Post your favourite poem:

[charleski]

Is he his own strength?
What is its signature?
Or is he a key, cold-feeling
To the fingers of prayer?

He is a prayer-wheel, his heart hums.
He is eating in the wind -
Its patient power of appeal.
His footprints assail infinity

With signatures: We are here, we are here.
He is the long waiting for something.
To use him for some everything
Having so carefully made him

Of nothing.


Ted Hughes Crow Frowns

Unfortunately Philip Larkin would be too racy for this board.

[nichomach]

"...between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles' first lp", eh, Charleski?

OK, it's been used by just about every thriller writer in the world, but I still vote for:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

[Gerschwin]

From the master :/

Strapped in the chair of the city gas chamber
Why I'm here I can't quite remember
Surgeon General says It's hazardous to breathe
I'd have another cigarette but I can't see
Tell me who your gonna believe

[pollaxe]

Spike Milligan (God rest him) for me too. I don't have a written copy but it goes something like this:

I am a mystery fellow,
I'm Fred Fanackerpan,
I wear one sock that's yellow,
The other dipped in jam.
I walk about the countryside,
I walk about the town.
Sometimes with my trousers up,
Sometimes with them down.
And when they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down.
And when they were only half way up,
I was arrested.

[Rhyth]

Imagine By John Lennon.

Heres a good cover by A Perfect Circle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwgR4_NJCvQ

Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...

Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...


You may say Im a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
and the world will be as one.


Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say Im a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.

Imagine no possesions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say Im a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.

[blueball]

This one:

http://forcespoetry.co.uk/poemdetails.asp?ID=251

wot was writ by me

[Byatt]

Heres a good cover by A Perfect Circle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwgR4_NJCvQ

Ugh. Really wish they hadn't recorded that album of covers, they should have stopped post Mer De Noms with hindsight, everything they've done since has been laughably bad in comparison. [/derail]

[schmunk]

Algy met a bear
The bear was bulgy
The bulge was Algy...

[Rhyth]

Ugh. Really wish they hadn't recorded that album of covers, they should have stopped post Mer De Noms with hindsight, everything they've done since has been laughably bad in comparison. [/derail]

Really, I have only heard that cover in truth, although the new Tool album 10'000 days with maynard on vox is good.


Danny Carey rocks

[superscaper]

The Raven is my favourite. I'd like to learn it off by heart some day but for now there's:

Mary had a little lamb,
She threw it up to Venus
When it came back down to Earth
She caught it by it's........ leg.

[redsky009]

The sun rose and blossomed,
Its rays opened as petals in the spring
She watched it through her window,
The tear in her eye glistening wet.
The night had torn her heart in two,
Into what?

[kempez]

I've got quite a few fav's mostly by Tony Curtis. Can't find the damn book I had tho

One of mine will have to do (not my fav but "Internet friendly"):

The Watchers

Control over the masses
The spying eyes standing tall over the buildings
Mapping out lives
Recording events going nowhere
Only needed
To prove guilt
The wide lens focus leering at its subjects
Nothing noticed or unnoticed
The legal disclaimer for this perverse

Remote-control

‘CCTV IN OPERATION’

Copyright Matthew Kemp (kempez)

[Ben_]

Guillotine (Swordz) - Wu Tang Clan

The best poetry there is....

Poisonous paragraphs, smash ya phonograph
in half, it be the Inspectah Deck on the warpath
First class leavin mics with a cast
Causin ruckus like the aftermath when guns blast
Run fast, here comes the verbal assaulta
Rhymes runnin wild like a child in a walker
I scored from the inner slums abroad
And my thoughts are razor sharp I sliced the mic from the cord
First they criticize, but now they have become
mentally paralyzed with hits that I devise
Now I testify, the rest is I, Rebel INS
Ya highness, blessed to electrify
with voltage of an eel, truth that I reveal'll
crush the amateurs who screamed to keep it real
Caesar black down hoodied up and fatigues
Part time minor leagues receive third degrees
Attack like a wolf pack, once I pull back
then guard you, and bust through like a fullback

