~POETRY
What does poetry mean to you? Where does your inspiration come from? Who is your favorite poet?

POETRY, "noun" is literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm; poems collectively or as a genre of literature.

"Walt Whitman" "is chiefly famous for his love poetry."

"Charles Bukowski" "is chiefly famous for his poignant, violent, sexual confrontatin and direct language poetry."

Definition - artistic expression of anything

Inspiration - daily stuff happening

Favorite - the master of everything

Yeah i would consider myself a poet but not any poet but a distinct lyricist





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favorites:

Edgar Allan Poe, for his unparallelled command of the language.

John Keats, who may well be at the top of the list for English poets.

Whitman: he went against the traditionalist and painted with a broad brush. his 'leaves of grass' is one of my all time favorites and it holds up soooo well over time.

"re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body.

[From the preface to Leaves Grass]"

Dylan Thomas, a master story teller and probably penned the most famous eulogy ever.

Bukowski, he didn't conjure beauty where there was none, he simply told the ugly truth.

ok, i'll stop for now......sorry, i almost got carried away...

Loving it.

Hello ((((Mo))))...Great thread!...

What does poetry mean to me?...E.E. Cummings said it best..."Well, write poetry for Gods sake, it's the only thing that matters."...

Inspiration? That's easy!...Reading and writing poetry takes me everywhere I want (and need) to go, anytime I want (or need) to go there!...

Favorite poet?...That's a little harder my friend...There are too many to name...Here is a short list and even shorter reasons why I love them...

Rumi...Profound!
Robert Browning...Dramatic!
Elizabeth Barrett Browning...Brave!
Maya Angelou...Wisdom!
T.S. Eliot...Ahead of his time!
Robert Frost...New England!
Pablo Neruda...Erotic!
Edgar Allan Poe...Macabre!
Dylan Thomas...Imagery!
William Shakespeare...The great narrator!
Carl Sandburg...Americana!
Edna St. Vincent Millay...Feminist, sexual!

Mo,

Well said.

tommo

Great post!

Great post!

Freedom, spirituality, peace of mind.
Existence
Li Po

Well I think I have to pay tribute to those that have started to even get me motivated to learn to read !!!

And that was the Brothers Grimm !!!

I think they also moulded my inner being to doing my actual job. I have seen a variety of adaptation in films, performing arts and even in contemporary arts.
I have been re-reading them all through my life with different views and perspectives.I'm soooo loyal !
Then Hans Christian Andersen, Tonke Dragt, Mark Twain & Michael Ende (the neverending story)

Goethe,.Shakepeare & Moliere..jumped in and out...

I started to question things and in my rebel years and moved on to Kant, Nietzsche & Sartre
-> got my mind wrecked and eventually quit reading for a while....

Starting back with Bukowski, Mendelsohn and the erotic Milan Kundera, Pablo Neruda..and back to my fairy tale fantasy..."love" world !

Dean Koontz..ooh !!! One of those that I only read if I have 24 hours where I got to do nothing but read...

I hated Bernard Henry Levy (still don't like him) and started to dislike the French language all together..luckily there was Alexandre Dumas, Moli�re, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Victor Hugo to help me find the motivation after all.

Einstein's philosophy, Platon, Socrates, Rumi, Khalil Gibran, Anais Nin, Neruda, Poe and even Bukowski helped me to get in touch with my feelings...overcoming pain and sorrow...OMG and almost forgot to mention hilarious mind-boggling Spike Milligan !

And Frost : "freedom is feeling easy in your harness" so wise

Them and some I forget have all been inspiration !

one of my favorites of today's poets is from canada, shane koyczan. here are two of his works, have a listen and watch the video. he is gaining a much deserved following.



http://www.npr.org/2015/01/02/374564448/shane-koyczan-turn-on-the-lights

http://youtu.be/sa1iS1MqUy4

Leonard Cohen, to just name one that hasn't been mentioned yet.

I'm not sure anybody has quite captured cultural shame, absolute heartbreak, and beautiful narcissism in such a fashion as his.

The two Billy's.

Shakespeare and Wordsworth

"Sarah Orne Jewett" "is known as one who was true and loving, a student of nature and of human life, so perfect an artist in her mode of telling what she saw and heard, so wise a guide in the "fine art of living" bringing to the world a reassuring faith that man is both intelligent and trustworthy, that what was true in one corner of New England is true of mankind."

Flowers in the Dark

Late in the evening, when the room had grown
Too hot and tiresome with its flaring light
And noise of voices, I stole out alone
Into the darkness of the summer night.
Down the long garden-walk I slowly went;
A little wind was stirring in the trees;
I only saw the whitest of the flowers,
And I was sorry that the earlier hours
Of that fair evening had been so ill spent,
Because, I said, I am content with these
Dear friends of mine who only speak to me
With their delicious fragrance, and who tell
To me their gracious welcome silently.
The leaves that touch my hand with dew are wet;
I find the tall white lilies I love well.
I linger as I pass the mignonette,
And what surprise could dearer be than this:
To find my sweet rose waiting with a kiss!

Wow! he is truly worth taking some time to listen to. I was aware of Shane but never took the time to really listen to his poetry but he is worth following so I appreciate you sharing.

Shane Koyczan - The Crickets Have Arthritis

http://youtu.be/GEdialVpVvM

Oh, oh, oh! ....This is only the second time I've listened to this Mo...This kind of emotion is hard, humbling...Koyczan is magnificent!...(((((((Lewis)))))))...

A couple of female contemporary poets that hit center for me ...

Cate Marvin...and...Gabby Calvovoress...Here is one from Calvocoress...


Save Me Joe Louis

When I was small no one stopped the fights.
A man could beat you till you died,
the crowd leaning in, you on your knees,
maybe somewhere someone says, No,

but it's like spoons dropping in kitchens:
enough to make someone look up,
not enough to get them moving.
The ref's just glad it isn't him

trying to stand, shading his face
like he's coming out of the movies
into winter sun, shock of the world
made real again - brutal, to be sure,

but America is like that,
unrelenting, you get what you ask for
in the ring or on the kitchen floor.
Someone always wants you to give up,

shake hands, wipe the blood away and talk
of lighter things. And you do
because you've been fighting long enough
to know there's no one here to save you.

I see you in the morning,
When the sun glows through the haze

As the beauty of a thousand lights,
Bring forth a newborn day.

In the fragrance of a tender flower,
Touched and kissed by morning dew;

When its petals spread to seek the sun,
It is there that I see you.


As I look on the horizon,
See an eagle take to flight;

In all its strength and beauty,
I see you in the sky.

I can hear you in the silence,
Of a summer's afternoon;

As soft warm breeze sweeps over me,
Your quietness fills my room.


I can smell you in the distant rain,
As it falls to kiss the ground;

The clean and earthy smell of you,
Its fragrance does surround.

Then as the sun falls softly,
And night breeze fills the air;

As stars come twinkling from the sky,
I see your beauty there.


Though splendor does surround me,
It never will replace;

The beauty that my heart does see,
When I behold your face. :-)

[Allison Chambers Coxsey]