from Homage to Mistress Bradstreet, John Berryman

[moireach.livejournal.com]

from Homage to Mistress Bradstreet
John Berryman

[1]
The Governor your husband lived so long
moved you not, restless, waiting for him? Still,
you were a patient woman.—
I seem to see you pause here still:
Sylvester, Quarles, in moments odd you pored
before a fire at, bright eyes on the Lord,
all the children still.
‘Simon ...’ Simon will listen while you read a Song.

[2]
Outside the New World winters in grand dark
white air lashing high thro’ the virgin stands
foxes down foxholes sigh,
surely the English heart quails, stunned.
I doubt if Simon than this blast, that sea,
spares from his rigour for your poetry
more. We are on each other’s hands
who care. Both of our worlds unhanded us. Lie stark,

[3]
thy eyes look to me mild. Out of maize & air
your body’s made, and moves. I summon, see,
from the centuries it.
I think you won’t stay. How do we
linger, diminished, in our lovers’ air,
implausibly visible, to whom, a year,
years, over interims; or not;
to a long stranger; or not; shimmer & disappear.


Read the full poem here, especially if you're still feeling Thanksgivingy. Pilgrims!

Tagging Delays/Setbacks

[mehinda.livejournal.com]

In the most recent release, LiveJournal introduced a 1000 tag limit for all journals and communities. This means that no journal can have more than 1000 unique tags. This poses a problem for communities like greatpoets because we already have 1000 poets' works posted here.

Currently, abbacat and I are going through the existing list to remove empty tags and consolidate duplicates (e.g., variations in spelling/misspellings) which will free up a certain number of tags. If you post to the community and receive an error when trying to tag your entry, this is most likely the reason why.

---

Information regarding the latest release in lj_releases.

Josh Bell: Love Double-Wide

[zhai.livejournal.com]

Originally in the Iowa Review -- surprised to see no Josh Bell here.

Love Double-Wide (your love is like a bad tattoo) ( is behind the cut... )

(no subject)

[skydances.livejournal.com]

In my photography class, our latest assignment is to take pictures as influenced by a quote, poem, song, etcetc. I was SO excited for this assignment because I have notepads filled and filled with my favorite poems, quotes, and song lyrics...but now that it's come down to it, I'm drawing blank. I was thinking of doing "everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt" (from Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut) and just taking pictures of beautiful things, but I'm not all that thrilled about that idea. (which is SUCH a shame because I feel like this assignment is my niche!) Anyway,  does anyone have any ideas about a quote/passage/song/poem/lyric/etcetc I could use and possible pictures I could take along with it? I'd have access to models and all that jazz, too, so if it's a storyline type thing, that could work as well...:)

Thank you SO, SO much! <3
xposted to literaryquotes

What she said to him about the myths they figured in - Reetika Vazirani

[aimlesswanderer.livejournal.com]

What she said to him about the myths they figured in

So they thought it was us two idly fucking
but I know better what we did
you kneaded hills for the dales
I furnished scintillant rivers for mountains
continents came up between us
masses of knees & elbows
they said ha! that god & that goddess still fucking
Let them talk
We built worlds
we built the little earth
we put Mars in orbit
& that vastness they only dream of
on the other end of their straw periscopes
that vastness
what I saw in your eyes when you licked a raindrop of sweat from my brow
that endless acreage
I put into galactic orbit
eons partner lover friend of mine
eons beyond the simple world of copulation
love & death & marriage
birth of our fine son & the daughters
I could not drown
You I stopped
my some time enemy my love

       -- Reetika Vazirani

(no subject)

[runamucky.livejournal.com]

 O Tell Me The Truth About Love


Some say that love's a little boy,
And some say it's a bird,
Some say it makes the world go round,
And some say that's absurd,
And when I asked the man next-door,
Who looked as if he knew,
His wife got very cross indeed,
And said it wouldn't do.

( Read more... )

W.H. Auden

(no subject)

[softlyforgotten.livejournal.com]

The River-Car

The way it's parked, nose-down between the wet rocks
in the leaf-light of the gorge, water pouring
through the windscreen and the tyres blown;
as if the naiads put their fairy horses
out to grass and cruised the night in silver Escorts.

Or as if three boys from Hebden Bridge
grew bored and stole a car and drove it halfway
to the moors, grew bored again, then rolled it
from the muddy track and watched it hammer
through the trees until it came to rest

a hundred yards below. And as the echo
died away, the car they drove in dreams
kept floating downstream and the boys they'd never be
rode every bend of starlit water to the ocean.

Mark Haddon.

Charles Ghinga

[runamucky.livejournal.com]

Along The Garden Path

A garden path of cobble stones,
A fairy sitting with two gnomes,
A bird bath full of chickadees
Splashing in the morning breeze,

A marble fountain, a golden swan,
Four tree frogs in a lily pond,
An iron bench, a bronze sun dial
Telling time with a shady smile,

An arch of roses in full bloom,
A bird house yellow as the moon.
Like an elf among the flowers,
I could hide in here for hours.