The Thursday Think Tank - #17 Equality

Suggested by Robert Cameron Hazleton

"When the sun rises, it rises for everyone"

~unknown

It seems that we as a people always struggle for equality in one way or another.  Those struggles for equality are presented to us everyday on varying scales. It can be a simple as two children fighting for a mother’s attention or it can be as life changing as the Civil Rights Movement in the 60’s.  Today’s topic has a slightly political undertone to it, but you do not have to go that route.  Explore what the idea of equality means to you and write with inspiration.  We are as always equally excited to read your poems.

The Life of a Poet - Ninot Aziz

Written by Robert Lloyd

Have you ever meet a person, where after no more than 10 minutes, you have complete adoration and respect for them?  I recently did when I took the time to sit down and shape my most recent interview.  This week for our The Life of a Poet Interview I was lucky to have a wonderful back forth exchange with Zalina Abdul Aziz, known to us at Poets United as Ninot Aziz. 


Laura Schlessinger said “The people and circumstances around me do not make me what I am, they reveal who I am” I think is a wonderful way to start off introducing you to Nino.  She is the strong, intelligent writer and poet who offers us the blog Poems by Nino Taziz.  Nino was born in Hobart Tasmania, Australia and currently lives in Malaysia.  When asked what she loves the most about her life she simply and easily responds.  “The light of my life; Iman, Inas, Irani, Ilena and Little Ikesha.”  She has a loving husband and five wonderful children that inspire her poetry and she doesn’t mind sharing a small bit of that inspiration with others 

Poem of the Week (28 September 2010) - Laughter Revolution

Selected by Susannah Bec
This poem can be found at:

Burdens & Smiles

Laughter Revolution


We need new hippies
Another generation to enjoy the now
A people that pull rainbows from the dull cities
Flowers in the rifle barrels part two
Society should be looking beyond tabloids and our own dead ends
When we sweat, yank the clothes from our bodies
and teach us to dance in the gritty acid rains

Our neighbors should take their last dollars and use it on instant smiles
It’s a time for the poets and songwriters to quicken the pulse of the world
To show us there is more to life than cable boxes and the latest tickle me Elmo
We should smile more often and wander the streets like gypsies
Camp out on the sidewalks sucking in the yellow rays of sunlight and laughter


We need to open borders and close-minded fools
Allow the daring to run to the top of any mountain they choose
And while there let them scream from the top of their lungs
Holler every verse of Dylan’s Do Not Go Gentle


Families should learn to not despise who our children are
They need to embrace them
Empty their pockets till they have every crayon possible, even periwinkle


Extract the dreams from the dulling eyes and witness them happen
Let us all be spent by one another’s exhausting joy


We need to relish today so that tomorrow they know it is what they will do

~ Robert Lloyd

(This poem was selected by Susannah Bec.  She is currently one of our contributors and poets found here at Poets United.  If you would like to learn more Susannah about or read some of her own poetry you can  visit her blog "Out of my Ocean" or keep an eye out for more of her posts.  We would like to thank her for all of her hard work.)

Poetry Blog of the Week - (27 September 2010) Cassiopeia Rises

By Robert Lloyd

Nathaniel Hawthorne once said “Moonlight is sculpture” and I must agree with that phrase. Night time is when the stars shine bright and your imagination grasps tightly to night’s beauty. It is a time for the constellations to tell stories and for the stars to inspire. One such constellation is Cassiopeia and one such inspiration is the poetry blog Cassiopeia Rises. If you are not familiar with the poetess Melanie Bishop or her blog Cassiopeia Rises you are truly missing out on a wonderful poet.

The Poetry Pantry Is Now Open - Week #10

The Poetry Pantry

2nd Chance Poems or 1st time shares

Anything goes!! All Poems, all Poets, All Week!!

Do you have a poem you would like to share? Something that you just felt inspired to write and want others to read. Perhaps it’s a poem that didn’t get as much exposure on your blog as you would have liked. Maybe it’s a poem that you wrote a long time ago that you would like people to revisit. That’s what this section of Poets United is for.

Poet History #4 - Edna St. Vincent Millay

 ~by bkmackenzie

I am waylaid by Beauty. Who will walk

Between me and the crying of the frogs?

Oh, savage Beauty, suffer me to pass,

That am a timid woman, on her way

From one house to another!

