Heard this poem tonight, just sharing it here.

The Cure of Troy / Seamus Heaney

#poetry #poem

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THE CURE OF TROY Human beings suffer They torture one another, They get hurt and get hard. No poem or play or song Can fully right a wrong Inflicted and endured. The innocent in gaols Beat on their bars together. A hunger-striker’s father Stands in the graveyard dumb. The police widow in veils Faints at the funeral home. History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave... But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme.

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So hope for a great sea-change On the far side of revenge. Believe that a further shore Is reachable from here. Believe in miracles And cures and healing wells. Call miracle self-healing: The utter, self-revealing Double-take of feeling. If there's fire on the mountain Or lightning and storm And a god speaks from the sky That means someone is hearing The outcry and the birth-cry Of new life at its term. It means once in a lifetime That justice can rise up And hope and history rhyme. by Seamus Heaney

All my
Veins are
Full of
Red letters,
Unsent.

#poetry

The burn was big wi’ spate,
An’ there cam’ tum’lin doon
Tapsalteerie the half o’ a gate,
Wi’ an auld fish-hake an’ a great muckle skate,
An’ a lum hat wantin’ the croon!

—David Rorie, “The Lum Hat Wantin’ the Croon”

As things start to thaw in the north-east, mind how ye go…

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #song #20thcentury #humour #Scots #Scotslanguage

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The Lum Hat Wantin’ the Croon Dr David Rorie The burn was big wi’ spate, An’ there cam’ tum’lin doon Tapsalteerie the half o’ a gate, Wi’ an auld fish-hake an’ a great muckle skate, An’ a lum hat wantin’ the croon! The auld wife stude on the bank As they gaed swirlin’ roun’, She took a gude look an’ syne says she: “There’s food an’ there’s firin’ gaun to the sea, An’ a lum hat wantin’ the croon!” Sae she gruppit the branch o’ a saugh, An’ she kickit aff ane o’ her shoon, An’ she stuck oot her fit – but it caught in the gate, An’ awa’ she went wi’ the great muckle skate, An’ the lum hat wantin’ the croon! She floatit fu’ mony a mile, Past cottage an’ village an’ toon, She’d an awfu’ time astride o’ the gate, Though it seemed to gree fine wi’ the great muckle skate, An’ the lum hat wantin’ the croon! A fisher was walkin’ the deck, By the licht o’ his pipe an’ the mune, When he sees an auld body astride o’ a gate, Come bobbin’ alang in the waves wi’ a skate, An’ a lum hat wantin’ the croon!

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“There’s a man overboard!” cries he, “Ye leear!” says she, “I’ll droon! A man on a boord! It’s a wife on a gate, It’s auld Mistress Mackintosh here wi’ a skate, An’ a lum hat wantin’ the croon!” Was she nippit to death at the Pole? Has India bakit her broon? I canna tell that, but whatever her fate, I’ll wager ye’ll find it was shared by a skate, An’ a lum hat wantin’ the croon! There’s a moral attached to my sang, On greed ye should aye gie a froon, When ye think o’ the wife that was lost for a gate, An auld fish-hake an’ a great muckle skate, An’ a lum hat wantin’ a croon!

“The Lum Hat Wantin’ the Croon” was published in The Auld Doctor & Other Poems & Songs in Scots, by David Rorie (1920), & is available via @gutenberg_org

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17448

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #song #20thcentury #humour #Scots #Scotslanguage

#digitalhaiga by regular contributor, John Hawkhead of Bradford-upon-Avon, UK. (IG: @haikuhawk ) #poetry #haiga #art #poemwords

Love me
Like we’re
Not already
Ghosts.

#poetry

https://ko-fi.com/post/Swampgas-Zine-L4L81S929I

My latest blog post about this sweet new zine I was involved in. There's a link to a free copy too

#zine #metal #blackmetal #music #art #poetry #poem #writing #blog

You couldn’t
Scar what
You never
Touched.
I hope it
Haunts
You.

#poetry

Hope grows
Toward the Sun,
Defiant,
The bloom
In the ruin.

#poetry

Of the
Seven wonders,
Only the pyramids
At Giza remain.
Aligned with
Orion’s Belt,
Reaching to
The sky for
Millennia.
My heart
Knows the
Feeling.

#poetry

There are
Roses in
January,
There is long
Light reflected
In your eyes,
There is hope
Where none
Should
Take hold,
And I hold on
Inexplicably.

#poetry

One more
Day departed
From the man
I thought
Immortal.

#poetry

#monoku by Laurence Stacy. Laurence teaches English & literature courses at Kennesaw State University. He is also the recent coauthor of Before the Earth: Haiku and Haikai. In addition to studying poetics, he is a longtime martial artist, and is interested in connections between the disciplines he enjoys. #poetry #haiku #poetrylovers #oneliner

There will be
A light that
Comes to catch
Those facets,
And you will
Shine again.

#poetry

I offer of
Myself
That which
The pills
Haven’t
Plundered
First.

#poetry

The language
Has died
That would have
Expressed
All the love
And the terror
In me.

#poetry

Time is a river
And I am a
Goddamned
Stone.

