Omss Poems: 06/01/2011

About Poetry: Poems for July 4th/Lorca's Grave/Poets for Change

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From Bob Holman & Margery Snyder, your Guide to Poetry

Poems for Independence Day

For your reading pleasure this 4th of July holiday weekend, we’ve gathered classic poems about America by William Blake, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Emma Lazarus, Walt Whitman, Carl Sandburg and Stephen Vincent Benét—and the newest addition to our collection, “America” by Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay.

See More About: independence day poems july 4th classic american poems

Has Lorca’s Final Resting Place Been Found at Last?

Federico García Lorca was Spain’s most important poet and dramatist of the 20th century, whose work is still beloved for its passion, pride, love and death—in his word, duende. In 1936, he was murdered by Nationalist soldiers at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.... Now a Spanish historian claims to have located Lorca’s actual grave site and and identified the men who killed and buried him.... Read more

Poets for Change

You may read that headline and ask, “What kind of change? And which poets?” And on September 24, 2011, the answers to your questions will be many and worldwide.... Read more

Celebrating the Summer Season in Poetry

To mark the summer solstice last week, we added three great classics to our seasonal summer anthology:

“In the Mountains on a Summer Day” by Li Po (c. 950)—four brief lines that send a breath of summer air right through you

“A Drop Fell on the Apple Tree —” by Emily Dickinson (#794)—the natural world partying in Dickinson&#8218's inimitable voice, also known as “A Summer Shower”

“Prelude to Part First, The Vision of Sir Launfal” by James Russell Lowell (1908)—source of the often-quoted line “what is so rare as a day in June?”

Now we’d like to choose a few new poems to add to the anthology—you, dear readers, are invited to submit your own summer poems.

See More About: summer poems william blake john clare

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A Month of Poems: Day 3 - Christopher Marlowe

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A Month of Poems

Day 3 - Christopher Marlowe

From Bob Holman & Margery Snyder, your Guide to Poetry

Marlowe was Shakespeare’s contemporary and fellow dramatist, known as the father of English tragedy. After his mysterious death (he was stabbed in a tavern brawl, but some scholars suggest it was an assassination) he was rumored to have been a spy, a brawler, a heretic and a homosexual.

"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love"

Though his literary reputation rests on his four great tragic plays (Dr. Faustus, Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta and Edward the Second), he is best remembered today for this pastoral love song.

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Poetry Guide
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[Poetry Chaikhana] John O'Donohue - A Morning Offering

Here's your Daily Poem from the Poetry Chaikhana --

A Morning Offering

By John O'Donohue
(1956 - 2008)

I bless the night that nourished my heart
To set the ghosts of longing free
Into the flow and figure of dream
That went to harvest from the dark
Bread for the hunger no one sees.

All that is eternal in me
Welcome the wonder of this day,
The field of brightness it creates
Offering time for each thing
To arise and illuminate.

I place on the altar of dawn:
The quiet loyalty of breath,
The tent of thought where I shelter,
Wave of desire I am shore to
And all beauty drawn to the eye.

May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers,
To break the dead shell of yesterdays,
To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.

-- from To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings, by John O'Donohue

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/ Photo by kretyen /

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Thought for the Day:

There's that vast, silent Self within,
almost unknown to us, a stranger,
yet there nonetheless,
seated in wordless immensity

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Here's your Daily Music selection --

dZihan & Kamien

Freaks & Icons

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Hi Omss -

It's poems like this that remind us of the real power of poetry -- to heal, to inspire, to incite, to awaken. Though poetry itself may feel insubstantial, the result within us and the world we continuously create is very real. This is the ancient power of enchantment, formulating a mind-state and passing it along to others through word and rhythm.

Contemplate the implications of this for a moment. Everything within the human world, every building and machine, every nation and neighborhood, is born of the human mind-state. Poets and sages have the same calling, to skillfully feed sparks of new awareness into the collective mind and, thus, remake the world. That's real power.

All that is eternal in me
Welcome the wonder of this day...

Ivan

Share Your Thoughts on today's poem or my commentary...

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Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2011 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.

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A Month of Poems: Day 2 - Li Po

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A Month of Poems

Day 2 - Li Po

From Bob Holman & Margery Snyder, your Guide to Poetry

Li Po (pronounced as li bô, also known as Li Bai, li bye, or Li T'ai-po, li tye bô) lived the wild mad poet's life in the class-bound Confucian society of 8th century China. His poems have been translated into English many times, but were introduced most notably to Americans in the sometimes meticulous, sometimes quite loose translations of Ezra Pound.

