Entries Tagged 'Poetry' ↓

A friend of mine emailed me this poem by Oriah Mountain Dreamer and asked me what it means if a woman sends (him, a guy) this kind of email. And I’m going to go into more details about what I told him to shed some light on this behaviour.

It means nothing much when woman or a guy sends you a poem by another person, especially a well-known one like this. It takes great creative effort to write your own poems. You can read a selection of my own original poems on Allpoetry.com and post feedback on that website. The reason it means nothing much is because most people send emails, poems, jokes like this to a whole bunch of people. And very seldom will they even write a personal comment as to what this mean to them.

Now who is Oriah? She is NOT THE NATIVE AMERICAN as name sounds. She is a White/Caucasian woman most likely took this name “Oriah” to sound more acceptable to the spiritually concious and New Age aficionado’s. As one reviewer on Amazon.com described it, “This book was chosen for our December book club thinking it might be an uplifting book for the holiday season. Not a single one of us liked the book (7 in all). We made our decision based on the poem which indeed sounded promising. We all found she contradicted herself quite often and it really was more or less one big pity party! Really deserves less than one star!”

And another one said this “This book is written as if it is a parody of a new age self-help book. I simply can’t believe that any intelligent person would take it seriously. I heard of the poem and it is sort of nice in a new agey way. The book, which I looked at in a bookstore, is just laughable. Come on, people!”

Well I think its a complete waste of time for my friend, a guy to think this means anything from the woman who sent him this. A personal email directed from him to her would be much more meaningful. And sending this poem is a huge cop-out and probably says something about the state of her confused mind. If she had more self-esteem she would write him an email directly and just tell him how she feels.

Few men or women are able to express themselves as honestly and directly as what I imply. Society conditions us to hide behind our true selves because of “respect” for other people and also to be polite. Well being polite almost never gets you what you want. And to break down society programming you need to be true to yourself first! And the best analogy I hear of recently is like they explain in a plane before take off. In the event of a problem when the oxygen masks drop down, you have to get oxygen to yourself before you try and help anyone else, even children around you.

So STOP THINKING about other people first. Don’t waste other people’s time by sending them someone else’ poem or words. Write your own and send that instead.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Indian Elder

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for,
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love,
for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow.
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or
have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain!
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own;
if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful,
be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true,
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself.
if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.
I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty,
even when it is not pretty every day,
and if you can source your life from God’s presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours or mine,
and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”
It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair,
weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you are, how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself,
and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

Popularity: 9% [?]

For those who found the poem recited in the Must Love Dogs by Christopher Plummer to be as well placed and enchanting as I did, here it is in full:

Brown Penny by William Butler Yeats

I whispered, ’I am too young,’
And then, ’I am old enough’
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
’Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair.’
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.
O love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away
And the shadows eaten the moon.
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.

Popularity: 10% [?]

I used my eBucks to buy Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind DVD which is my favourite Jim Carrey movie next to Truman Show. I loved it when it was in cinema’s last year and I’ve been dying to complete my collection of Jim’s movies. This is an amazingly funny movie and Kate Winslet is wild and crazy - almost being the way you would expect Jim to be. She has crazy hair colours and does weird things while Jim is all meek and introverted. She reminds me of a Gemini I once dated and we had so much fun, never took things to seriously. And yes now I can see that maybe opposites can compliment each other. I wonder what the link is between them, what is the one thing they do have in common.

And before I forget the name is from a famous poem by Alexander Pope, a contemporary of Isaac Newton and one of the greatest poets in English literature, Eloisa to Abelard.

Popularity: 20% [?]

My best friend Bradley Minnaar quit his job at a software company and moved to Rhodes University, Grahamstown for a while. While living there he started writing the most amazing poetry. Here’s just one example of his amazing prowess as a word smith…

If I was the sea my love
If I was the sea;
Who sends its waves with open palms -
“Don’t fear! ‘Tis just me”.
But on the shore down from their crest,
White fingers fall in soft caress,
Upon your feet your legs your breast;
Who can blame such cunning art?

If I was the sand my love,
If I was the sand;
With golden glistering grains a-stretched
On the rolling strand.
Underneath your feet it tickles,
Warmly through your toes it trickles,
You, with all your whims and fickles,
Leave your ‘prints upon its heart.
If I was the wind my love,
If I was the wind;
That blows sea-scented breath ashore
balm for a stress’d mind.
Its gust’s a gasp of breath in awe,
of unmatched beauty sweet and pure,
Poor Wind! on ne’er a shore you saw,
a whiter Lily, a fairer Ann!
If I was the sun my love,
If I was the sun;
That warmly from celestial path
beams on all toil ‘n fun.
It basks the sand to warm your feet,
Your hair and skin it gives a treat,
Too bad, dear Sun you’ll soon retreat,
and Moon will take your blissfull part.

Read more poetry by my best friend Bradley Minnaar Allpoetry.com

Popularity: 10% [?]

My friend Jenny Hirsch sent me this amazing poem once and it resonated with me so much based on my research into dating and attraction dynamics between men and women.

In love’s dances, in love’s dances
One retreats and one advances.
One grows warmer and one colder,
One more hesitant, one bolder.
One gives what the other needed
Once, or will need, now unheeded.
One is clenched, compact, ingrowing
While the other’s melting, flowing.
One is smiling and concealing
While the other’s asking, kneeling.
One is arguing or sleeping
While the other’s weeping, weeping.

And the question finds no answer
And the tune misleads the dancer
And the lost look finds no other
And the lost hand finds no brother
And the word is left unspoken
Till the theme and thread are broken.

When shall these divisions alter?
Echo’s answer seems to falter:
“Oh the unperplexed, unvexed time
Next time…one day…one day…next time!”

more poems by ASJ Tessimond

Popularity: 9% [?]

My best friend Bradley introduced me to the awesome poetry of Pablo Neruda. He paid me one of the best compliments I’ve ever received by telling me that my poetry was similar to that of the great Neruda. You can read my poetry on the Allpoetry.com website. But here is one of the classics of love poetry ever written. Shakespeare eat dust!

Sonnet XVII (100 Love Sonnets, 1960)

I do not love you as if you were a salt rose, or topaz
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
So I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Popularity: 10% [?]