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

As I have written elsewhere , all my favorite poets begin with the letter “E”, and of these, Edna St. Vincent Millay is one of the finest. I first became mesmerized by the persona of Millay upon reading Savage Beauty, The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford. A spellbinding read that leaves you feeling you have just watched her life portrayed before your eyes in classic black and white film. It is precisely why I chose Millay as the first of poets to write about at Poet’s United.

The Thursday Tink Tank - #16 Autumn

By Robert Lloyd

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf's a flower.

- Albert Camus

Autumn seems to inspire many writers and artists. It is a time of year that flourishes with colors and cool breezes. For some, fall is a welcome time of year one that ushers in holidays, family and a whole slew of other cheerful occasions (football happens to me one for me). Fall can also bring with it a melancholy feeling or somber times. It signifies a dying of summer and all that was new. It’s a way of preparing us for the coming cold and sometimes harsh winter.

Say Hello to...

There exist only three beings worthy of respect: the priest, the soldier, the poet. To know, to kill, to create.

~Charles Baudelaire

This last week we added our 100th Member and beyond. Sometime this week if you get the chance please stop by the blogs of our latest members that have joined us here at Poets United. Show them what a wonderful and welcoming community we are!

Woih @ Woih's Blog

Looksfar @ Beauty in the Darkness

Punam @  Dreamz Forever

Timoteo @ Catnip

River @ Adventures in Posey  (Our 100th Member)

Priyanka Bhowmick @ writing in utopia

Jan Freeman @ Jan Freeman's Wanderings - Let Nature be your guide

Victoria @  And Now Poems

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The Poetry Pantry Is Now Open - Week #9

The Poetry Pantry

2nd Chance Poems or 1st time shares

Anything goes!! All Poems, all Poets, All Week!!

Do you have a poem you would like to share? Something that you just felt inspired to write and want others to read. Perhaps it’s a poem that didn’t get as much exposure on your blog as you would have liked. Maybe it’s a poem that you wrote a long time ago that you would like people to revisit. That’s what this section of Poets United is for.

Poet History #3 - Mary Oliver

By Sherry Blue Sky

Prayer

May I never not be frisky.
May I never not be risqué.
May my ashes, when you have them, friend, and give them to the ocean,
Leap in the froth of waves,
Still loving movement,

Still ready, beyond all else,

To dance for the world.

This poem is by Mary Oliver, from her latest book of poems, Evidence. And this following quote, from an earlier poem, explains why Mary Oliver, poet and lover of the natural world, is my all-time, hands-down favourite poet.

Greetings to our newest Members

Please give a warm welcome to the latest folks that have joined our poetry community.  We have 5 poets to add to our ranks this week.  Should time permit, stop on by their blogs and see what wonderful additions for Poets United they will be!

We are currently at 24 groups and 96 members. 

Taylor Gibbs @ Mental Abyss" & "Poetry"

Amy Barlow Liberatore @ Sharp Little Pencil

Erika Rauguth Treleaven @ Life in Fine Print

Fay Slimm @ Fay Slimm

Lynette Killam @ The Imaginative Traveler

Poem of the Week ( 14 September 2010) - witness in absentia

Selected by Eileen T O'Neill

This poem can be found at:

dream is a vagabond

~ an Aesthetic Bard  (Sasidharan)

witness in absentia

sea, the night; here, the silence in fright,
the roar, bear form, swathe deeps,
swap blue liquid ether, bare,
unseen seer unaware,where
light flicking chill-lathered sighs,
touch feet, leave,return,slither-reach,
serpentine sneaks,choke, edge
of gargantuan liquid’s infliction,
heave grimy licking marine leaches;
props waver,fear feral,
rob, peach parched lip’s salt,
raw gnawing erratic embrace
empty fanatical forsaken wind’s
minute nudges still, shell, yarn minds
cloak skies,lies underneath
sans,sun,earth,ether,time,place,
apiece,missing the presence,then.

~ an Aesthetic Bard  (Sasidharan)

(This poem was selected by Eileen T O'Neill.  She is currently one of our contributors and poets found here at Poets United.  If you would like to learn more about Eileen or read some of her own poetry you can  visit her blog "Words and Thoughts".  Eileen is a poet and writer who has been a wonderful supporter of Poets United since its start.  We would like to thank her for all of her hard work.)

Poetry Blog of the Week (13 September 2010) - Poetical Bits

By Larry Patterson

“Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public — that's what the poet does.”—Allen Ginsberg

The quote above can be found as a front piece of the blog Poetical Bits. Ginsberg, being one of Philip’s poet heroes, the quote sits quite comfortably for the world to see.