Verse Two: Ghostface Killer a.k.a. Tony Starks

Yo, you fourteen carat gold slum computer wizard
Tappin inside my rap vein causes blizzards
Do I like the kills for ice trife like botta digits
Gorillas injected with strength of eighty midgets
The Earth spins ruins, rap exotic blends
Let my peeps in, niggaz gaspin swallowin aspirins
What a dosage, you overdosed in rap
High explosives my post-its hypnotize with hypnosis
I sell goods, my whole Clan is on the run like Natural Born Killers
Record-breaking the album Thriller
Now access the jig who has bombs and rocket launchers
Float like dope killer bees is what I sponsor
Ya entrepeneur, pens and gear like shakespeare
When I **** I grab hair, collect drawers as souveneirs
**** yeah, my crew down German beers
My career is based on guns, throwin cats in wheelchairs
Etcetera, damage any lame ass competitor
Who try to front, get broken and passed like leathers
Whatever hot hardheads get shattered like mirrors
Beretta shots splatter your goose, scatter ya feathers
Say never poetry chumps crumbs deal with graphic
Blew my family overseas in mansions
If rap was crack, fully packed I be tour cats
Tax the kingpin of the rap drug traffickin
Village niggaz get slapped in Manhattan
for rappin, big Ghost steps off laffin

(Were you just using the Wu-Tang school method against me?
I've learned so many styles, forgive me)

Verse Three: Raekwon the Chef a.k.a. Lou Diamonds

Sit back relax, fake niggaz don't get turns
Watch me massage ya brain with slang that's king
Projects filled with young men cause threats
Who is that? Thousand dollar chains and techs
Focus, the brokest niggaz of life ****
These mics is like cocaine Sun, check the suicidal hype ****
Exchange mad blunts taste the sweepstakes
Keepin up on fakes outta state for cakes
No doubt, plus nobody amount, we making dough off of
Puttin fifty on the Land and Allah, it's like that
Pull ya shoes up black, matta of fact just adapt
Tie up, ya black Nike's and tight hats
Corners, stay surrounded with foreigners
Whattup dread? Feds caught you grudgin for his bread
But regardless, peace to jail niggaz with charges
Unify layin in the guard with La
My Clan done ran from Japan to Atlanta, with stamina
Clingers and gamblers, and gram handlers
Tical like the Isle, so God, let's get steamed
Infrared guard yo' Beem, so seek nuff respect
Rude bwoy you bet, keep it movin par shallah
Pro black like tar
Designin the fly **** and stay shinin and
the RZA pours more beats than Cristal's fine wine
Concrete raps go to black
with 50 other niggaz on the other side of the map
Knew it's all good and all done what, we want some
Mike Tyson of this rap ****, pullin out Macs for fun

Verse Four: The Genius/GZA a.k.a. Maximillion

The nigga don't get mad, I got mad styles of my own
And it's shown when my hands grip the chrome microphone
Verbally I catch bodies with cordless shotties
Intriguin emcees, I keep em trained like potties
I bomb facts, my sword is an axe
to split backs invisible, like dope fiend tracks
Sky's the limit, niggaz are timid, and nobody knows
How we move like wolfs in sheep clothes
Producin data, microchips or software
Undaground and off air, the Land of the Lost
Notorious henchman from the North
Strikin niggaz where the Mason-Dixon line crossed

[Clunk]

Guillotine (Swordz) - Wu Tang Clan

The best poetry there is....

Poisonous paragraphs, smash ya phonograph
in half, it be the Inspectah Deck on the warpath
First class leavin mics with a cast
Causin ruckus like the aftermath when guns blast
Run fast, here comes the verbal assaulta
Rhymes runnin wild like a child in a walker
I scored from the inner slums abroad
And my thoughts are razor sharp I sliced the mic from the cord
First they criticize, but now they have become
mentally paralyzed with hits that I devise
Now I testify, the rest is I, Rebel INS
Ya highness, blessed to electrify
with voltage of an eel, truth that I reveal'll
crush the amateurs who screamed to keep it real
Caesar black down hoodied up and fatigues
Part time minor leagues receive third degrees
Attack like a wolf pack, once I pull back
then guard you, and bust through like a fullback

