Extraordinary 9/11 poem

[spanglechick]

won't somebody think of the poetry?
poets are often oppressed
they aren't metaphorially hairy
on their metaphorical chests

most poets tend to be cautious
"the pen is mightier..." they write -
and they might have a point in a courthouse;
but a sword is more use in a fight.

 

[RaverDrew]

Have you really read
All the research links
I put in this thread
or are you basing your opinion
on what the owl said?

dont care what you think
I have my belief
maybe just agree
to disagree chief

 

[RaverDrew]

Have you really read
All the research links
I put in this thread
or are you basing your opinion
on what the owl said?

dont care what you think
I have my belief
maybe just agree
to disagree chief

why does it bother you
so much if I do
am I not entitled
to my point of view ?

 

[RaverDrew]

oops double post
my silly mistake
I think it is time
to take a break

 

[Firky]

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pur whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?

 

[editor]

why does it bother you
so much if I do
am I not entitled
to my point of view ?

You can believe what you like
and even post it here
But you can't complain
If people think, "oh dear"
as they find your facts well ropey
and your sources extremely hokey

 

[Firky]

WILL EVERYONE STOP WRITING SHIT POEMS

Thankyou.

 

[editor]

Here's one of the best poems ever written - it's by Dylan Thomas about his dying father:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

 

[Loki]

A great poem that's spookily relevant

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

- Percy Bysshe Shelley

 

[Firky]

Here's one of the best poems ever written - it's by Dylan Thomas about his dying father:

Dylan Thomas is the dog's cock, 'The Mouse and the Woman’ is one of the best things I have ever read, it is prose however. Totally barking!

Bascically a man in an asylum has killed the woman of his dream. But, he’s not sure if he killed her. At one point he accepts that to really love her he must enter into his dream. “A being had been born not out of the womb, but out of the soul and the spinning head.”

Eventually, however, he cannot accept his own dream which includes the woman he’s created in her naked and beautiful self. She gets a bit pissed off and wants to know why he has covered her up nor look upon her nakedness which he has so vehemintly loved. He can only repeat that it is not good to do so. Realising, he has killed the woman, through logical reacon nothing is left but for he himself to die.

He knew he had failed before the eye of Sirius to hold his miracle. The woman had shown him that it was wonderful to live. And now, when at least he knew how wonderful life is, he must close his eyes and die. (That part reminds me of Meursault in Camus' 'The Outsider').

However, it is only him and his dream that die. As he does this Thomas finds that it is now spring and life is once again being born!

In a nutshell: It is only in our darkest moments of madness do we find true beauty in life

Beautiful stuff.

 

[Azrael]

Incoherent trash. Must a poem now garner automatic praise by being "brave" enough to tackle an atrocity? Seems so.

In fact, in chosing the September 11 atrocity as the subject for this self-indulgent drivel, the poem's offense is all the more egregious. At least superficial trash doesn't exploit human tragedy and murder.

Worse than Tenyson's Charge of the Light Brigade dirge, which at least had structure. Hopefully a Lauretship will send this poet into obscurity also.

 

[Julie]

there was a big tower in new york
knocked down by people who didn't eat pork
it caused a big stir
started a world war
muslims don't show us their norks

Shouldn't admit this but bugger it, I larfed out loud

 

[Donna Ferentes]

On the versifying of this thread, I ought to interject
That to write in rhyme
Most all the time
Is one of my projects.
Perhaps I should begin one now, which invites us all to write
Not only there
But everywhere
In verses of this type.
The idea struck me months ago, that if we wrote in verse
There is a chance
It might enhance
Our posts. They can't be worse.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

On 9/11 itself this poem came to mind: I posted it on the Net and I was far from the only one.

On 9/11 itself, no poetry came to mind.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

To your mind, no:
The records show
For others, it was so.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

I'll explain as that sounds a little cold. I don't get what is so 'extraordinary' about it, I have read far more harrowing accounts from people who were there, and from relatives who lost people in the attack. My Deputy Head from school lost his daughter in the attack, and although I have never spoken to him about that 'link' as it were is stronger.

It also annoys me how the events on Sept' 11th have been reduced down to a media friendly soundbyte '9/11' - really grates me. Why reduce something to a sound bite? Also if the Times hadn't picked up on this poem would it if of still had the same impact, I doubt it myself.