Poets United Copyright Statement

All poetry and work found at Poets United, submitted by the poet, is owned by the poet themselves and falls under the poets copyright. Poets United may display and publish any poem submitted to this site, by the poet, always as the poet’s original work and under the poet’s own copyright.

We are a public and community education site.  All poetry by famous poets, not submitted by the poet, is provided for educational research only. The Copyright Law of the United States Of America (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research."

The Library of Congress and all questions in regards to U.S. Copyright can be found by clicking the below link: 

 U.S. Copyright Office

The Poetry Pantry Is Now Open - Week #8

The Poetry Pantry

2nd Chance Poems or 1st time shares

Anything goes!! All Poems, all Poets, All Week!!

Do you have a poem you would like to share? Something that you just felt inspired to write and want others to read. Perhaps it’s a poem that didn’t get as much exposure on your blog as you would have liked. Maybe it’s a poem that you wrote a long time ago that you would like people to revisit. That’s what this section of Poets United is for.

Susannah Bec

Susannah Bec lives with her partner and three adorable cats in a village in the English countryside and when not blogging can usually be found with her much loved sister attached to the other end of the phone line.

Susannah really enjoys the creative process and believes that creativity is an energy that we can tune into. She loves it when you can feel the person and their energy shining from within whatever has been created, whether it is in a painting, a poem, or a cake!

She believes the inner journey is the most adventurous journey you can take and has been a wayfarer of the inner paths for many years. She loves the oceans and the world of nature. She adores colours and laughing and believes that both light and dark are necessary and that happiness is a choice in where you choose to focus your attention.

If you would like to know more about Sussanah please visit her at her blog Out of my Ocean.

Poet History - #2 Allen Ginsberg

By Larry Patterson

Allen Ginsberg, born June 3rd, 1926 in Newark, New Jersey, was one of America’s most notorious Beat Generation Poets (Which also included other, but not limited to, poets such as Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Carl Solomon) and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation. Ginsberg was the son of Lois Ginsberg and Naomi Ginsberg, his father being a poet and a high school teacher, while his mother suffered from a psychological illness. As a poet, he is most widely known for his two lengthier poems Howl (1956) and Kaddish (1958-1960), written for his mother who passed on in 1956).

The Thursday Think Tank - #14 Walls

By Larry Patterson

" Hush now baby, baby, don't you cry. / Mother's gonna make all of your nightmares come true. / Mother's gonna put all of her fears into you. / Mother's gonna keep you right here under her wing. / She won't let you fly, but she might let you sing. / Mama will keep baby cozy and warm. / Ooooh babe, ooooh babe, oooooh babe, / Of course Mama's gonna help build the wall."

- Pink Floyd, The Wall, Mother

A wall is not a door. The dictionary defines a wall as, a solid structure that defines and sometimes protects an area. Walls can be built up for protective purposes. Essentially, they are blocking something from getting in either physically or mentally. What is it that comes to mind when you think of that statement? What could it mean, or does it have meaning at all? Could a wall, in fact, be a door, by letting us know information about the person or thing it is protecting? Is it keeping something in or keeping something out?  We look foward to seeing what kind of walls you will right about.

The Life of a Poet - Pamela Sayers

By Sherry Blue Sky

“The art of writing is the art of discovering.” Of course we need a quote from Gustave Flaubert for this interview! Yes, we are sitting down this week with Pamela, who writes under the pen name Flaubert, at Poetry With Me.




When someone who loves poetry sees the name Flaubert in Comments, or on the blogroll of poets, one simply has to click their way over to her site, already anticipating good poetry, and Pamela does not disappoint. Flaubert has another quote, which certainly applies in this case: “Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.” Reading Pamela’s poetry, many words come to mind: precise, concise, evocative......her work is filled with imagery and emotion and imagination, in fact vision may be the word I’m reaching for.

The Poet's United Quote Bucket

The Quote Bucket

Do you have a quote you can suggest?

Poets United loves to use quotes involving writing, poets, authors and anything else that involves creativity and imagination; mainly for our Facebook page. We wish to avoid redundancy and hope that you wouldn’t mind helping us find some quotes. If you know of a quote that we haven’t used or one that bears repeating often, please leave it here as a comment along with your name(so that we can give you credit). Be sure to include the person who originally uttered the phrase. If you don’t know it, that’s ok we can always cite it as unknown and I’m sure some of members can let us know where it’s from.

