranquil cheek
Where your cool radiance fell?

Blood-red he rose, and arrow-straight
His fierce beams struck my brow:
The soul of Nature sprang elate,
But mine sank sad and low!

My lids closed down—yet through their veil
I saw him blazing still;
And steep in gold the misty dale
And flash upon the hill.

I turned me to the pillow then
To call back Night, and see
Your worlds of solemn light, again
Throb with my heart and me!

It would not do—the pillow glowed
And glowed both roof and floor,
And birds sang loudly in the wood,
And fresh winds shook the door.

The curtains waved, the wakened flies
Were murmuring round my room,
Imprisoned there, till I should rise
And give them leave to roam.

O Stars and Dreams and Gentle Night;
O Night and Stars return!
And hide me from the hostile light
That does not warm, but burn—

That drains the blood of suffering men;
Drinks tears, instead of dew:
Let me sleep through his blinding reign,
And only wake with you!

- Emily Brontë 

A Wonderful Led Zeppelin Poem Collected And Shared By Tony Johansen

STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN

There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven.
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for.
Ooh, ooh, and she’s buying a stairway to heaven.

There’s a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure
‘Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.
In a tree by the brook, there’s a songbird who sings,
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven.
Ooh, it makes me wonder,
Ooh, it makes me wonder.

There’s a feeling I get when I look to the west,
And my spirit is crying for leaving.
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees,
And the voices of those who stand looking.
Ooh, it makes me wonder,
Ooh, it really makes me wonder.

And it’s whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason.
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter.

If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now,
It’s just a spring clean for the May queen.
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There’s still time to change the road you’re on.
And it makes me wonder.

Your head is humming and it won’t go, in case you don’t know,
The piper’s calling you to join him,
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind.

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul.
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold.
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last.
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll.

And she’s buying the stairway to heaven.

- Robert Plant

I have been asked why I include the lyrics to some popular songs in this poetry collection. While it is true that the words to most popular music are trite and uninspiring, the best songs are beautiful works of art and I have trouble separating them off as something different from poetry just because they are officially “lyrics” as opposed to “poems”. Stairway To Heaven is unforgettable as much for the poetry of the words as it is for the actual music and deserves recognition as wonderful poetry. The lyrics were written quite separately from the music. Jimmy Page wanted to do a song that started softly and built to a driving electric crescendo and he worked on the music over a long period of time. Robert Plant wrote the words mostly in one night in front of a log fire while page was strumming the music. He said “suddenly, my hand was writing out the words, ‘There’s a lady who’s sure, all that glitters is gold, and she’s buying a stairway to heaven’. I just sat there and looked at them and almost leapt out of my seat.” He later said that the book he was reading at the time “Magic Arts In Celtic Britain” was a large part of the inspiration for the words.

A Beautiful Henrik Ibsen Poem Collected And Shared By Tony Johansen

IN THE PICTURE GALLERY

With palette laden

She sat, as I passed her,

A dainty maiden

Before an Old Master.

 

What mountain-top is

She bent upon? Ah,

She neatly copies

Murillo’s Madonna.

 

But rapt and brimming

The eyes’ full chalice says

The heart builds dreaming

Its fairy-palaces.

 

* * *

 

The eighteenth year rolled

By, ere returning,

I greeted the dear old

Scenes with yearning.

 

With palette laden

She sat, as I passed her,

A faded maiden

Before an Old Master.

 

But what is she doing?

The same thing still—lo,

Hotly pursuing

That very Murillo!

 

Her wrist never falters;

It keeps her, that poor wrist,

With panels for altars

And daubs for the tourist.

 

And so she has painted

Through years unbrightened,

Till hopes have fainted

And hair has whitened.

 

But rapt and brimming

The eyes’ full chalice says

The heart builds dreaming

Its fairy-palaces.

 

- Henrik Ibsen, translated by Fydell Edmund Garrett 

An Unforgettable Maurice Maeterlinck Poem Collected And Shared By Tony Johansen

PASSIONS

Narrow paths my passions tread:

Laughter rings there, sorrow cries;

Sick and sad, with half-shut eyes,

Thro’ the leaves the woods have shed,

 

My sins like yellow mongrels slink;

Uncouth hyenas, my hates complain,

And on the pale and listless plain

Couching low, love’s lion’s blink.

 

Powerless, deep in a dream of peace,

Sunk in a languid spell they lie,

Under a colourless, desolate sky,

There they gaze and never cease,

 

Where like sheep temptations graze,

One by one departing slow:

In the moon’s unchanging glow

My unchanging passions gaze.

 

- Maurice Maeterlinck, translated by Bernard Miall 

A Marvelous Oscar Wilde Poem Collected And Shared By Tony Johansen

BY THE ARNO

The oleander on the wall

Grows crimson in the dawning light,

Though the grey shadows of the night

Lie yet on Florence like a pall.

 

The dew is bright upon the hill,

And bright the blossoms overhead,

But ah! the grasshoppers have fled,

The little Attic song is still.

 

Only the leaves are gently stirred

By the soft breathing of the gale,

And in the almond-scented vale

The lonely nightingale is heard.

