Poetry

Error message

Deprecated function: implode(): Passing glue string after array is deprecated. Swap the parameters in drupal_get_feeds() (line 394 of /var/www/pied-piper.ermarian.net/includes/common.inc).

Pages

AuthorTopic: Poetry
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #0
It's been some time since I revived a perennial topic (can't remember if I ever did), but here's one I've been meaning to do since about a week or so ago.

Basically, post poetry.

Since we all know that Spiderweb attracts creative minds, I am sure that a lot of people have their own efforts ready to tort-- entertain the community with. Since our sanities are safely outside, I'm also certain we'll be able to survive even the worst of it, so don't hesitate to post even if you think it is the most godawful crap wreaked on mankind since ever a Vogon picked up a quill.

Finally, to avoid excluding those who prefer reading poetry to writing it, you can post works you have read and enjoyed as well.

-

I forgot whether it is appropriate to say "Go!" at the end of these topics...

---

I'm unsure whether I should start it off and risk making the topic look like a cause added after the intent (of posting my stuff), or wait for someone else to start and risk making it look like I chickened out. :P

Ah well, guess I'll start. In the way of making sense, this one ranks pretty low (it was written at about 6 am in a train, in a less than lucid moment)...

quote:
Beyond the shadowy hills there lies
The land of a race with crimson eyes.
Where looming, towering figures rise
Above the plains where darkness lies
And cast about their baleful eyes
Upon a folk that never dies,
A world whose knowledge death defies
And where the deathless silence cries
A sound of rage or joy likewise
But here the silent void defies
All noise, its own unspoken cries
Upon a folk that never dies,
Upon a race that ever lies,
Where truth is but a poor disguise
For a nightmare land whose name defies
Both sanity and its demise
Land of a race with crimson eyes
Land of a folk that never dies
Land of a people that ever lies
Land of a race that death defies
Land of a folk whose unheard cries
Echo from spaces where madness lies.

In Leng of the eternal ice
I met that race with crimson eyes
And learnt their lore and heard their cries
And read the silent libraries
That held the ancient knowledge wise
And there I learnt of their demise
In grief they waited, their lonely cries
To echo from the vaults likewise
And if I strained my ears and eyes
I could perceive where madness lies:
In the land of a race with crimson eyes
In the land of a folk that never dies
In the land of a people that ever lies
In the land of a race that death defies.

Beyond the shadowy hills it lies
Beyond the silver stars that rise
Above the plains where darkness lies.


--------------------
Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Shaper
Member # 5450
Profile Homepage #1
There once was a man from...

Oh. You meant serious stuff.

Well, heres one my friend told me a couple of years ago. I am not sure about its origins, but he probably stole it from somewhere.

quote:
There once was a man from Peru
Who dreamt he was eating his shoe
He woke with a fright
In the middle of the night
To find his dream had come true.


--------------------
I'll put a Spring in your step.
:ph34r:
Posts: 2396 | Registered: Saturday, January 29 2005 08:00
Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
Profile Homepage #2
That link to previous poetry topics scared me a little. Meanwhile, allow me to present one of the few online tests that's actually worthwhile. The results are quite amusing:

quote:
If they told you I'm mad, then they lied.
I'm odd, but it isn't compulsive.
I'm the triolet, bursting with pride;
If they told you I'm mad, then they lied.
No, it isn't obsessive. Now hide
All the spoons or I might get convulsive.
If they told you I'm mad then they lied.
I'm odd, but it isn't compulsive.

What Poetry Form Are You?
I also recommend the What Pre-1985 Video Game Character Are You? quiz, at the same site. (I am a Thrust-ship.)

--------------------
Slarty vs. DeskDesk vs. SlartyTimeline of ErmarianG4 Strategy Central
Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00
Agent
Member # 3364
Profile Homepage #3
I've haven't made anything in a while but maybe I'll dig out some of my old stuff. In the meantime, here's something I've always enjoyed,

quote:

One fine day in the middle of the night,
Two dead boys got up to fight,
Back to back they faced each other,
Drew their swords and shot each other,

One was blind and the other couldn't see
So they chose a dummy for a referee.
A blind man went to see fair play,
A dumb man went to shout "hooray!"

