Favorite Stanzas of Poetry

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Bryan James

Well-Known Member
Apr 3, 2009
5,150
7,644
South Cackalacky
Shakespeare/James:

Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more humpable.

(That actually worked once in college.)

My roommate had an even better freeform poem:

Hi. I'm Chris. I like peanut butter. Wanna f$%^?

It worked once for him.

Thepenismightierthanthesword
 

Walter Oobleck

keeps coming back...or going, and going, and going
Mar 6, 2013
11,749
34,805
Unflushed Urinals
by Donald Justice

(lines written in the Omaha bus station)

Seeing them, I recognize the contempt
Some men have for themselves

This man, for instance, zipping quickly up, head turned
Like a bystander innocent of his own piss

And here comes one to repair himself at the mirror
Patting down damp, sparse hairs, suspiciously still black
Poor bantam cock of a man, jaunty at one a.m., perfumed, undiscourageable...

O the saintly forbearance of these mirrors!
The acceptingness of the washbowls, in which we absolve ourselves!
 

VampireLily

Vampire Goddess & Consumer of men's souls.
Jul 25, 2013
1,469
8,829
New Jersey
it would be a shame to leave just a stanza, so i'll leave you with my favorite piece ever.

"Poem"

Frank O'Hara


I will always love you
though I never loved you

a boy smelling faintly of heather
staring up at your window

the passion that enlightens
and stills and cultivates, gone

while I sought your face
to be familiar in the blueness

or to follow your sharp whistle
around a corner into my light

that was love growing fainter
each time you failed to appear

I spent my whole self searching
love which I thought was you

it was mine so briefly
and I never knew it, or you went

I thought it was outside disappearing
but it is disappearing in my heart

like snow blown in a window
to be gone from the world
 

Houdini

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2014
295
1,418
USA
i have found what you are like

by E. E. Cummings

i have found what you are like

the rain,

(Who feathers frightened fields

with the superior dust-of-sleep. wields

easily the pale club of the wind

and swirled justly souls of flower strike

the air in utterable coolness

deeds of green thrilling light

with thinned

newfragile yellows

lurch and.press

-in the woods

which

stutter

and

sing

And the coolness of your smile is

stirringofbirds between my arms;but

i should rather than anything

have(almost when hugeness will shut

quietly)almost,

your kiss

Houdini in Omaha
 

VampireLily

Vampire Goddess & Consumer of men's souls.
Jul 25, 2013
1,469
8,829
New Jersey
i have found what you are like

by E. E. Cummings

i have found what you are like

the rain,

(Who feathers frightened fields

with the superior dust-of-sleep. wields

easily the pale club of the wind

and swirled justly souls of flower strike

the air in utterable coolness

deeds of green thrilling light

with thinned

newfragile yellows

lurch and.press

-in the woods

which

stutter

and

sing

And the coolness of your smile is

stirringofbirds between my arms;but

i should rather than anything

have(almost when hugeness will shut

quietly)almost,

your kiss

Houdini in Omaha

(sighs...........)...........wow.
 

Walter Oobleck

keeps coming back...or going, and going, and going
Mar 6, 2013
11,749
34,805
e.e. cummings, the boys i mean are not refined

the boys i mean are not refined
they go with girls who buck and bite
they do not give a **** for luck
they hump them thirteen times a night

one hangs a hat upon her t*t
one carves a cross on her behind
they do not give a **** for wit
the boys i mean are not refined

they come with girls who bite and buck
who cannot read and cannot write
who laugh like they would fall apart
and masturbate with dynamite

the boys i mean are not refined
they cannot chat of that and this
they do not give a fart for art
they kill like you would take a piss

they speak whatever's on their mind
they do whatever's in their pants
the boys i mean are not refined
they shake the mountains when they dance
 

blunthead

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2006
80,755
195,461
Atlanta GA
Chicken in the farmyard
There's an oven in your bin
You're growing old with sorrow
You're growing fat with sin

I was living in a graveyard
I was hanging from the wall
I was living in the desert
I was trying not to fall

Once I stood upon Olympus
Then the heavens opened wide
I beheld that flaming chariot
And I saw the sacred bride

Now and then my life seems truer
Now and then my thought seems pure
All in all, my thoughts are fewer
Maybe death will be my cure

 

DiO'Bolic

Not completely obtuse
Nov 14, 2013
22,864
129,998
Poconos, PA
:laugh:

I dare you to finish it!


