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It's been a long while since we had one of these going (somebody, quick, call Jazzo!   , so, in keeping with the season I'll start it off with one of my favorite Poe pieces: ANNABEL LEE 
 by Edgar Allan Poe
 
 1849
 
 It was many and many a year ago,
 In a kingdom by the sea,
 That a maiden there lived whom you may know
 By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
 And this maiden she lived with no other thought
 Than to love and be loved by me.
 
 I was a child and she was a child,
 In this kingdom by the sea;
 But we loved with a love that was more than love-
 I and my Annabel Lee;
 With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
 Coveted her and me.
 
 And this was the reason that, long ago,
 In this kingdom by the sea,
 A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
 My beautiful Annabel Lee;
 So that her highborn kinsman came
 And bore her away from me,
 To shut her up in a sepulchre
 In this kingdom by the sea.
 
 The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
 Went envying her and me-
 Yes!–that was the reason (as all men know,
 In this kingdom by the sea)
 That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
 Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
 
 But our love it was stronger by far than the love
 Of those who were older than we-
 Of many far wiser than we-
 And neither the angels in heaven above,
 Nor the demons down under the sea,
 Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
 Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
 
 For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
 Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
 And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
 Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
 And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
 Of my darling–my darling–my life and my bride,
 In the sepulchre there by the sea,
 In her tomb by the sounding sea.
 
 
 
Last edited by WhitmanO'Neill; 10/26/2005 12:07 AM.
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And one of my favorite Frost pieces which my thoughts always stray towards this time of year when I think of New England and the Fall Foliage:
 
 
 BIRCHES
 
 Robert Frost 1875–1963
 
 WHEN I see birches bend to left and right
 Across the line of straighter darker trees,
 I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
 But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay.
 Ice-storms do that. Often you must have seen them
 Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
 After a rain. They click upon themselves
 As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
 As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
 Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells
 Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—
 Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
 You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
 They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
 And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
 So low for long, they never right themselves:
 You may see their trunks arching in the woods
 Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
 Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
 Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
 But I was going to say when Truth broke in
 With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm
 (Now am I free to be poetical?)
 I should prefer to have some boy bend them
 As he went out and in to fetch the cows—
 Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
 Whose only play was what he found himself,
 Summer or winter, and could play alone.
 One by one he subdued his father's trees
 By riding them down over and over again
 Until he took the stiffness out of them,
 And not one but hung limp, not one was left
 For him to conquer. He learned all there was
 To learn about not launching out too soon
 And so not carrying the tree away
 Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
 To the top branches, climbing carefully
 With the same pains you use to fill a cup
 Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
 Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
 Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.
 
 So was I once myself a swinger of birches;
 And so I dream of going back to be.
 It's when I'm weary of considerations,
 And life is too much like a pathless wood
 Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
 Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
 From a twig's having lashed across it open.
 I'd like to get away from earth awhile
 And then come back to it and begin over.
 May no fate wilfully misunderstand me
 And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
 Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
 I don't know where it's likely to go better.
 I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
 And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
 Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
 But dipped its top and set me down again.
 That would be good both going and coming back.
 One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.
 
 
 
 
 (c) 1915 by Robert Frost
 
 
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My maternal grandmother could (and did) recite this entire James Whitcomb Riley poem from memory:
 
 "When the Frost is on the Punkin"
 
 WHEN the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
 And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
 And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,
 And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
 O, it's then the time a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
 With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
 As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
 When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
 
 They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
 When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here—
 Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees,
 And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;
 But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
 Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
 Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock—
 When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
 
 The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
 And the raspin' of the tangled leaves as golden as the morn;
 The stubble in the furries—kindo' lonesome-like, but still
 A-preachin' sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
 The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
 The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover overhead!—
 O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
 When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
 
 Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps
 Is poured around the cellar-floor in red and yaller heaps;
 And your cider-makin's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
 With theyr mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and sausage too!...
 I don't know how to tell it—but ef such a thing could be
 As the angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me—
 I'd want to 'commodate 'em—all the whole-indurin' flock—
 When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
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|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Oct 2000 Posts: 5,400 | 
i can but help of think of this simple childrens poem, when ever october comes round.
 October’s Party
 by George Cooper
 
 October gave a party;
 The leaves by hundreds came.
 The Chestnuts, Oaks and Maples,
 And leaves of every name.
 