 

The day will make thee silent soon,

O nightingale sing on for love!

While yet upon the shadowy grove

Splinter the arrows of the moon.

 

Before across the silent lawn

In sea-green vest the morning steals,

And to love’s frightened eyes reveals

The long white fingers of the dawn.

 

Fast climbing up the eastern sky

To grasp and slay the shuddering night,

All careless of my heart’s delight,

Or if the nightingale should die.

 

- Oscar Wilde 

Beautiful Persian Poetry Collected And Shared By Tony Johansen

BEHIND THE SCENES

Is it your face
that adorns the garden?

Is it your fragrance
that intoxicates this garden?

Is it your spirit
that has made this brook
a river of wine?

Hundreds have looked for you
and died searching
in this garden
where you hide behind the scenes.

But this pain is not for those
who come as lovers.

You are easy to find here.

You are in the breeze

And in this river of wine

-Rumi (13th century AD) 

A Poem Written By Tony Johansen

CARVING CHICKEN (THE STABBING OF DR. PLEASE-NO)

(establish rhythm)
I am I am, I said I said
Please-No; Doctor; I

Please-No; Doctor; MD; MaD
Food-mad; food-food; mad-mad
Bananas
Banananananananananananananana-Nanas
Mad.

(develop rhythm)
I am the one, I said I said
I am I am said I
Please-No; Doctor; I
Please-No; Doctor; me you see
Please-No Doctor MD MaD
Md Mad Doctor I;
Md Mad Food Mad Dad
Food-Food Mad-Mad
Bananas me
It is me you see you see
Me is I; MD!

(canto)
He did it; He did it
The prosecutor sed
The jury sed; “He did it!” too
The Judge he sed
Oh please hold your hed
‘tis not proved he sed

(aside)
Though he looks like he did
And he could and he would and he might

(with glee)
I’ve got you I’ve got you
The warden sed
We’ll get you a med he sed
And put you to bed
And get the med to look in your hed
He sed he sed did he

(aside, plaintive)
But he put me in a cell
And he made my life hell
Yes he did, yes he did, yes he did!

(slower)
My life is hell
I sed I sed
‘tis truly hell you see.
So he cut out lunch and breakfast brunch
And sed so there take that ha ha

(with emphasis)
Have you I sed
Ever been stabbed before?
As I carved and hacked and chopped.
Oh no she sed
I never never
Stabbed, have been, before.
Not me she sed
No-no she sed
Not me not me not I

(slower, break rhythm)
You no Please-No, she sed she sed.
Yes I Please-Yes sed I…

Then she went and spoiled it all by picking her nose.

- Tony Johansen 

A Great Anne Bradstreet Poem Collected And Shared By Tony Johansen

THE AUTHOR TO HER BOOK

Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth didst by my side remain,
Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,
Who thee abroad, exposed to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th’ press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
Thy visage was so irksome in my sight;
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could:
I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw.
I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run’st more hobbling than is meet;
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save homespun cloth i’ th’ house I find.
In this array ’mongst vulgars may’st thou roam.
In critic’s hands beware thou dost not come,
And take thy way where yet thou art not known;
If for thy father asked, say thou hadst none;
And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
Which caused her thus to send thee out of door.

- Anne Bradstreet (c1612 - 1672) 

A Beautiful Carole Mathys Poem Collected And Shared By Tony Johansen

SILENCE OF SNOW 

The snow began to fall
huge flakes blanketing
limbs overhead
as the firs and pines
let go their long-held breath
in a fragrant sigh

The air was like cut crystal
the dawn sky so pale
it disappeared into itself
Drifting clouds huddled
as if the warmth of togetherness
would melt the snow
they carried in their bellies

Briefly the silence was broken
by the muffled thud
of the heaver sound of hail
striking deep in the packed pine needles
bouncing crazily
on the frozen ground
with stinging cold

The hail pocked the snow
making it dance
disappearing
into and becoming one
returning to the silence of snow

- Carole Mathys

This poem was sent to me by my Facebook friend Lynn Curry who is a member of the Poetry Club at UTT. 

Great Chinese Poetry Collected And Shared By Tony Johansen

TAO TE CHING (EXCERPT)

. 

The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao.

The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.

(Conceived of as) having no name,

it is the Originator of heaven and earth; (conceived of as) having a name,

it is the Mother of all things.

Always without desire we must be found,

If its deep mystery we would sound;

But if desire always within us be,

Its outer fringe is all that we shall see.

Under these two aspects, it is really the same;

but as development takes place, it receives the different names.

Together we call them the Mystery.

Where the Mystery is the deepest is the gate of all that
is subtle and wonderful.

- Lao Tzu, translated by J. Legge

Lao Tzu lived somewhere between the 7th and 4th century BC. He is often described as a contemporary of Confuscious but there is no evidence to support this. The name Lao Tzu is not actually a name but is a title. It translates as “Old Master”. All the many legendary stories of his life cannot be connected with any historic event and there is no contemporary records that can be connected to Lao Tzu. Modern scholars question whether Lao Tzu actually existed as an individual and suggest the Tao Te Ching could be the distilled result of the work of various early leaders of Taoism.