A paralysed donkey passing by,
Kicked the blind man in the eye,
Knocked him through a nine inch wall,
Into a dry ditch and drowned them all,

A deaf policeman heard the noise,
And came to arrest the two dead boys,
If you don't believe this story’s true,
Ask the blind man he saw it too!

-by Unknown


--------------------
"Even the worst Terror from Hell can be transformed to a testimony from Heaven!" - Rev. David Wood 6\23\05

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can." - John Wesley
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Tuesday, August 19 2003 07:00
Warrior
Member # 6234
Profile #4
It's funny, I have a version of that same poem, but it's slighty different and shorter:

quote:
One dark day in the middle of the night,
Two dead boys got up to fight.
Back to back, they faced each other,
Drew their swords and shot each other.
A deaf policeman heard the noise,
Ran and shot the two dead boys.
If you don't believe that this lie is true,
Ask the blind man — he saw it too.
-by Unknown

The longer version is new to me, but I like it.

EDIT: I don't write poems myself, and my lyrics are... well... not good enough to post. :)

[ Wednesday, March 15, 2006 08:44: Message edited by: Snafta a.k.a. no chicken for sale ]

--------------------
There are 400 words in the dictionary that begin with "self" and only 8 that begin with "fellow".

When in doubt. . . mumble.
Posts: 150 | Registered: Saturday, August 20 2005 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #5
Dream quest to the Mountains of Madness, Aran?

Lorca's "Romance Sonámbulo" goes here.

—Alorael, whose poetic talents start and end at the limerick. He once wrote a ballad, and it proved his point.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Guardian
Member # 6670
Profile Homepage #6
Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it...
Both of these compile and run in Perl.

quote:
#!/usr/bin/perl

APPEAL:

listen (please, please);

open yourself, wide;
join (you, me),
connect (us,together),

tell me.

do something if distressed;

@dawn, dance;
@evening, sing;
read (books,$poems,stories) until peaceful;
study if able;

write me if-you-please;

sort your feelings, reset goals, seek (friends, family, anyone);

do*not*die (like this)
if sin abounds;

keys (hidden), open (locks, doors), tell secrets;
do not, I-beg-you, close them, yet.

accept (yourself, changes),
bind (grief, despair);

require truth, goodness if-you-will, each moment;

select (always), length(of-days)

# listen (a perl poem)
# Sharon Hopkins
# rev. June 19, 1995
And for good measure, a haiku as well!

quote:
study, write, study,
do review (each word) if time.
close book. sleep? what's that?
--------------------
Inertia makes the earth go round.
Posts: 1509 | Registered: Tuesday, January 10 2006 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #7
quote:
Originally written by Euphemism Wrapped in an Innuendo:

Dream quest to the Mountains of Madness, Aran?

Well, I did read a large part of Lovecraft's collected works back in Summer/Fall last year. I think that's present in my posts in MoS as well:

quote:
They say that there are places deep in the foundations of the world, where nameless things gnaw the roots of time. Madness takes those that come upon them.
...
"Two score years I wandered the world. Where the boldest humans never trod, I have made my path. Caverns thought to be part of legend I have passed through. Primal forests, and ancient ruins in them, I have explored. I have mapped foul Ilyat in the blighted swamps, I have beheld the iron pillars of Gen in the eternal ice, and in the great plains of Shanaar, where the air shivers in the heat and shows strange visions to the lost traveler, I have walked through long-forgotten Khom and entered the Golden Temple."
Also,

quote:

Lorca's "Romance Sonámbulo" goes here.

—Alorael, whose poetic talents start and end at the limerick. He once wrote a ballad, and it proved his point.
quote:
Romance Sonambulo

Green, how I want you green.
Green wind. Green branches.
The ship out on the sea
and the horse on the mountain.
With the shade around her waist
she dreams on her balcony,
green flesh, her hair green,
with eyes of cold silver.
Green, how I want you green.
Under the gypsy moon,
all things are watching her
and she cannot see them.