 The Sunshine spread a carpet,
 And everything was grand,
 Miss Weather led the dancing,
 Professor Wind the band.
 
 The Chestnuts came in yellow,
 The Oaks in crimson dressed;
 The lovely Misses maple
 In scarlet looked their best.
 
 All balanced to their partners,
 And gaily fluttered by;
 The sight was like a rainbow
 New fallen from the sky.
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heyy people....am new here on this forum..just read all the above poems..liked them all...would reaally like to see more such stuff here.have fun...KITS..
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|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Jun 2001 Posts: 2,636 | 
Welcome aBoard, May. Feel free to post some you know of!
 Well, it's a marvelous night for a Moondance
 With the stars up above in your eyes
 A fantabulous night to make romance
 'Neath the cover of October skies
 And all the leaves on the trees are falling
 To the sound of the breezes that blow
 And I'm trying to please to the calling
 Of your heart-strings that play soft and low
 And all the night's magic seems to whisper and hush
 And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush
 -  Van Morrison, Moondance
 
 
 
Last edited by consuelo; 10/28/2005 2:44 AM.
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Two more from Van Morrison
 I saw you standing with the wind and the rain in your face
 And you were thinking 'bout the wisdom of the leaves and their grace
 When the leaves come falling down
 In September when the leaves, come falling down
 
 And at night the moon is shining on a clear, cloudless sky
 And when the evening shadows fall I'll be there by your side
 When the leaves come falling down
 In September when the leaves, come falling down
 
 Follow me down, follow me down, follow me down
 To the place beside the garden and the wall
 Follow me down, follow me down
 To the space before the twilight and the dawn
 
 Oh, the last time I saw Paris in the streets, in the rain
 And as I walk along the boulevards with you, once again
 And the leaves come falling down
 In September, when the leaves come falling down
 
 Follow me down, follow me down, follow me down
 To the place between the garden and the wall
 Follow me down, follow me down
 To the space between the twilight and the dawn
 
 And as I'm looking at the colour of the leaves, in your hand
 As we're listening to Chet Baker on the beach, in the sand
 When the leaves come falling down,
 Woe in September, when the leaves come falling down
 Oh when the leaves come falling down
 Yeah in September when the leaves come falling down
 
 When the leaves come falling down
 In September, when the leaves come falling down
 
 When the leaves come falling down in September, in the rain
 When the leaves come falling down
 
 When the leaves come falting down in September, in the rain
 When the leaves come falling down
 -When The Leaves Come Falling Down
 
 
 
 Well don't you know
 How much I love you
 Don't you know
 How much I care
 It's beyond my comprehension
 'Cos I love you on the square
 
 It's not bound by any definition
 It isn't written in the stars
 It's not limited like Saturn
 Isn't ruled by Mercury or Mars
 
 Oh won't you meet me
 In the Indian summer
 Where we'll go walking
 Down by the weeping willow tree
 Won't you meet me
 In the Indian summer
 We'll go walking to eternity
 
 It's not modelled by convention
 It isn't worshipped like the sun
 It's not likened unto any other
 And it will never come undone
 
 Well don't you know
 That my world is so lonely
 Just like a freight train in the dawn
 That's why I need to
 Have and hold you
 Just to keep me from going wrong
 
 Oh won't you meet me
 In the Indian summer
 We'll go walking
 By the weeping willow tree
 Won't you meet me Lord
 In the Indian summer
 We'll go walking to eternity
 
 Won't you meet me
 In the Indian summer
 Well before
 Those chilly winds do blow
 Won't you meet me
 In the Indian summer
 Take me way back
 To what I know
 
 Oh won't you meet me
 In the Indian summer
 We'll go walking
 By the weeping willow tree
 Oh won't you meet me
 In the Indian summer
 We'll go walking to eternity
 -Meet Me In The Indian Summer
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l(a
 le
 af
 fa
 ll
 s)
 one
 li
 ness
 
 -  e.e. cummings
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Clouds gather, treetops toss and sway;But pour us wine, an old one!
 That we may turn this dreary day
 To golden, yes, to golden!
 
 Autumn has come, but never fear,
 Wait but a little while yet,
 Spring will be here, the skies will clear,
 And fields stand deep in violets.
 
