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Favorite Poetry
Poetry - 4 Links
Poem - The Child Angel, by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore
https://www.poetseers.org/nobel-prize-for-literature/tagore/tagores-poems/the-child-angel/
The Child Angel
Let your life come amongst them like a flame of light, my child,
unflickering and pure, and delight them into silence.
They are cruel in their greed and their envy,
their words are like hidden knives thirsting for blood.
Go and stand amidst their scowling hearts, my child,
and let your gentle eyes fall upon them like the
forgiving peace of the evening over the strife of the day.
Let them see your face, my child, and thus know the
meaning of all things, let them love you and love each other.
Come and take your seat in the bosom of the limitless, my child.
At sunrise open and raise your heart like a blossoming flower,
and at sunset bend your head and in silence
complete the worship of the day.
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Poem Peformance - "To This Day" ... for the bullied and beautiful by Shane Koyczan
By turn hilarious and haunting, poet Shane Koyczan puts his finger on the pulse of what it's like to be young and ... different. "To This Day," his spoken-word poem about bullying, captivated millions as a viral video (created, crowd-source style, by 80 animators). Here, he gives a glorious, live reprise with backstory and violin accompaniment by Hannah Epperson.
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James Earl Jones - reads from Shakespeare’s Othello at the White House
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The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
https://shakespeare.mit.edu/
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I think poetry can have the power to relax us, or make us sit up and take notice. And there are so many forms of it.
Way back when I was 8 or 9 I started writing poetry. There was an unused roll of adding machine tape that I used! To this day still writing, and often come across scraps of paper with thoughts in ink there. Never without paper and pen.
Ginger
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5 ReactionsWonderful! You have me beat. I started writing poetry around age 17. Adding machine tape?
That sounds eerily similar to Kerouac using teletype rolls. I think it was teletype rolls, anyway.
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1 ReactionPoetry - 4 Links
Jack Kerouac- American Haiku
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John Densmore performs Jim Morrison's poem "An American Prayer". (10-18-2013)
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Poetry in NJ - Live Poetry Readings
Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival
https://www.grdodge.org/our-work/dodge-poetry/
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You Tube Channel of past festivals
https://www.youtube.com/@grdodgepoetry
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The biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival is the largest poetry event in North America
The four-day celebration of poetry has been called “poetry heaven” by the 1995–1997 US Poet Laureate Robert Hass, “a new Woodstock” by the Christian Science Monitor, and “Wordstock” by The New York Times.[citation needed] The festival has been sponsored by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation in even-numbered years since 1986.The festival immerses audiences and more than five dozen internationally acclaimed poets in discussions, readings, and conversations focusing on poetry. Events are held all day and evening in performance venues accommodating anywhere from 100 to over 2,000 people. Each day, ten or more separate stages simultaneously offer different activities. The 13th biennial festival took place in Newark, New Jersey at NJPAC, Newark Symphony Hall, and other venues around the city. The 14th festival took place in the city October 11–14, 2012.
The 11th festival, held from September 28 through October 1, 2006, at Waterloo Village in Stanhope, New Jersey, attracted nearly 17,000 people.
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Drugs Rap
(4 beats per line)
I take drugs, I take lots of drugs
You can call them medications, but I call them drugs
I take hard-core, hard-to-get drugs
Seriously powerful, oncology drugs
Drugs that can cure you when your blood is infected
Drugs that can kill you when used as directed
Drugs for which I had to get an EKG
Come on heart, let them give it to me
Drugs taken by pill, drugs given by IVs
By lumbar puncture, I've had all of these
Venetoclax Vidaza, Acyclovir and Vori
This is just a small part of my drug story
Drug interactions, side effects galore
Not that that will stop me, give me some more
Medication should be taken with plenty of water
Do not discontinue without checking with your doctor
Joint pain, puffy face, slow wound healing
Changes in the skin, nausea and bleeding
Irregular heartbeat, dizziness and fainting
Agitation, twitching muscles, diarrhea, trouble breathing
Low blood pressure, lung infection
Tiredness, stomach pain, hallucination
My favorite drugs do not get me high
I take them to feel better, I take them to not die
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2 ReactionsI like "IF," by Rudyard Kipling. It gets to me every time.
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1 ReactionTim, wow…well done! I followed the rhythm and felt the beat! This is so impactful on a visceral level with me. Especially since I know you and I both shared a similar AML & transplant path for a while. Our meds, better living through chemistry!
I'm not a big fan of poetry, to be honest.
One exception:
The Power of the Dog
Rudyard Kipling 1865 – 1936
There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.
Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie—
Perfect passion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart for a dog to tear.
When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet’s unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find—it’s your own affair—
But… you’ve given your heart to a dog to tear.
When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!).
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone—wherever it goes—for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear.
We’ve sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent.
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we’ve kept ’em, the more do we grieve:
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-time loan is as bad as a long—
So why in—Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?
https://poets.org/poem/power-dog
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1 ReactionTo my Diego: 4 Poems by Frida Kahlo that Demonstrate the Exquisite Nature of Love.
https://www.elephantjournal.com/2016/10/to-my-diego-4-poems-by-frida-kahlo-that-demonstrate-the-exquisite-nature-of-love/
Poetry - Chinese Poems and Classic Japanese Haiku
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Chinese Poems
http://www.chinese-poems.com/
This site presents Chinese, pinyin and English texts of poems by some of the greatest Chinese poets. Most of the featured authors are from the Tang dynasty, when culture in China was at its peak, but writers from other periods are also included.
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Classic Japanese Haiku - many from the 1700s
From a 1955 Peter Pauper Press translation
https://sacred-texts.com/shi/jh/jh02.htm
example, from Basho:
Must Springtime Fade?
Then Cry All Birds
And Fishes Cold Pale Eyes Pour Tears
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Poetry International
large collection of poetry from around the world:
https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/
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