Poetry, like lyrics, has its own interpretation depending on the reader. I love all sorts of writing and poetry so below are 5 pieces of poetry that immediately popped into my head. 😀
- This first poem was sent to me via a twitter friend. He reads my personal blogs and detected I was struggling to make a decision. I was….. when reading this piece it struck me instantly that I needed to take a risk. Since receiving this “message” I took control of my life, handed in my notice and am starting in a new place of work. I’m nervous and excited in equal measures BUT at least I’m not standing still 😀
‘RISK’ by William Arthur Ward
To laugh is to risk appearing a fool,
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental
To reach out to another is to risk involvement
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self
To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss
To love is to risk not being loved in return
To hope is to risk despair
To try is to risk failure
But the risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow,
But he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live.
Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom.
Only a person who takes a risk is free.
The pessimist complains about the wind.
The optimist expects it to change.
And the realist adjusts the sails
- This next poem reminds me of a guy who used to drum in a band I “managed” in the 80’s He was forever quoting the first line, if gigs/venues didn’t go to plan and I started to panic. when you read it all, its full of excellent advice for both men and women 😀
‘if’ by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master,
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son! Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
- Many think this next poem is a tad excessive, for me it rings hard truth…..as an adult, I still do things and recognise things as traits I’ve inherited from my upbringing….I’ve hangups that come from how I think I was viewed growing up. Many, I realise now, are a wrong interpretation but it still had the same effect….. As a parent I’m trying not to make the same mistakes with my kids….but I’m probably making new mistakes with them. I know I was parented with love and my best interest in mind, because in reality there’s no rule book. So I will try to do the best with my kids and try not to question their parenting techniques when its their turn…..
Philip Larkin – This Be The Verse
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were f@cked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.
- This next poem always makes me cry…… I dread when I’m in that position when its the turn of someone very close to me….its a tribute to a great love and a loss that will be hard to get over.
W. H. Auden Stop all the clocks
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
- To finish, my fifth choice is a bit of a cheat as it’s two mini pieces of poetry. Both are taken from fave books from my teenage years. As you will see the books are poles apart…. but thats me, I love diversity 😀
Vogan poetry: hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
“Oh freddled gruntbuggly/thy micturations are to me/As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee.
Groop I implore thee, my foonting turlingdromes. And hooptiously drangle me with crinkly bindlewurdles,
Or I will rend thee in the gobberwarts with my blurglecruncheon, see if I don’t!”
Twelfth Night Act 1, scene 1, 1–3
Orsino:
If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my five favourite poems, I’d love to hear what your favourite poem is and why.