"Drinking Alone in the Moonlight"

This is the most famous of Li Po’s many, many poems celebrating wine-drinking. It combines his cool observation and the romantic extravagance associated with the legend of his death—that he drunkenly dove into the river to embrace the reflection of the moon, and drowned.

For further reading: Profile of Li Po

His early life in Sichuan, in the Imperial Court at Chang’an, and years of wandering, war, exile and pardon.

This email is written by:
Bob Holman & Margery Snyder
Poetry Guide
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A Month of Poems: Day 1 - Sappho

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A Month of Poems

Day 1 - Sappho

From Bob Holman & Margery Snyder, your Guide to Poetry

Welcome to A Month of Poems! We'll begin your 30-day sojourn around the world in poems with Sappho, the legendary lyric poet of ancient Greece. Her poems were so universally admired that she was called “the poetess” (as Homer was “the poet”), and Plato suggested she should be honored as one of the Muses, more than human, a goddess of poetry.

"Hymn to Aphrodite"

The “Hymn to Aphrodite,” also known as “Fragment One,” is the only one of Sappho’s poems that has survived to our day in its entirety—because it was quoted in full in the work of a later Roman admirer, the orator Dionysus. It is a prayer to the goddess of love, pleading for divine intervention to inspire passion in the heart of the poet’s unrequited love.

For further reading: Profile of Sappho

Her life, her legend, her poetry, and links to buy her books in English translation.

This email is written by:
Bob Holman & Margery Snyder
Poetry Guide
Email Me | My Blog | My Forum

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[Poetry Chaikhana] D. H. Lawrence - Song of a Man Who Has Come Through

Here's your Daily Poem from the Poetry Chaikhana --

Song of a Man Who Has Come Through

By D. H. Lawrence
(1885 - 1930)

Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me!
A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time.
If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me!
If only I am sensitive, subtle, oh, delicate, a winged gift!
If only, most lovely of all, I yield myself and am borrowed
By the fine, fine, wind that takes its course through the chaos of the world
Like a fine, an exquisite chisel, a wedge-blade inserted;
If only I am keen and hard like the sheer tip of a wedge
Driven by invisible blows,
The rock will split, we shall come at the wonder, we shall find the Hesperides.

Oh, for the wonder that bubbles into my soul,
I would be a good fountain, a good well-head,
Would blur no whisper, spoil no expression.

What is the knocking?
What is the knocking at the door in the night?
It is somebody wants to do us harm.

No, no, it is the three strange angels.
Admit them, admit them.

-- from The Complete Poems of D. H. Lawrence, by D. H. Lawrence

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/ Photo by AleBonvini /

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Thought for the Day:

Language is the first tool wielded
and the last chain escaped.

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Here's your Daily Music selection --

Tina Malia & Shimshai

Jaya Bhagavan

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Hi Omss -

I won't say much. It's a quiet Monday morning, a time for few words and just a taste of wonder...

Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me!

I love this opening line. Have you ever noticed how wearying personal will is? Eventually everything feels like a dead effort. But when we learn the magician's trick of yielding, of letting the currents of life flow through us, delight pours through us with such surprising ease and actions form into unexpected success.

Oh, for the wonder that bubbles into my soul,
I would be a good fountain, a good well-head,
Would blur no whisper, spoil no expression.

And if you hear someone knocking, don't fear harm. Peep through the keyhole. It might just be three strangers in angel shape.

Admit them, admit them.

Carried by the course of the wind, we find we have come through...

Have a beautiful day!

Ivan

PS- Thank you for the several kind and concerned messages over the weekend. Sending much love to everyone!

Share Your Thoughts on today's poem or my commentary...

... Find the Poetry Chaikhana on Facebook and Twitter ...

Support the Poetry Chaikhana

Donations to the Poetry Chaikhana in any amount are always welcome. Thank you!	Click here	You can also support the Poetry Chaikhana, as well as the authors and publishers of sacred poetry, by purchasing some of the recommended books through the links on this site. Thank you!
Click here	A small amount each month makes a big difference. Become a voluntary Subscriber for just $2/mo.
Click here	Help the Poetry Chaikhana reach more people. Become a Supporter for just $10/mo.

www.Poetry-Chaikhana.com

Poetry Chaikhana
P.O. Box 2320
Boulder, CO 80306

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