Another Artistic Thread - POEMS

[Naamloos]

Some really nice ones posted here..

Living in a life full of fears
No God that hears
His crying will never end
Maybe there is an other way to vent

Hoping for a better life
He grabs the knife
He plunges it in his head
A swift painful death

Made by me

[rm']

Originally posted by N e m e s s i s
then i will explain. 1st (and proabably the worst reason) is that it has been forced down my throat from years of schooling. 2ndly i hear all this talk about his poems being deceptively simple and i think this is a load of crap, much of the metaphor and symbolism taken from a poem is put there by the reader. granted the writer does use these but the ways i have heard frost's poems explained it was just reaching for something, anything to give it meaning. finally as one poet to another, frost and I are at totaly other ends of the court. I prefer lost of metaphor and syombolism and drama and he goes for simple little stanzas.

i guess its just a preference.

dylan thomas . . . now there's a poet.

Those are all good points, but personally, I enjoy simple word structure. To each his own, I suppose.

[izchan]

A poetic discussion ...

Sorry for the silence in the last two days, was back in my home town and I made it a point not to be on the net during those times.

I see that we have some new people among us in the thread and contributing, thank you and welcomed.

Xerxes, your poem is a bit out of my league but it was a nice reading. Would you care to explain it for me a little? It is part of a play is it?

Namloos, wow ... is that the first thing that comes to mind when you wrote the poem? if it is, then you portray your struggles very vividly. I do hope that you keep on writting, because I found that writing poems releases the tension in our lives, and gives us hope and meaning to follow on. Sometimes, death is not the only way out.

As for the poetic discussion of frost's 'Road less Traveled', well, I find that it is a bit of a challenge to decide whether his poem is as good as they say. I have read the poem a long time ago, and during that time, it did not hold much meaning to me, but today while reading it again, it seems different but profoundly familiar, because I can see the link to the words in my heart.

Personally, I feel any poem that can ignite a fire of passion and thoughts are poems that are good. Because in my humble opinion, that is what litterature is about. Art is about making people feel and dream and link with it, it is almost like a relationship between two people.

I understand where Nemesis is going with his thoughts, and I agree with him on some terms, we are all different and have different preference. He like decisive poetry where the meaning of a poem is not so open to interpretation, the poems must mean exactly what the poet wants us to see and hear. Poems like these are clear and to the point, it gives a sense of ONE-ness when it is being read.

Where 'The Road Less Traveled' lets the readers put their experience or meaning into the words, in whatever way that feel it to be. It has its merits, but is totally based on the readers experience in life. Like me, when I first read it, it had no visible link to my life, but now after some ups and down, where tears are found, his words does bring out those memories, because those are what I feel and he successfully pull those strings.

The richness of a poems words are sometimes dilutted because of the experience of the poets wisdom and experience, thus for whatever reason that might be, a poem will live and die by the poets hands.

If you look at it, even the method that frost wrote his poems can be explained with this particular poems of his, he took the road less traveled and made people think about it. Does that mean the poem has only one meaning to it? No, it is open to interpretation, it is up to us to feel what we feel using these 'simple' words, where millions have read and felt differently everytime they read it.


ROAD LESS TRAVELED

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 onto 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 took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference

Robert Frost

[izchan]

It is not to be ...

For those who have not visited http://www.pathetic.org , please do so as soon as you can, for I have found some of the most beautiful poems in that site.

If not you can visit http://www.poetry.com which is also a poet listing site. I post in that site often and have quite a number of works in poetry.com. I post under the Name Isaac lc Chan.

Here is something for today...

---
: It is not to be

Can you see the difference
when we say the same thing
yet mean it differently?

It has been some time now
since we last agreed on one thing
and not end up fighting over it

Should it always be this way?
Maybe someday we will know
but now it is not to be
for you are just so different from me

The cup half full or half empty
---

[izchan]

not yet ... I am waiting ...

I have applied, but they have not approved me yet. So I will just have to be patient.

: Waiting

Sitting under the old aok tree
listening to the autumn wind
looking at the fallen leaves
waiting for the coming of spring

When was the last time I heard mom sing
I can't remember it was so long ago
What did I do when she sang so sweet
I can't think because it pains me so

I miss you mom, don't you worry
You wait for me mom,
I will come some day
Just wait for me mom,
I will be there real soon.

[izchan]

The real me ...

My First Name is Isaac .. my last name Chan ... just like my nick ... ...
I - Z - CHAN ...