If we use your suggested quote at anytime we will make sure to let everyone know who provided it to us. This is just another way to expose our members to each other and to keep our site fresh. Remember we want the quotes to be focused on all apsects of writing and or creativity and imagination as this is a poetry community.  Thank you for your help!



(We will eventually have an entire page here dedicated to quotes and linked to the folks who suggested them.)

Say Hello

 This week we bring you the crazy 8.  I honestly do not know if they are crazy but all of us as poets probably seem a little off our rockers to our friends anywyas.  So without further delay please give a warm welcome to the latest Poets to join us here at Poets United.  If you get the chance stop by their blogs and browse their wonderful poetry.  We currently have 23 Groups and 91 members and continue to to grow and thats because you all make this community worth joining!! 

Lovely Annie @ Loveley: Life on the Inside

K A Shaw @ K A Shaw's Poetry Blog       

Sender UpWords @ Can You Spare a Word or 5

C @ The Darkest Divide

Joanny @ Live Dream Love            Philip Thrift @ poetical bits

Rebecca Burt @ Redprisma

Dennis Go @ Deeper Linings

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The Poetry Pantry Is Now Open - Week #7

The Poetry Pantry

2nd Chance Poems or 1st time shares

Anything goes!! All Poems, all Poets, All Week!!

Do you have a poem you would like to share? Something that you just felt inspired to write and want others to read. Perhaps it’s a poem that didn’t get as much exposure on your blog as you would have liked. Maybe it’s a poem that you wrote a long time ago that you would like people to revisit. That’s what this section of Poets United is for.

Poet History - #1 W.H. Auden

By Jacob Knowles-Smith

W. H. Auden & the Addictions of Sin

“All sin tends to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is what is called damnation.”

- Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973)

W. H. Auden was born in England in the city of York (not all that far from where this author sits now) in 1907 and would become one of the most influential poets and greatest writers of the 20th century. Auden grew up reading all subjects equally; science, philosophy and literature and thus spent his first year at Christ Church, Oxford studying biology until he switched to his true calling, English, in his second year. Eventually he came down from Oxford with an unspectacular third class degree (not a first showing his natural flare and lightning mind, nor a fourth showing contempt for the examinations) and spent time in Berlin, indulging an interest in the still fresh work of Freud, before returning to England to teach English.

Poet History

Poets United would like to introduce you to our new ongoing series Poet History. All of us as writers have our favorite poets and authors that help inspire us to put pen to paper, but how much do we really know about them? Some of us draw inspiration from a poem or two but do we really ever go deeper than that? Do we attempt to see what the inspiration behind the poem or the person themselves was? If you have, then that is an admirable undertaking. If you have not, then that is what we want to do with this series.

The Thursday Think Tank - #13 A Kiss

“Life, the gift of nature, Love, the gift of life, a Kiss, the gift of Love”

~ Unknown

A kiss
The last person you kissed
Your first kiss
The kiss you’ve always wanted
A child’s kiss
The relative you don’t want a kiss from
A goodbye kiss

So much can be said by such a simple gesture. What is in a kiss? What does it mean to you? Is it pain or pleasure? This week take a few moments and think about what a kiss most represents to you and write about it. We look forward to seeing what such a moment can inspire in you.

The Life of a Poet - Jingle

By Robert Lloyd

Today we sit down with a person who is the epitome of positive. When our parents told us if we don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say anything at all they never had children like Jingle. She is the smile that brightens many a person’s day. Jingle is the mastermind behind the poetry blog Promising Poets Parking Lot. Why such an odd name you may ask, well so did we. “My poetry blog is named Promising Poets Parking Lot because I intend to paint a vivid image to demonstrate the blog as a good stopping place for all poets, especially those who are willing to share their poetry, give encouragement to other poets in the community, and so much more.” Having put it that way I’m fairly certain she has accomplished this.

Monday's Child

Monday’s Child

When writing poetry, a good portion of poets go to the dark places or cover some fairly adult themes. I thought what a challenge it would be to escape that supposed standard by finding a brighter path or prompt and I think I have. Recently while exploring the poetry blogosphere I stumbled upon a blog and prompt site that I found to be intriguing a refreshingly positive. I came across Monday’s Child.  It is prompt site maintained by one of our members and is a bit of a challenge to the typical poet, one that can be fun to take on. Can you find your inner child? Would you like to try? If you are in the mood to maybe try and write something happy, fun or even lyrical this is a great place to go.