 The heavenly blue of fresh new days
 Oh, friend, you must employ them
 Before they pass away. Be brave!
 Enjoy them; oh, enjoy them!
 -   Theodor Storm,  A Song in October
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 Below is one of my all-time favorite autumn poems.Please recite it without singing.
 Nat King Cole couldn't.
 Thank you.
 ________________________________________________
 
 
 
 The falling leaves drift by the window
 The autumn leaves of red and gold
 I see your lips, the summer kisses
 The sun-burned hands I used to hold
 
 Since you went away the days grow long
 And soon I’ll hear old winter’s song
 But I miss you most of all my darling
 When autumn leaves start to fall
 
 C’est une chanson, qui nous ressemble
 Toi tu m’aimais et je t’aimais
 Nous vivions tous, les deux ensemble
 Toi que m’aimais moi qui t’aimais
 Mais la vie sépare ceux qui s’aiment
 Tout doucement sans faire de bruit
 Et la mer efface sur le sable les pas des amants désunis
 
 __________________________________________ Johnny Mercer
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Halloween [two, three, and]In HARlem [two, three, and]
 HalloWEEN, [and] HalloWEEN, [and] in HARlem [two, three, four]
 
 -- refrain of Sun Ra's (you guessed it) Halloween in Harlem.
 
 (The count is counted, not spoken)
 
 edited for ands
 
Last edited by inselpeter; 10/28/2005 11:14 PM.
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 It'll never happen - not until they pull my cold curled dead fingers away from the keyboard of my computer - a compilation of October poems with only one poem by Poe. Here is a great one... 
 
 
 _____The Conqueror Worm______
 
 Lo! 'tis a gala night
 Within the lonesome latter years!
 An angel throng, bewinged, bedight
 In veils, and drowned in tears,
 Sit in a theatre, to see
 A play of hopes and fears,
 While the orchestra breathes fitfully
 The music of the spheres.
 
 Mimes, in the form of God on high,
 Mutter and mumble low,
 And hither and thither fly-
 Mere puppets they, who come and go
 At bidding of vast formless things
 That shift the scenery to and fro,
 Flapping from out their Condor wings
 Invisible Woe!
 
 That motley drama- oh, be sure
 It shall not be forgot!
 With its Phantom chased for evermore,
 By a crowd that seize it not,
 Through a circle that ever returneth in
 To the self-same spot,
 And much of Madness, and more of Sin,
 And Horror the soul of the plot.
 
 But see, amid the mimic rout
 A crawling shape intrude!
 A blood-red thing that writhes from out
 The scenic solitude!
 It writhes!- it writhes!- with mortal pangs
 The mimes become its food,
 And seraphs sob at vermin fangs
 In human gore imbued.
 
 Out- out are the lights- out all!
 And, over each quivering form,
 The curtain, a funeral pall,
 Comes down with the rush of a storm,
 While the angels, all pallid and wan,
 Uprising, unveiling, affirm
 That the play is the tragedy, "Man,"
 And its hero the Conqueror Worm.
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 A TALE OF THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR
 by Ogden Nash
 
 
 The hands of the clock were reaching high
 In an old midtown hotel;
 I name no name, but its sordid fame
 Is table talk in hell.
 I name no name, but hell's own flame
 Illumes the lobby garish,
 A gilded snare just off Times Square
 For the maidens of the parish.
 
 The revolving door swept the grimy floor
 Like a crinoline grotesque,
 And a lowly bum from an ancient slum
 Crept furtively past the desk.
 His footsteps sift into the lift
 As a knife in the sheath is slipped,
 Stealthy and swift into the lift
 As a vampire into a crypt.
 
 Old Maxie, the elevator boy,
 Was reading an ode by Shelley,
 But he dropped the ode as it were a toad
 When the gun jammed into his belly.
 There came a whisper as soft as mud
 In the bed of an old canal:
 "Take me up to the suite of Pinball Pete,
 The rat who betrayed my gal."
 
 The lift doth rise with groans and sighs
 Like a duchess for the waltz,
 Then in middle shaft, like a duchess daft,
 It changes its mind and halts.
 The bum bites lip as the landlocked ship
 Doth neither fall nor rise,
 But Maxie the elevator boy
 Regards him with burning eyes.
 "First, to explore the thirteenth floor,"
 Says Maxie, "would be wise."
 