: The real me

Some say that man wear their masks
because they are too shy to be
Some say the reason really is
because no one wants to know
what's beneath

What's real ... what's not
who knows ... who cares
Why asks ... why answer
to be ... not to be?

At the end
words on the stone
a name, long forgotten and untold
since nineteen seventy six
that is the only thing that is real
My name, the real me

[bjgellar]

Hey N e m e s s i s , I like your poem about the "Wise Man Dressed In Rags" ...quite sad yet cleverly written.

[izchan]

Will be a slow day for me ...

I will be not posting as much today and tommorow as I have a dateline to meet on thursday.

Of course the occasional witty remarks will be introduce, here and there.

So keep the thread going ... share ... share ...

: Life in a shoe

If I could say it differently
I would always do
but sometimes words are just not enough
to say what I think and do

If only things were simpler and finer
and I really have a clue
then I will be able to say that
life today will not be living in a shoe

[bjgellar]

Ok.. here's a song not a poem but hey who would of known
This is not my work but I will post one of my own as soon as I finish it. I'm also typing this from memory so there may be errors...hehe
I really like the lyrics in this song..

Sunburn By Fuel

The sky was dark this morning
Not a bird in the trees
And silence hung suspicious and anxious
Like a blanket covered scream
And you were gone
You were not there for me
And I cursed the sky and begged the sun to
Fall all over me
This life's not living, baby
Living ain't free
If I can't find my way back to me
Let the sun fall down over me
Let the sun fall down
All my friends are searching
Quiet, desperately
Look into their eyes you'll see the faithless crying
Save me, save me, save me
And what are they to feel
And who are they to be
And what am I to do with, do with me, but let the sun
Fall all over me
This life's not living, baby
Living ain't free
If I can't find my way back to me
Let the sun fall down over me
Let the sun fall down
Until my eyes cry out
'Til my head is free from doubt
'Til my lungs sigh right out
'Til I'm wiser
Let the sun
Fall all over me
This life's not living, baby
Living ain't free
If I can't find my way back to me
Let the sun fall down over me
Let the sun fall down

[Curi0us_George]

Originally posted by N e m e s s i s
then i will explain. 1st (and proabably the worst reason) is that it has been forced down my throat from years of schooling. 2ndly i hear all this talk about his poems being deceptively simple and i think this is a load of crap, much of the metaphor and symbolism taken from a poem is put there by the reader. granted the writer does use these but the ways i have heard frost's poems explained it was just reaching for something, anything to give it meaning. finally as one poet to another, frost and I are at totaly other ends of the court. I prefer lost of metaphor and syombolism and drama and he goes for simple little stanzas.

i guess its just a preference.

dylan thomas . . . now there's a poet.

People always over-analyze writings. Isaac Asimov once sat through a modern writing class. In this class, the professor was explaining the metaphors and meanings found in one of Asimov's books. After the class, Asimov introduced himself to the professor and said that he wasn't thinking any of those things when he wrote the book, nor was he trying to embed any of them as hidden meanings. The professor replied with something along the lines of "Maybe you don't know what you were thinking when you wrote the book."

Anyway . . .

Longest English word
is antidisestablish-
mentarianism

[izchan]

Nice poems guys, bj 'sunburn' is really good ... I love the way that the emotions was laid bare to be felt.

Nemesis, wow, I like 'plasma' the words are so true, exactly what I feel like right this minute (working my ass off)

Anyway ... people will make judgements whether we like it or not, the smart thing about it is that we accept that fact. Opinions will come whether we warrant it or not.

So then the key is

Don't Let Other People's Opinion Govern Your Own Reality

Again, I will not be posting heavily today, my dateline is still not met yet. Don't you wish there was a way that we don't need to sell our lives for a paycheck?

here is my poem for today

: Voices in the air

Sound of talking air
intruding on my mind
forcing in the stench
and pushing down my will

Who gave you permission
to steal away my soul
Who gave you the right
to say that this ain't real

I live my life the way I see it
where I see colours more than the rainbow's
And I see a man of forty, without sense or direction
telling a twenty five how to live and die

So keep the voices out of my head
And put your judgement in a jar
For life goes on regardless
of one fool or two

[bjgellar]

I love your poem Izchan ... it reminded me of the film "Dead Poets Society"
Your poem has some parallels with the film,
Although the whole Carpe` Diem/Seize the day thing is too heavily used these days not many people fully understand it anymore.

You know how they use Individuality as a "Marketing Strategy" nowadays..
ex "Don't follow the crowd" "Why be like everyone else"... (like everyone else ??! ) -as in "You can be an individual too..very special like every freckin damn person on this planet!!).