Green, how I want you green.
Big hoarfrost stars
come with the fish of shadow
that opens the road of dawn.
The fig tree rubs its wind
with the sandpaper of its branches,
and the forest, cunning cat,
bristles its brittle fibers.
But who will come? And from where?
She is still on her balcony
green flesh, her hair green,
dreaming in the bitter sea.

--My friend, I want to trade
my horse for her house,
my saddle for her mirror,
my knife for her blanket.
My friend, I come bleeding
from the gates of Cabra.
--If it were possible, my boy,
I'd help you fix that trade.
But now I am not I,
nor is my house now my house.
--My friend, I want to die
decently in my bed.
Of iron, if that's possible,
with blankets of fine chambray.
Don't you see the wound I have
from my chest up to my throat?
--Your white shirt has grown
thirsty dark brown roses.
Your blood oozes and flees
around the corners of your sash.
But now I am not I,
nor is my house now my house.
--Let me climb up, at least,
up to the high balconies;
Let me climb up! Let me,
up to the green balconies.
Railings of the moon
through which the water rumbles.

Now the two friends climb up,
up to the high balconies.
Leaving a trail of blood.
Leaving a trail of teardrops.
Tin bell vines
were trembling on the roofs.
A thousand crystal tambourines
struck at the dawn light.

Green, how I want you green,
green wind, green branches.
The two friends climbed up.
The stiff wind left
in their mouths, a strange taste
of bile, of mint, and of basil
My friend, where is she--tell me--
where is your bitter girl?
How many times she waited for you!
How many times would she wait for you,
cool face, black hair,
on this green balcony!
Over the mouth of the cistern
the gypsy girl was swinging,
green flesh, her hair green,
with eyes of cold silver.
An icicle of moon
holds her up above the water.
The night became intimate
like a little plaza.
Drunken "Guardias Civiles"
were pounding on the door.
Green, how I want you green.
Green wind. Green branches.
The ship out on the sea.
And the horse on the mountain.

-- Federico Garcia Lorca


[ Wednesday, March 15, 2006 13:50: Message edited by: We are the music-makers ]

--------------------
Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Infiltrator
Member # 6652
Profile #8
There once was a chicken named Fly
Who got made into chicken pot pie
It was eaten by a man
Who got hit by a van
And the moral of the story is: Don't die.

I am working on a song, but it's more poetry than song. I'm missing some verses, though. I'll post it when I'm done.
And yes, it's better than the above.

--------------------
But I don't want to ride the elevator.
Posts: 420 | Registered: Sunday, January 8 2006 08:00
Guardian
Member # 2339
Profile #9
Well, here is a poem from LoTR...

quote:
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

But I could never write a poem without inspiration. I've been told I'm an excellent writer. Feel free to give me something to write a poem about.

--------------------
-Zephyr Tempest, your personal entertainer
Posts: 1779 | Registered: Monday, December 9 2002 08:00
Agent
Member # 4574
Profile #10
Here's one I wrote about this forum:
Come one, come all, to the land of dancing bananas!
If you want to live than leave your sanity at the door!
For the dancing bananas and the fluffy turtles are hungry!
Pay your respects, giving your skribbane to Alorael and you canisters to me, or else!
If not the dancing bananas will feed on your corpse!

--------------------
Constitutional monarchies are the in monarchies.
Posts: 1186 | Registered: Friday, June 18 2004 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #11
As always, it loses something in translation.

quote:
Verde que te quiero verde.
Verde viento. Verdes ramas.
El barco sobre la mar
y el caballo en la montaña.
Con la sombra en la cintura
ella sueña en su baranda,
verde carne, pelo verde,
con ojos de fría plata.
Verde que te quiero verde.
Bajo la luna gitana,
las cosas le están mirando
y ella no puede mirarlas.

Verde que te quiero verde.
Grandes estrellas de escarcha,
vienen con el pez de sombra
que abre el camino del alba.
La higuera frota su viento
con la lija de sus ramas,
y el monte, gato garduño,
eriza sus pitas agrias.
¿Pero quién vendrá? ¿Y por dónde...?
Ella sigue en su baranda,
verde carne, pelo verde,
soñando en la mar amarga.