 Quoth the bum, "There is moss on your double cross,
 I have been this way before,
 I have cased the joint at every point,
 And there is no thirteenth floor.
 The architect he skipped direct
 From twelve unto fourteen,
 There is twelve below and fourteen above,
 And nothing in between,
 For the vermin who dwell in this hotel
 Could never abide thirteen."
 
 Said Max, "Thirteen, that floor obscene,
 Is hidden from human sight;
 But once a year it doth appear,
 On this Walpurgis Night.
 Ere you peril your soul in murderer's role,
 Heed those who sinned of yore;
 The path they trod led away from God,
 And onto the thirteenth floor,
 Where those they slew, a grisly crew,
 Reproach them forevermore.
 
 "We are higher than twelve and below fourteen,"
 Said Maxie to the bum,
 "And the sickening draft that taints the shaft
 Is a whiff of kingdom come.
 The sickening draft that taints the shaft
 Blows through the devil's door!"
 And he squashed the latch like a fungus patch,
 And revealed the thirteenth floor.
 
 It was cheap cigars like lurid scars
 That glowed in the rancid gloom,
 The murk was a-boil with fusel oil
 And the reek of stale perfume.
 And round and round there dragged and wound
 A loathsome conga chain,
 The square and the hep in slow lock step,
 The slayer and the slain.
 (For the souls of the victims ascend on high,
 But their bodies below remain.)
 
 The clean souls fly to their home in the sky,
 But their bodies remain below
 To pursue the Cain who each has slain
 And harry him to and fro.
 When life is extinct each corpse is linked
 To its gibbering murderer,
 As a chicken is bound with wire around
 The neck of a killer cur.
 
 Handcuffed to Hate come Doctor Waite
 (He tastes the poison now),
 And Ruth and Judd and a head of blood
 With horns upon its brow.
 Up sashays Nan with her feathery fan
 From Floradora bright;
 She never hung for Caesar Young
 But she's dancing with him tonight.
 
 Here's the bulging hip and the foam-flecked lip
 Of the mad dog, Vincent Coll,
 And over there that ill-met pair,
 Becker and Rosenthal,
 Here's Legs and Dutch and a dozen such
 Of braggart bullies and brutes,
 And each one bends 'neath the weight of friends
 Who are wearing concrete suits.
 
 Now the damned make way for the double-damned
 Who emerge with shuffling pace
 From the nightmare zone of persons unknown,
 With neither name nor face.
 And poor Dot King to one doth cling,
 Joined in a ghastly jig,
 While Elwell doth jape at a goblin shape
 And tickle it with his wig.
 
 See Rothstein pass like breath on a glass,
 The original Black Sox kid;
 He riffles the pack, riding piggyback
 On the killer whose name he hid.
 And smeared like brine on a slavering swine,
 Starr Faithful, once so fair,
 Drawn from the sea to her debauchee,
 With the salt sand in her hair.
 
 And still they come, and from the bum
 The icy sweat doth spray;
 His white lips scream as in a dream,
 "For God's sake, let's away!
 If ever I meet with Pinball Pete
 I will not seek his gore,
 Lest a treadmill grim I must trudge with him
 On the hideous thirteenth floor."
 
 "For you I rejoice," said Maxie's voice,
 "And I bid you go in peace,
 But I am late for a dancing date
 That nevermore will cease.
 So remember, friend, as your way you wend,
 That it would have happened to you,
 But I turned the heat on Pinball Pete;
 You see - I had a daughter, too!"
 
 The bum reached out and he tried to shout,
 But the door in his face was slammed,
 And silent as stone he rode down alone
 From the floor of the double-damned.
 
 (c) 1952 by Ogden Nash
 
 * Note: Walpurgis Night of German folklore is the eve of May 1st but this poem fits the "spirit" of Halloween as well.
 
 
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The leaves had a party one autumn day,and invited the North Wind bold;
 they put on their dresses of crimson and brown,
 with their borders splashed with gold.
 
 At first they danced to a merry tune,
 but the North Wind whirled them round;
 and tossed them roughly to and fro,
 till they fell upon the ground.
 
 And when kind old Dame Winter came,
 she pitied the tired leaves so;
 she laid them gently on the grass,
 and covered them over with snow.
 
 Alice C. D. Riley
 
 formerly known as etaoin...
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I can't recall the title or author, but I memorized this one in public school and it's always stuck with me.
 Indian Summer
 William Wilfred Campbell
 (thanks to Owlbow)
 
 Along the line of smoky hills
 The crimson forest stands,
 And all the day the bluejay calls
 Throughout the autumn lands.
 