[grandpa7]

Where Did It Go?



THERE’S AN AMERICA I LOVE TODAY THAT IS EVERYTHING TO ME
IT’S CLEAN AND BRIGHT AND BRAVE; AND STILL SHINES FROM SEA TO SEA
IT ONLY SHINES WITHIN MY HEART; I THOUGHT THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
I’VE LOOKED AROUND, BUT IT’S NOT HERE; WHERE, TELL ME WHERE DID IT GO?

IT’S GONE THE WAY OF OTHER LANDS, STRONG AND GREAT WITH MIGHT
TO LOVE THE ONLY LOVE GOD HATES; THE WORLD OF THE DARK OF NIGHT
SHE’S COMPROMISED HIS HOLY WORD AND PUSHED IT TO THE SIDE
WHERE CLEAN, BRIGHT & BRAVE HAD BEEN, SHE’S FILLED WITH FOOLISH PRIDE

SHE THOUGHT HERSELF MORE MIGHTY THAN THE WORLD HAD EVER KNOWN
BUT ISN’T THAT JUST WHAT THEY SAID BEFORE THE FALL OF ROME?
HER FACE IS MARRED, HER FLAGS ARE BURNED; SHE WONDERS WHAT WENT WRONG
GOD’S MIGHTY HAND OF JUDGMENT HAS HUSHED HER HAUGHTY SONG

BUT WAIT! I SEE IT NOW, WHERE THE HORIZON GRIPS THE SKIES
GOD CALLS HER HOME TO WASH HER FACE AND DRY HER TEARY EYES
HE’S SENT HIS WORD THROUGHOUT THE LAND, PROCLAIM IT FAR AND NEAR
REVIVAL STARTS IN OUR OWN HEARTS, AND SPREADS TO ALL THAT WE HOLD DEAR

THERE’S AN AMERICA I LOVE TODAY THAT CAN BE GREAT AGAIN
WE MUST TURN HER EYES TOWARD HEAVEN TO HONOR GOD INSTEAD OF MEN
SHE’LL BE CLEAN AND BRIGHT AND BRAVE; SHE’LL SHINE FROM SEA TO SEA
AND THE ROAD THAT TAKES HER BACK AGAIN BEGINS WITH YOU AND ME


Written July 3, 2000
[U]

[izchan]

The dead poets ...

Ah ... a name that I have come to love through my time writing poems or stories.

The first time I saw Dead Poet Society, I cried for the way how people were lost and found and lost again. It is a sad story but one that tends to remind me of the one thing that keeps me going, like all things we have only ourself to blame when our life turns from bad to worst. Though some might disagree with me, but the truth is, no matter what happends, we are the only that chooses to be WHO we are and not others.

GradPa7 ... those are very beautiful and powerful words.
I too have a feeling that America has gone a stray because of the leaders that have led it to what it has become today. I love America for what it stands for, which I still do today in principle, but I no longer see the America I have come to love so much.

You know the superman motto,
Truth, Justice and the American way?
I just love to listen to the words spoken with conviction.
Oh ... that was so long ago ...

Here is today's last poem ... till tommorow


: Till the sun rises again

If we could take back all the mistake we made
If only we could see the future
Then we can be better prepared
for what might come to be the greatest challenge of life ...
Just to live in peace

But sadly so
we have to muddle through these murky waters
go through hell and fire only to find
more obstacles to climb

Yet is it that bad that we fail
and try again so to make it better
sweat our palms with salty waters
just to make the world into a bearable place

Our time will come one day
where can we sit down and admire
the beauty of this new forged world

Thus work on we must for ourself and children
a future worth living in again
for what else is there in life
than to keep on living
just to see the morning sun rise again.

[izchan]

: Starting out again

Come to see again
what it was that stopped me
from saying what I thought
and doing what I should

So many reasons
So many excuses
so many fears inside
one tiny soul like mine

looking left and right
like my mama taught me
never get into something
that you cannot got out from
just like mama taught me
be weary of every form

But mama I am tired
so stress from all the worry
why do I need to bother
what others think or see?
Mama why should I cry
when others dislike what I like?

So thank you mama for all your advice
thank you and I love you very much
but it is time for me to grow now mama
and make my own decisions

I now choose otherwise and not just to try
I will walk my talk now mama
I will hold my head high
I am starting my life again mama
Thats where my new destiny lays.

It has been some days since I last wrote. Dateline and everything else.

Hope you guys enjoy this one .