#poetry

Somber #senryu by Anne Fox (IG: @annefox333 ) of Broomes Island, Maryland. USA #poetry #haiku #homeless #Maryland

The stars
Laugh at the
Scars you left,
As if these marks
Made you immortal

#poetry

May your
Dreams be
Not obscured
By cataract
Reality.

#poetry

The erotic poems of Bilitis

A lush translation of this late-discovered lesbian poet added to the legacy of Sappho, but there was a trickster at work

by Cat Lambert

https://aeon.co/essays/how-a-playful-literary-hoax-illuminates-classical-queerness

Les Chansons de Bilitis at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4708

#books #literature #poetry

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Title : Les chansons de Bilitis : traduit du grec / Pierre Louÿs ; ill. de G. Barbier, gravées sur bois par F. L. Schmied Author : Louÿs, Pierre (1870-1925). Auteur du texte Publisher : P. Corrard (Paris) Publication date : 1922 Contributor : Barbier, George (1882-1932). Illustrateur Contributor : Schmied, François-Louis (1873-1941). Graveur The illustration is presented as a decorative page or bookplate, featuring a rectangular composition with elaborate framing. The entire design is set against cream-colored paper with a sophisticated multi-layered border treatment that creates depth and visual richness. Across the top of the black panel stretches an arbor or trellis laden with grapevines. Standing gracefully on the left side is a woman in classical Greek or Roman dress. Crouched or kneeling on the right side is a striking figure rendered entirely in coral-red or terracotta tones. In the upper portion of the black space, four white bird silhouettes are visible. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k15164019/f23.item.texteImage#

#monoku by new contributor, Ash Evan Lippert. Ash is an emerging queer writer from South Carolina. Widely published in journals, both online & in print, their debut chapbook, “god of the body”, is available through Yavanika Press. Find them on Bluesky ( @wanderstruck.blog ) & Instagram ( @wanderstruck_haiku ). #poetrycommunity #poetry #poetrylovers #micropoetry #snow #night #Winter #haiku

Learning how
To move these
Grief wrapped bones
Toward joy.

#poetry

I am
All full
Of dead
Stars
And
Living
Hope.

#poetry

When one
Voice is silenced,
It is our duty
To start
Screaming

#poetry

#monoku by new contributor, Stephanie Zepherelli, a California native & former dance professor. Stephanie has been living on #Oahu the past 40 years. She has a drawer full of mismatched spoons & a tribe of Madagascar geckos #poetry #gaia #haiku

Shadow
Only exists
At the behest
Of light.

#poetry

If Hell
Couldn’t
Break me,
What made
You think
You could?

#poetry

The blood
On my hands
Might as well
Be wine.
And it’s mine
Mine, mine.

#poetry

Remember
You are
Celestial.
Nothing
Earthly
Can bind
You.

#poetry

Wordsworth Revolutionized Poetry But His Life Was Equally Interesting

"Who was William Wordsworth, and what made his poetry so revolutionary? Read about the life and works of this major Romantic poet."

https://www.thecollector.com/william-wordsworth/

Books by Wordsworth at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2879

#books #literature #poetry

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Portrait of William Wordsworth, by William Shuter, 1798.

#haiku by long time contributor, Debarati Sen, of India @debarati_poetry #winter #poetry #poetrylovers #india

Everything’s
Ephemeral,
Darling.
Even the
Hurt.

#poetry

One day
We will realize
That it was
Through our flaws
We became beautiful.

#poetry

This is not a poem.
This is a plea
To the stars
To keep me
Looking skyward.

#poetry

Open wounds
Are just another
Way for the light
To enter you.

#poetry

“Open Me Carefully.” Emily Dickinson’s Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson

"A Look Inside the Poet’s Personal Life and the Making of Her Mythical Reclusiveness"

https://lithub.com/open-me-carefully-emily-dickinsons-intimate-letters-to-susan-huntington-dickinson/

Books by Dickinson at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/996

#books #literature #poetry

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Emily Dickinson seated by a table with a tablecloth and two books stacked on top.

In a thousand years
May they know
By my bones
That even the
Suffering was
Beautiful.

#poetry

The besotted
Stars find
In you a
Mirror and
A mooring.

#poetry

@Aphelion Love the imagery and metaphor in this poem! Definitely reflects how I often feel these days. You are the Poet Laureate of the Fedi 🔥 #poetry

I have come
With my
Burnt hands,
With a book
Of matches,
To the foot
Of another
Bridge.

#poetry

"But I’ll be honest: 'Digging' bored me when I first read it. Between me and Heaney’s clean cuts, there was a temperamental misalignment; I tend to prefer poems with a little muss and bedhead." —Elisa Gonzalez for The Yale Review

https://yalereview.org/article/elisa-gonzalez-searching-for-seamus-heaney

#Poems #Poetry #SeamusHeaney #Ireland

We carry
The shrapnel
Of the singularity
In our veins,
Born of destruction
Every one of us
A Phoenix.

#poetry

Blessed is the
Fury in each
Woman’s heart,
By its flames
May we be reborn.

#poetry