 Now by the brook the maple leans
 With all his glory spread,
 And all the sumacs on the hill
 Have turned their green to red.
 
 Now by great marshes wrapped in mist
 Or past some river's mouth,
 Throughout the long, clear autumn day
 Wild birds are flying south.
 
 And, if you'll forgive it, one I wrote.
 
 
 Autumn Cat
 
 The days grow shorter past the equinox;
 The autumn hues of maple, pumpkin, frost
 Peek through the fading leaves, and nights grow chill,
 Though summer's warmth in daytime lingers still.
 My cat's September too, who, day by day,
 By changing shows me winter's on its way.
 Her coat of black, all flecked with white and gold,
 Grows thick and soft against the coming cold.
 This huntress of fat mice on summer days
 Looks nightwards now, and sets her golden gaze
 On fluttermice who swiftly swoop in air,
 By day stalks falling leaves as trees grow bare.
 
 Though summer's warmth still lingers in her purr,
 Night, frost and fox are lurking in her fur.
 
Last edited by Elizabeth Creith; 11/02/2005 4:04 PM.
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Elizabeth, no need to ask forgiveness! I so envy people who can write poetry, and this is lovely.  Don't hesitate to post more. |  |  |  
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|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Mar 2000 Posts: 6,511 | 
Winter is icumin inLhude sing Goddamn,
 Raineth drop and staineth slop,
 And how the wind doth ramm!
 Sing; Goddamn.
 Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
 An ague hath my ham
 Damn you, Sing, Goddamn.
 Goddamn, Goddamn, 'tis why I am,
 So 'gainst the winter's balm.
 Sing goddamn, damn, sing goddamn,
 Sing goddamn, sing goddamn, DAMM
 
 -Ezra Pound (1915)
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What a beautiful sonnet, Elizabeth! Thank you so much for posting it. |  |  |  
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Elizabeth, the poem is Indian Summer, by William Wilfred Campbell (1858?-1918). You original is wonderful too. I especially like the last line. Thanks for all these posted poems. (Yeah go ahead - something about "nailed it"...) Birches is among my favorites, in any season. It reminds me of swings of my own and of glad courting times with my wife (to be) in a grove of them.  
Last edited by Owlbow; 11/02/2005 2:42 PM.
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Owlbow, thanks! I wouldn't have got that for the life of me. And AnnaS has posted another I like, although I think of that one more as a winter poem. (You people are all so nice about my poetry - shucks!) |  |  |  
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hey elizabeth..that was a nice one and definately deserves appreciation..i have a silly question to ask...hope u wont mind..do u have a Cat??
 
 i am looking forward to more of ur self made ones..cheers!!!
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..the one in the poem is Lilith; the others, Fiddle, Morgana and Violet. |  |  |  
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Ancient and Appended Notes. (2004)Paul Nachbar (1957-)
 
 Winter is icumin in
 Softly sigh oy veh
 Tho som things ar not so bad
 O otters best not say
 Aye the raindrops make un frown
 Butte stille folkes kann smile
 An tho germs can drag um down
 Aye som things ar vile
 Ofteems have u sung Goddamn
 Who could holp yself?
 Best to heere finde some frends
 Whoo know ye'r no one else
 An porhaps to passe the while
 Dar amung the ville, the vile
 O the Goddamn stoff goes on
 Yes Goddamn it doess
 Put y in ets propre place
 Tis the baddest of disgrace
 Wan saddest poetes loseth face
 So herin i trye to frendlie be
 Tho y seems ignoring me
 Beste nu on the safest side
 N mebbe nought not world war three.
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Joined:  Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 Carpal Tunnel |  
|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 | 
Remember, remember the fifth of November,Gunpowder, treason and plot,
 I see no reason why gunpowder treason
 Should ever be forgot.
 