Oh how I love a dare....

*** Colorful language warning ***
There once was a man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran away with a man
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.

But he followed the pair to Pawtucket,
The man and the girl with the bucket;
And he said to the man,
He was welcome to Nan,
But as for the bucket, Pawtucket.

Then the pair followed Pa to Manhasset,
Where he still held the cash as an asset
But Nan and the man
Stole the money and ran,
And as for the bucket, Manhasset.
Fooled you Flake. :)

(Damn family friendly board.)
 

do1you9love?

Happy to be here!
Feb 18, 2012
9,284
70,566
Virginia
In the Desert by Stephen Crane

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
“Because it is bitter,
“And because it is my heart.”
 

MadamMack

M e m b e r
Apr 11, 2006
17,958
45,138
UnParked, UnParked U.S.A.
Oh how I love a dare....

*** Colorful language warning ***
There once was a man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran away with a man
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.

But he followed the pair to Pawtucket,
The man and the girl with the bucket;
And he said to the man,
He was welcome to Nan,
But as for the bucket, Pawtucket.

Then the pair followed Pa to Manhasset,
Where he still held the cash as an asset
But Nan and the man
Stole the money and ran,
And as for the bucket, Manhasset.
Fooled you Flake. :)

(Damn family friendly board.)

Crikey . . .me too!
 

FlakeNoir

Original Kiwi© SKMB®
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
44,082
175,641
New Zealand
Oh how I love a dare....

*** Colorful language warning ***
There once was a man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran away with a man
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.

But he followed the pair to Pawtucket,
The man and the girl with the bucket;
And he said to the man,
He was welcome to Nan,
But as for the bucket, Pawtucket.

Then the pair followed Pa to Manhasset,
Where he still held the cash as an asset
But Nan and the man
Stole the money and ran,
And as for the bucket, Manhasset.
Fooled you Flake. :)

(Damn family friendly board.)
:rofl: You really did!
I was all like.... :shock:
 

MadamMack

M e m b e r
Apr 11, 2006
17,958
45,138
UnParked, UnParked U.S.A.
Ha, I found it! The poem thread!

"Alone" (1875) by Edgar Allan Poe

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were -- I have not seen
As others saw -- I could not bring...
My passions from a common spring --
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow -- I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone --
And all I lov'd -- I lov'd alone --
Then -- in my childhood -- in the dawn
Of a most stormy life -- was drawn
From ev'ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still --
From the torrent, or the fountain --
From the red cliff of the mountain --
From the sun that 'round me roll'd
In its autumn tint of gold --
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass'd me flying by --
From the thunder, and the storm --
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view --
 

MadamMack

M e m b e r
Apr 11, 2006
17,958
45,138
UnParked, UnParked U.S.A.
When the night has been too lonely,
and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes
The Rose.
~ Amanda McBroom, The Rose

10858578_751027054976629_5632628028867026802_n.jpg
 

Todash

Free spirit. Curly girl. Cookie eater. Proud SJW.
Aug 19, 2006
8,293
5,621
52
Kansas City
Oh. This is such a muchness of a thread. So unexpectedly difficult. Because:
"If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry." —Emily Dickinson
And y'all have good taste in poetry. I need a minute, but I'll post.
 
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Todash

Free spirit. Curly girl. Cookie eater. Proud SJW.
Aug 19, 2006
8,293
5,621
52
Kansas City
"This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
 
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Todash

Free spirit. Curly girl. Cookie eater. Proud SJW.
Aug 19, 2006
8,293
5,621
52
Kansas City
The last stanza of "Richard Cory," by Edwin Arlington Robinson.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
 
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