Compadre, quiero cambiar
mi caballo por su casa,
mi montura por su espejo,
mi cuchillo por su manta.
Compadre, vengo sangrando,
desde los montes de Cabra.
Si yo pudiera, mocito,
ese trato se cerraba.
Pero yo ya no soy yo,
ni mi casa es ya mi casa.
Compadre, quiero morir
decentemente en mi cama.
De acero, si puede ser,
con las sábanas de holanda.
¿No ves la herida que tengo
desde el pecho a la garganta?
Trescientas rosas morenas
lleva tu pechera blanca.
Tu sangre rezuma y huele
alrededor de tu faja.
Pero yo ya no soy yo,
ni mi casa es ya mi casa.
Dejadme subir al menos
hasta las altas barandas,
dejadme subir, dejadme,
hasta las verdes barandas.
Barandales de la luna
por donde retumba el agua.

Ya suben los dos compadres
hacia las altas barandas.
Dejando un rastro de sangre.
Dejando un rastro de lágrimas.
Temblaban en los tejados
farolillos de hojalata.
Mil panderos de cristal,
herían la madrugada.

Verde que te quiero verde,
verde viento, verdes ramas.
Los dos compadres subieron.
El largo viento, dejaba
en la boca un raro gusto
de hiel, de menta y de albahaca.
¡Compadre! ¿Dónde está, dime?
¿Dónde está mi niña amarga?
¡Cuántas veces te esperó!
¡Cuántas veces te esperara,
cara fresca, negro pelo,
en esta verde baranda!

Sobre el rostro del aljibe
se mecía la gitana.
Verde carne, pelo verde,
con ojos de fría plata.
Un carámbano de luna
la sostiene sobre el agua.
La noche su puso íntima
como una pequeña plaza.
Guardias civiles borrachos,
en la puerta golpeaban.
Verde que te quiero verde.
Verde viento. Verdes ramas.
El barco sobre la mar.
Y el caballo en la montaña.
—Alorael, who is also a fan of a certain three word poem by one Ogden Nash. "Parsley / is garsley."
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Guardian
Member # 6670
Profile Homepage #12
By Skribbaneking:
quote:
Come one, come all, to the land of dancing bananas!
If you want to live than leave your sanity at the door!
For the dancing bananas and the fluffy turtles are hungry!
Pay your respects, giving your skribbane to Alorael and you canisters to me, or else!
If not the dancing bananas will feed on your corpse!
Almost as good as the Ode to Avernum. Dancing bananas?

--------------------
man's sole gesture of defiance
at a hostile or indifferent universe
is standing outside at night
after the requisite number of beers
and with a graceful enormous parabola
trying to piss on the stars
failing magnificently
- attempt (Al Purdy)
Posts: 1509 | Registered: Tuesday, January 10 2006 08:00
Agent
Member # 4574
Profile #13
Wow! That is good! I was considering posting poems for every forum that I care about. Anyone think I should?

--------------------
Constitutional monarchies are the in monarchies.
Posts: 1186 | Registered: Friday, June 18 2004 07:00
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #14
No. No, you should not.

--------------------
SupaNik: Aran, you're not big enough to threaten Ash. Dammit, even JV had to think twice.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Councilor
Member # 6600
Profile Homepage #15
This riddle is about as poetic as Dikiyoba gets.

The water spills over the edge
Down, down, down it falls
Until it hits the rocks
Mist sprays up and a rainbow appears within
Fleeting images of color
That are here and there
With no real purpose
Racing around like a startled rabbit
Or a person with no direction in life
What is it?
Posts: 4346 | Registered: Friday, December 23 2005 08:00
Agent
Member # 4574
Profile #16
quote:
Originally written by Dikiyoba:

This riddle is about as poetic as Dikiyoba gets.

The water spills over the edge
Down, down, down it falls
Until it hits the rocks
Mist sprays up and a rainbow appears within
Fleeting images of color
That are here and there
With no real purpose
Racing around like a startled rabbit
Or a person with no direction in life
What is it?

Rather obvious, it's a waterfall, right?

--------------------
Constitutional monarchies are the in monarchies.
Posts: 1186 | Registered: Friday, June 18 2004 07:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
Profile Homepage #17
Or, if you interpret "water" metaphorically, the cathode ray tube of a television set.