Last edited by tsuwm; 11/04/2005 4:00 AM.
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Joined:  Sep 2000 Posts: 2,788 Carpal Tunnel |  
|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Sep 2000 Posts: 2,788 | 
Or, as the Gunpowder Plot was recalled in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer:
 Almighty God, who hast in all ages shewed thy Power and Mercy in the miraculous and gracious deliverances of the Church, and in the protection of righteous and religious Kings and States professing thy holy and eternal truth, from the wicked conspiracies and malicious practices of all enemies thereof:  We yield thee our unfeigned thanks and praise, for the wonderful and mighty Deliverance of our gracious Sovereign King James the First, the Queen, The Prince, and all the Royal Branches, with the Nobility, Clergy, and Commons of England, then assembled in Parliament, by Popish treachery appointed as sheep to the slaughter, in a most barbarous and savage manner, beyond the examples of former ages.  From this unnatural Conspiracy, not our merit, but thy mercy; not our foresight, but thy providence delivered us: And therefore not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name be ascribed all honour and glory, in all Churches of the saints, from generation to generation; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.
 
 Man, they don't write 'em like that  any more.
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Joined:  Jul 2000 Posts: 3,467 Carpal Tunnel |  
|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Jul 2000 Posts: 3,467 | 
Yup.   Grand juries just don't have souls. 
 TEd
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Joined:  Mar 2001 Posts: 4,189 Carpal Tunnel |  
| Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Mar 2001 Posts: 4,189 | 
APPROACH OF WINTER
 by William Carlos Williams
 
 
 The half-stripped trees
 struck by a wind together,
 bending all,
 the leaves flutter drily
 and refuse to let go
 or driven like hail
 stream bitterly out to one side
 and fall
 where the salvias, hard carmine--
 like no leaf that ever was--
 edge the bare garden.
 
 (c)1921 by  William Carlos Williams
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Joined:  Jun 2001 Posts: 2,636 Carpal Tunnel |  
|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Jun 2001 Posts: 2,636 | 
Blow On Chilly Wind
 A little gray around the crown
 A little hint of slowing down
 She puts on some old evening gown
 And dances alone
 Years are hazy and days are slow
 The seasons come and the reasons go
 And while the wind and memory blows
 She turns to stone
 
 Sayin’
 Blow on, blow on chilly wind
 Go ahead and blow
 Blow on chilly wind
 Just let the chilly wind blow
 Yeah let the chilly wind blow
 
 Down the halls that whisper names
 Through the walls and the picture frames
 It’s not just old in here
 It’s swirling underneath the door
 And all around the cabinet drawers
 It’s getting pretty cold in here
 
 But I say
 Blow on, blow on chilly wind
 Go ahead and blow
 Blow on chilly wind
 Just let the chilly wind blow
 
 Let the chilly wind blow
 And the chilly wind will blow
 
 I took a walk down by Shaker Square
 A Christmas tree was standing there
 That same old chill was in the air
 And I buttoned up my overcoat
 I thought of things that change and things that don’t
 How they say some folks will and some folks won’t
 
 But I say
 Blow on, blow on chilly wind
 Go ahead and blow
 Blow on chilly wind
 Just let the chilly wind blow
 
 Let the chilly wind blow
 And the chilly wind will blow
 
 Said you must blow on, Mama
 Blow on chilly wind
 
 You must blow on
 
 -Marc Cohn
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Joined:  Mar 2001 Posts: 4,189 Carpal Tunnel |  
| Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Mar 2001 Posts: 4,189 | 
    No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,No comfortable feel in any member -
 No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
 No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds -
 November!
 
 -   Thomas Hood, No!
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Joined:  Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Carpal Tunnel |  
|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 | 
No heat, no sweat, No damn'd sun that blazes; No stinging insects, No lethargy, no lack of energy, No surprising pit viper that in the sun lazes. GRR-RR to the other one!    |  |  |  
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Joined:  Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 Carpal Tunnel |  
|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 | 
Sponsored by: Poetry Of Robert Frost & California Fireworks Co   |  |  |  
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Joined:  Sep 2000 Posts: 4,757 Carpal Tunnel |  
|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Sep 2000 Posts: 4,757 | 
mmm, W'onderful idea, that man! - loved the Thos Hood, such clever use of language on the tongue. |  |  |  
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Joined:  Jul 2000 Posts: 3,467 Carpal Tunnel |  
|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Jul 2000 Posts: 3,467 | 
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on downOf the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
 The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
 When the skies of November turn gloomy.
 
 With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more
 Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
 That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
 When the gales of November came early
 
 The ship was the pride of the American side
 Coming back from some mill in Wisconson
 As the big freighters go it was bigger than most
 With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.
 
 Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
 When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
 And later that night when the ships bell rang
 Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.
 
 The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
 And a wave broke over the railing
 And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
 T'was the witch of November come stealing.
 
 The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
 When the gales of November came slashing
 When afternoon came it was freezing rain
 In the face of a hurricane West Wind
 
 When supper time came the old cook came on deck
 Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya
 At 7PM a main hatchway caved in
 He said fellas it's been good to know ya.
 
 The Captain wired in he had water coming in
 And the good ship and crew was in peril
 And later that night when his lights went out of sight
 Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
 
 Does anyone know where the love of God goes
 When the words turn the minutes to hours
 The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
 If they'd fifteen more miles behind her.
 
 They might have split up or they might have capsized
 They may have broke deep and took water
 And all that remains is the faces and the names
 Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.
 
 Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
 In the ruins of her ice water mansion
 Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
 The islands and bays are for sportsmen.
 
 And farther below Lake Ontario
 Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
 And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
 With the gales of November remembered.
 
 In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
 In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
 The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times
 For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
 
 The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
 Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
 Superior, they say, never gives up her dead
 When the gales of November come early.
 
 
 © 1976 Moose Music, Inc.
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Joined:  Mar 2001 Posts: 4,189 Carpal Tunnel |  
| Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Mar 2001 Posts: 4,189 | 
LATE AUTUMN IN VENICE
 by Delmore Schwartz
 
 
 (After Rilke)
 
 The city floats no longer like a bait
 To hook the nimble darting summer days.
 The glazed and brittle palaces pulsate and radiate
 And glitter. Summer’s garden sways,
 A heap of marionettes hanging down and dangled,
 Leaves tired, torn, turned upside down and strangled:
 Until from forest depths, from bony leafless trees
 A will wakens: the admiral, lolling long at ease,
 Has been commanded, overnight—suddenly—:
 In the first dawn, all galleys put to sea!
 Waking then in autumn chill, amid the harbor medley,
 The fragrance of pitch, pennants aloft, the butt
 Of oars, all sails unfurled, the fleet
 Awaits the great wind, radiant and deadly.
 
 
 (C) 1965 by Delmore Schwartz
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Joined:  Sep 2000 Posts: 4,757 Carpal Tunnel |  
|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Sep 2000 Posts: 4,757 | 
I went for a glorious walk in the sparkling frosty ancient woods of Ty Canol today.  Amazed to see many trees still bearing green leaf as well as magical arrays of autumnal colour, it brought to mind sonnet 73.  And then as if by some sort of osmosis my dad quoted three words from it this evening when I was chatting with my folks - so (with apologies to Jackie!) here it is, with a subtler play on the pathetic fallacy...
 That time of year thou mayst in me behold
 When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
 Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
 Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
 In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
 As after sunset fadeth in the west;
 Which by and by black night doth take away,
 Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
 In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,
 That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
 As the death-bed, whereon it must expire,
 Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
 This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
 To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.
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Joined:  Mar 2005 Posts: 500 addict |  
|   addict Joined:  Mar 2005 Posts: 500 | 
Gordon Lightfoot - the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald |  |  |  
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Joined:  Sep 2000 Posts: 2,788 Carpal Tunnel |  
|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Sep 2000 Posts: 2,788 | 
"... when the winds of November come early." |  |  |  
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Joined:  Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 Carpal Tunnel |  
|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 | 
  whenever I look up from my pageand see a burn-mark of yellow leaves,
 I think of the icy winds
 that will soon be knifing through my jacket.
 
 excerpt from Billy Collins, poet laureate of NY state and former US pl.
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Joined:  Jul 2000 Posts: 3,467 Carpal Tunnel |  
|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Jul 2000 Posts: 3,467 | 
Quote:
 "... when the winds of November come early."
 
 
 
 
 "When the winds of November"  127 googlits
 
 "When the gales of November"  14,100 googlits.
 
 Many of the lyrics on line have "Gales of November" in quotation marks, as though it were some sort of catch phrase.  But none of them I looked at had "Winds of November."
 
 TEd
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Joined:  Sep 2000 Posts: 2,788 Carpal Tunnel |  
|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Sep 2000 Posts: 2,788 | 
Yessir, them winds wuz so strong, they wuz gales!The lyrics One learns only with great difficulty not to trust one's memory as it slowly fades away. |  |  |  | 
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