Friday Poetry: Charles Causley

Happy Friday Everyone!

I have had a lovely day of reading and relaxing today which has been just what I needed.

I have been busy planning the Carol service for the church I play the organ for and I found this little poem which I thought I would use for my blog today and the Carol service later this month.

The poem is by the Cornish poet, school teacher and writer Charles Causley (1917-2003).

Mary's Song

Your royal bed
Is made of hay
In a cattle-shed.
Sleep, King Jesus,
Do not fear,
Joseph is watching
And waiting near.

Warm in the wintry air
You lie,
The ox and the donkey
Standing by,
With summer eyes
They seem to say:
Welcome, Jesus,
On Christmas Day!

Sleep, King Jesus:
Your diamond crown
High in the sky
Where the stars look dawn.
Let your reign
Of love begin,
That all the world
May enter in.

Charles Causley

Happy Reading

Etsy

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Friday Poetry: Anon

Happy Friday Everyone!

My chosen poem this week is actually a folk song but one that I rather like.

Fare You Well

Fare you well, my dear, I must be gone,
And leave you for a while;
If I roam away I'll come back again,
Though I roam ten thousand miles, my dear,
Though I roam ten thousand miles.

So fair thou art, my bonny lass,
So deep in love am I;
But I never will prove false to the bonny lass I love,
Till the stars fall from the sky, my dear,
Till the stars fall from the sky.

The sea will never run dry, my dear,
Nor the rocks melt with the sun,
But I never will prove false to the bonny lass I love,
Till all these things be done, my dear,
Till all these things be done. 

O yonder doth sit that little turtle dove,
He doth sit on yonder high tree,
A-making a moan for the loss of his love,
As I will do for thee, my dear,
As I will do for thee. 

Anon

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: Raymond Carver

Happy Friday Everyone!

My chosen poem this week is by the American short story writer and poet Raymond Carver (1938-1988).

Late Fragment

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself 
beloved on the earth.

Raymond Carver

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: A. E. Housman

Happy Friday Everyone!

My chosen poem this week is by one of my favourite poets.

Shake Hands

Shake hands, we shall never by friends, all's over;
I only vex you the more I try.
All's wrong that ever I've done or said,
And nought to help it in this dull head:
Shake hands, here's luck, good-bye.

But if you come to a road where danger
Or guilt or anguish or shame's to share,
Be good to the lad that loves you true
And the soul that was born to die for you,
And whistle and I'll be there. 

A. E. Housman

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: Anne Bronte

Happy Friday Everyone!

I am now back from a lovely holiday in Barcelona so it is all back to normal with the blog.

My chosen poem this week is by one of my favourite authors, Anne Bronte.

The Consolation

Though bleak these woods and damp the ground
With fallen leaves so thickly strewn,
And cold the wind that wanders round
With wild and melancholy moan:

There is a friendly roof, I know,
Might shield me from the wintry blast;
There is a fire, whose ruddy glow
Will cheer me for my wanderings past.

And so, through still where'er I go
Cold stranger-glances meet my eye,
Though, when my spirit sinks in woe,
Unheeded swells the unbidden sigh,

Though solitude, endured too long
Bids youthful joys too soon decay,
Makes mirth a stranger to my tongue,
And overclouds my noon of day;

When kindly thoughts that would have way,
Flow back discouraged to my breast;
I know there is, though far away,
A home where heart and soul may rest.

Warm hands are there, that, clasped in mine,
The warmer heart will not belie;
While mirth, and truth, and friendship shine
In smiling lip and earnest eye.

The ice that gathers round my heart
May there be thawed; and sweetly, then,
The joys of youth that now depart,
Will come to cheer my soul again.

Though far I roam, this thought shall be
My hope, my comfort everywhere;
While such a home remains to me,
My heart shall never know despair!

Anne Bronte

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: Emily Dickinson

Happy Friday!

My chosen poem this week is only a short poem by one of my favourite poets. Emily Dickinson was an American poet (1830-1886).

If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking

If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching,
Or cool one Pain,

Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in vain. 

Emily Dickinson

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: Joy Harjo

Happy Friday Everyone!

I hope everyone has had a good week so far.

My chosen poem this week is by the American poet, musician, playwright and author Joy Harjo (1951).

Remember

Remember the sky that you were born under, 
know each of the star's stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun's birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night. 
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of 
her life, and her mother's and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the 
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this 
universe is you. 
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.

Joy Harjo

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: Tony Hoagland

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has some fun plans for the weekend. I’m hoping to get some jobs done and get some reading in.

My chosen poem this week is by American poet Anthony Dey Hoagland (1953-20218).

The Word

Down near the bottom
of the crossed-out list
of things you have to do today,

between "green thread"
and "broccoli," you find
that you have penciled "sunlight."

Resting on the page, the word
is a beautiful. It touches you
as if you had a friend

and sunlight were a present
he had sent you from someplace distant
as this morning - to cheer you up,

and to remind you that,
among your duties, pleasure
is a thing

that also needs accomplishing
Do you remember?
that time and light are kinds

of love, and love
is no less practical
than a coffee grinder

or a safe spare tire?
Tomorrow you may be utterly
without a clue,

but today you get a telegram
from the heart in exile,
proclaiming that the kingdom

still exists,
the king and queen alive,
still speaking to their children,

-to any one among them
who can find the time,
to sit out in the sun and listen.

Tony Hoagland

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: Harriet Beecher Stowe

Happy Friday!

My chosen poem this week is by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896). Stowe was an American author and abolitionist who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Think Not All Is Over

Think not, when the wailing winds of autumn
Drive the shivering leaflets from the tree, -
Think not all is over: spring returneth,
Buds and leaves and blossoms thou shalt see.

Think not, when the earth lies cold and sealed,
And the weary birds above her mourn,-
Think not all is over: God still liveth,
Songs and sunshine shall again return.

Think not, when thy heart is waste and dreary,
When thy cherished hopes lie chill and sere,-
Think not all is over: God still loveth,
He will wipe away thy every tear. 

Weeping for a night alone endureth,
God at last shall bring a morning hour;
In the frozen buds of every winter
Sleep the blossoms of a future flower.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: Robert Frost

Happy Friday!

My chosen poem this week is by the poet Robert Frost who was one of the United States’ best loved poets and playwrights. He had four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry and a Congressional Gold Medal.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

Robert Frost