--------------------
The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #18
Not unless your TV has rocks in it and only fleeting images.

Actually, based on "fleeting," I'm going to guess that it's an oscilloscope. I'm not sure what the rocks are, but they're probably important.

—Alorael, who believes any riddle can be made into a difficult riddle through the judicious application of stretched metaphors and insanity.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #19
To prove the point: How is a raven like a writing desk?

---

quote:


NEMESIS
by [[come on, guess. hint: "fhtag'n!"]]

Through the ghoul-guarded gateways of slumber,
Past the wan-mooned abysses of night,
I have lived o'er my lives without number,
I have sounded all things with my sight;
And I struggle and shriek ere the daybreak, being
driven to madness with fright.

I have whirled with the earth at the dawning,
When the sky was a vaporous flame;
I have seen the dark universe yawning
Where the black planets roll without aim,
Where they roll in their horror unheeded, without
knowledge or lustre or name.

I had drifted o'er seas without ending,
Under sinister grey-clouded skies
That the many-forked lightning is rending,
That resound with hysterical cries;
With the moans of invisible daemons that out
of the green waters rise.

I have plunged like a deer through the arches
Of the hoary primordial grove,
Where the oaks feel the presense that marches
And stalks on where no spirit dares rove,
And I flee from a thing that surrounds me, and leers
through dead branches above.

I have stumbled by cave-riddled mountains
That rise barren and bleak from the plain,
I have drunk of the frog-foetid fountains
That ooze down to the marsh and the main;
And in hot cursed tarns I have seen things I care not
to gaze on again.

I have scanned the vast ivy-clad palace,
I have trod its untenanted hall,
Where the moon rising up from the valleys
Shows the tapestried things on the walls;
Strange figures dischordantly woven, that I cannot
endure to recall.

I have peered from the casements in wonder
At the mouldering meadows around,
At the many-roofed village laid under
The curse of a grave-girdled ground;
And from rows of white urn-carven marble I listen
intently for sound.

I have haunted the tombs of the ages,
I have flown on the pinions of fear
Where the smoke-belching Erebus rages;
Where the jokulls look snow-clad and drear:
And in realms where the sun of the desert consumes
what it never can cheer.

I was old when the pharoahs first mounted
The jewel-decked throne by the Nile;
I was old in those epochs uncounted
When I, and I only, was vile;
And Man, yet untainted and happy, dwelt in bliss on
the far Arctic isle.

Oh, great was the sin of my spirit,
And great is the reach of its doom;
Not the pity of Heaven can cheer it,
Nor can respite be found in the tomb:
Down the infinite aeons come beating the wings of
unmerciful gloom.

Through the ghoul-guarded gateways of slumber,
Past the wan-mooned abysses of night,
I have lived o'er my lives without number,
I have sounded all things with my sight;
And I struggle and shriek ere the daybreak, being
driven to madness with fright.



[ Wednesday, March 15, 2006 19:13: Message edited by: We are the music-makers ]

--------------------
Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Councilor
Member # 6600
Profile Homepage #20
Originally by we are the music-makers:

quote:
To prove the point: How is a raven like a writing desk?
We will nevar know.

Dikiyoba.
Posts: 4346 | Registered: Friday, December 23 2005 08:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
Profile Homepage #21
Actually, Carroll eventually wrote an answer to that, just to stop people annoying him about it. It was first published 31 years after the first edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and of course it's not really worth 31 years of buildup, but here it is anyway, just as Carroll wrote it.

"Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!"

And no, "nevar" isn't a typo. Think about it.

[ Wednesday, March 15, 2006 20:34: Message edited by: Thuryl ]

--------------------
The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
Profile Homepage #22
Carroll also specified that it was not intended to have an answer. I linked to a full explanation in another thread. (Sorry, I don't have the link handy.)

--------------------
Slarty vs. DeskDesk vs. SlartyTimeline of ErmarianG4 Strategy Central
Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #23
Right here.

—Alorael, who prefers Michie's's answer.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #24
And I read said full explanation, which is the reason I knew of this example just now. Nicely recursive, don't you think? :)

--------------------
Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00

Pages