Why people are still obsessed with it also bypasses me. I reckon it is purely down to the fact that we've not been allowed to forget it, it has been used as a vehicle for TWOT, and the fact that it was broadcast live all over the world.

Perhaps the bombing of Dresden was was the biggest terrorist attack ever? But we don't like to talk about that do we... there was a war going on. Pfft! 100,000+ civilians were killed in the 1945 attack.

Way more civilians burned to death in the firebombing of Tokyo, but it doesn't seem to get the mention that Dresden gets. Maybe if the dead hadn't been Japs.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

And yet every year
We mark Hiroshima Day
And mourn those who died

 

[The Groke]

And yet every year
We mark Hiroshima Day
And mourn those who died

How many syllables is "every"?

 

[Donna Ferentes]

In the morning
When I'm yawning
Only two:
But there's another one, too.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

it is one of those dont know wether to laugh or cry things

kids starve to death every day but no fucker writes a poem for them. yet wtc shit is much more valid

Just because kids starve to death, doesn't make wtc invalid.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

there once was a man from kuwait
he did nothing but masturbate
jumped on an airliner
crashed into carolina
he realyy took the bait

There once was an arabic knave
Who young minds he was wont to enslave
He committed a blunder
Made some planes go asunder
Now he lives like a rat in a cave.

 

[The Groke]

In the morning
When I'm yawning
Only two:
But there's another one, too.

 

[Firky]

And yet every year
We mark Hiroshima Day
And mourn those who died

That is really fucking annoying.

 

[kakuma]

i'm off me beer
but i'm still in korea

 

[snouty warthog]

dunno, I guess a B25 doesn't carry as much fuel (which isn't as a higher grade as that of a jumbo jet thing) and is a lot slower... but seriously, this aint the thread for it and it has been discussed ad infinitum on urban over the last five years.

fairly do's. apologies for my part in the derail. I usually manage to avoid getting caught up in those kind of arguments, but occasionally it happens...

 

[snouty warthog]

In fact, in chosing the September 11 atrocity as the subject for this self-indulgent drivel, the poem's offense is all the more egregious.

I do like Simon Armitage, a lot in fact, so I wouldn't slag the poem as much as if it were by, say, Andrew Motion... but I tend to agree with you...

to me it is not offensive, exactly, it just misses the mark a little. I couldn't pretend to imagine what it must have been like for those trapped in the towers. I would imagine that writing a poem about it would be the last thing on their mind...

what grates with me about 9/11 is how some folks in the US media constantly 'big it up'- 'our little tragedy, when the big horrible world started picking on us'. you reap what you sow, and the US has surely sown enough discord and strife across the world...

there is suffering everywhere, but some people seem to believe that their tragedy, their loss, is somehow more important, more worthwhile than others...

which made me think of this poem...

Earthquake- Charles Bukowski


Americans don't know what tragedy is —
a little 6.5 earthquake can set them to chattering
like monkeys —
a piece of chinaware broken,
the Union Rescue Mission falls down —
6 a.m.
they sit in their cars
they're all driving around —
where are they going?
a little excitement has broken into their
canned lives
stranger stands next to stranger
chattering gibberish fear
anxious fear
anxious laughter...
my baby, my flowerpots, my ceiling
my bank account
this is just a tickler
a feather
and they can't bear it...

suppose they bombed the city
as other cities have been bombed
not with an a-bomb
but with ordinary blockbusters
day after day,
every day
as has happened
in other cities of the world?

if the rest of the world could see you today
their laughter would bring the sun to its knees
and even the flowers would leap from the ground
like bulldogs
and chase you away to where you belong
wherever that is,
ans who cares where it is
as long as it's somewhere away from
here.

 

[CaptPierce]

The other poet laureate Ted Hughes said he never trusted a poem that was longer than one side of an A4 page. I don't like much Ted Hughes but I think he has a point here, cause when I got to that last line I was disappointed, I just didn't feel it had any heart...

http://www.undermilkwood.net/poetry_arefusaltomourn.html

 

[exosculate]

I think a five line rhyming poem should from this moment on be known as a ninja.

 

[exosculate]

Oh and I think the Armitage poem was poor.

Slaughterhouse 5 - is great (who ever posted that up)

 

[exosculate]

This sums it up for me.

Stasis in darkness.
Then the substanceless blue
Pour of tor and distances.