Poetry

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Levi

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Are they any writers or fans of poetry in the treehouse?

I memorized this one for a school project in high school and have never forgotten it-

Brahma
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803 - 1882

If the red slayer think he slays,
Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways
I keep, and pass, and turn again.

Far or forgot to me is near;
Shadow and sunlight are the same;
The vanished gods to me appear;
And one to me are shame and fame.

They reckon ill who leave me out;
When me they fly, I am the wings;
I am the doubter and the doubt;
And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.

The strong gods pine for my abode,
And pine in vain the sacred Seven,
But thou, meek lover of the good!
Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.



I've been a fan of Emerson's essays and poems since my youth, his words are a true inspiration to me.

What's some of your favorite poetry/lyrics?
 
Cool poem and great thread idea.

I'm not crazy into poetry but sometimes one catches my eye.



Sea Turtles.


There exists

a presence in the ocean,

seldom glimpsed

in waking hours,

best envisioned

In your dreams.

While you drift in sleep

turtles ride

the curve of the deep,

Seeking

their inspiration

from the sky.

From tranquil tropic bays

or nightmare maelstroms

hissing foam,

They come unseen

to share

Our Air.


Each sharp exhalation affirms,

“Life yet endures.”

Each inhaled gasp vows,

“Life will continue.”


With each breath

They declare to the stars

and wild Silence.


By night and by light

sea turtles

glide always,

their parallel universe

strangely alien,

yet intertwining with ours.


Riding the churning ocean’s

turning tides

and resisting no urge,

They move,

motivated neither by longing

nor love nor reason,

but tuned by a wisdom more ancient

-so perhaps more trustworthy-

than thought.


Through jewel-hewed

sultry blue lagoons,

through waters

wild and green and cold,

stroke these angels of the Deep-

Ancient,

Ageless,

Great grandparents of the world.


Earth’s Last

warm-blooded monster reptile,

the skin-covered leatherback turtle,

whose ancestors saw dinosaurs rule and fall,

is itself

the closest thing We have

to a living Dinosaur.
 
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Whoa, that was a great, thanks Cory!
 
Glad you liked it!

That is the opening paragraph from a book "Voyage of the Turtle" by Carl Safina. It appears there as just regular writing in paragraph form but I thought it was amazing and poetic so I shuffled into a poetry form for the heck of it
 
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Oh nice! Very peaceful and serene imagery.
 
I really dug the part about exhaling and inhaling, 'life yet endures, life will continue', seems like good fodder for a meditation mantra.
 
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Yes! It was very meditative to read that. Nice job breaking it up. Poems that don't rhyme are a different sort, but I like em the same.
 
Indeed.

I hope more Housers post up here, gotta be some good ones hiding here and there in this non book wormy group.
 
Hey man, like I said, great thread. But help a brother out, I don't really understand your poem:|:
 
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".......The theme of "Brahma" is this: Human beings can find fulfillment and contentment only when they realize that they are part of a universal entity."
 
Yeah, that was a good shedding of thine light on thoust subject. Thank you.

Yes AH's poem Made For This is top shelf stuff. I read it to a female friend who couldnt care less about tree work and she loved it.
 
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Yep, that reaches beyond tree people for sure. :thumbup:
 
Several years ago I bought a book of cowboy poetry. I can't remember any of it but I do remember there were some fun poems in it.
 
Sea turtles are pretty amazing creatures Cory. I was walking the island beach in the morning a couple of weeks ago and found a freshly dug nest. Judging from the age of the tracks coming and going, she must've spent most of the night digging the nest and laying eggs. I've never seen them laying, but it is evidently a long, laborious process. Turtle populations have exploded in the last twenty years or so and they can be really good fish locators, especially offshore. They spend a great percentage of their time over live bottom where there's plenty of fish so every time we see one loafing on the surface, we go check out the area with the sonar. Some of the big loggerheads look like they'll weigh several hundred pounds and it's also wild that they can hold their breath for HOURS!
 
Working as a deckhand on a workboat in the Gulf of Mexico, I watched one swimming in close proximity to us.

I wanted to dive overboard and hang out with it for a bit...

It was YUGE!
 
Not into poetry these days but as a child I loved this one by William Blake.
 

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Good one Tommy.
My Mom actually published a book of poetry. Me, not so much. As a young boy I devoured everything I could on the outdoor life and got my hands on an ancient book by Izaak Walton called "The Compleat Angler" (yes, that's how it was spelled). In it was a cute little poem that pretty well sums up most fishermen that I still remember 50 years later. I don't recall the title but here's how it went:

On shore he won't diddle, he throws for the middle, deep angling is his fondest wish
But with paddle and oar, he'll row far from shore, then cast back to the bank for his fish.
 
This thread is heating up. Nice submissions.

Cool turtle info, Ray. I've only seen one in the wild:whine:
 
https://goo.gl/images/pPNp55

That was by DH Lawrence.

Jim disputes that poem, says he's seen plenty of animals sorry for themselves. I kinda know what he means and I know what DH means too.
 
“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.” Robert Frost.
 
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