Verse Two: Ghostface Killer a.k.a. Tony Starks

Yo, you fourteen carat gold slum computer wizard
Tappin inside my rap vein causes blizzards
Do I like the kills for ice trife like botta digits
Gorillas injected with strength of eighty midgets
The Earth spins ruins, rap exotic blends
Let my peeps in, niggaz gaspin swallowin aspirins
What a dosage, you overdosed in rap
High explosives my post-its hypnotize with hypnosis
I sell goods, my whole Clan is on the run like Natural Born Killers
Record-breaking the album Thriller
Now access the jig who has bombs and rocket launchers
Float like dope killer bees is what I sponsor
Ya entrepeneur, pens and gear like shakespeare
When I **** I grab hair, collect drawers as souveneirs
**** yeah, my crew down German beers
My career is based on guns, throwin cats in wheelchairs
Etcetera, damage any lame ass competitor
Who try to front, get broken and passed like leathers
Whatever hot hardheads get shattered like mirrors
Beretta shots splatter your goose, scatter ya feathers
Say never poetry chumps crumbs deal with graphic
Blew my family overseas in mansions
If rap was crack, fully packed I be tour cats
Tax the kingpin of the rap drug traffickin
Village niggaz get slapped in Manhattan
for rappin, big Ghost steps off laffin

(Were you just using the Wu-Tang school method against me?
I've learned so many styles, forgive me)

Verse Three: Raekwon the Chef a.k.a. Lou Diamonds

Sit back relax, fake niggaz don't get turns
Watch me massage ya brain with slang that's king
Projects filled with young men cause threats
Who is that? Thousand dollar chains and techs
Focus, the brokest niggaz of life ****
These mics is like cocaine Sun, check the suicidal hype ****
Exchange mad blunts taste the sweepstakes
Keepin up on fakes outta state for cakes
No doubt, plus nobody amount, we making dough off of
Puttin fifty on the Land and Allah, it's like that
Pull ya shoes up black, matta of fact just adapt
Tie up, ya black Nike's and tight hats
Corners, stay surrounded with foreigners
Whattup dread? Feds caught you grudgin for his bread
But regardless, peace to jail niggaz with charges
Unify layin in the guard with La
My Clan done ran from Japan to Atlanta, with stamina
Clingers and gamblers, and gram handlers
Tical like the Isle, so God, let's get steamed
Infrared guard yo' Beem, so seek nuff respect
Rude bwoy you bet, keep it movin par shallah
Pro black like tar
Designin the fly **** and stay shinin and
the RZA pours more beats than Cristal's fine wine
Concrete raps go to black
with 50 other niggaz on the other side of the map
Knew it's all good and all done what, we want some
Mike Tyson of this rap ****, pullin out Macs for fun

Verse Four: The Genius/GZA a.k.a. Maximillion

The nigga don't get mad, I got mad styles of my own
And it's shown when my hands grip the chrome microphone
Verbally I catch bodies with cordless shotties
Intriguin emcees, I keep em trained like potties
I bomb facts, my sword is an axe
to split backs invisible, like dope fiend tracks
Sky's the limit, niggaz are timid, and nobody knows
How we move like wolfs in sheep clothes
Producin data, microchips or software
Undaground and off air, the Land of the Lost
Notorious henchman from the North
Strikin niggaz where the Mason-Dixon line crossed

Frank Sinatra sang it first.

[BlindMelon7]

Frank Sinatra sang it first.

[KBeee]

I Come and Stand at Every Door
- Nazim Hikmet

I come and stand at every door.
But no one hears my silent tread.
I knock and yet remain unseen.
For I am dead, for I am dead.

I'm only seven although I died.
In Hiroshima long ago.
I'm seven now as I was then.
When children die they do not grow.

My hair was scorched by swirling flame.
My eyes grew dim, my eyes grew blind.
Death came and turned my bones to dust.
And that was scattered by the wind.

I need no fruit, I need no rice.
I need no sweet, nor even bread.
I ask for nothing for myself.
For I am dead, for I am dead.

All that I ask is that for peace.
You fight today, you fight today.
So that the children of this world.
May live and grow and laugh and play.