Showing posts with label Edith Wharton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edith Wharton. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Light



 
“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”— Edith Wharton

SOURCE


“If each day falls
inside each night,
there exists a well
where clarity is imprisoned.

We need to sit on the rim
of the well of darkness
and fish for fallen light
with patience.”— Pablo Neruda


        Midweek Motif ~ Light

Our words can create both darkness and light. For today stick to Light; whatever Light means to you. A compare and contrast will also do.


Choose any parts of speech you prefer your ‘Light’ to be in: noun, adjective, verb.


As I am writing this I am thinking of Helen Keller who preferred to walk with a friend in the dark than walking alone in light. 



Now, to share a few poems with you:


With The Light Of Eye
by Rabindranath Tagore

With the light of eye I’d seen what the world displayed.
          Today I look within when all light is erased.
Sight can’t arrest you   yet the heart is replete with you,
        Now in your own light I desire to gaze at you.
           In my play-room we had played together.
       In the ravaging storm toys have been shattered.
         Let’s end that mere play and souls’ union be made—
              Lute is broken, my heart string I strum.

     (Translated by Sumana Roy)


Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines
by Dylan Thomas

Light breaks where no sun shines;
Where no sea runs, the waters of the heart
Push in their tides;
And, broken ghosts with glowworms in their heads,
The things of light
File through the flesh where no flesh decks the bones.

A candle in the thighs
Warms youth and seed and burns the seeds of age;
Where no seed stirs,
The fruit of man unwrinkles in the stars,
Bright as a fig;
Where no wax is, the candle shows its hairs.

Dawn breaks behind the eyes;
From poles of skull and toe the windy blood
Slides like a sea;
Nor fenced, nor staked, the gushers of the sky
Spout to the rod
Divining in a smile the oil of tears.

Night in the sockets rounds,
Like some pitch moon, the limit of the globes;
Day lights the bone;
Where no cold is, the skinning gales unpin
The winter's robes;
The film of spring is hanging from the lids.

Light breaks on secret lots,
On tips of thought where thoughts smell in the rain;
When logics die,
The secret of the soil grows through the eye,
And blood jumps in the sun;
Above the waste allotments the dawn halts. 




Light Is More Important Than The Lantern
by Nizar Quabbani

Light is more important than the lantern,
The poem more important than the notebook,
And the kiss more important than the lips.
My letters to you
Are greater and more important than both of us.
They are the only documents
Where people will discover
Your beauty 
And my madness.



 Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community—
              (Next week Susan’s Midweek Motif will be ~ Peace)


Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Mother Tongue



“In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.” 
― Mark TwainThe Innocents Abroad

“Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my words. My language trembles with desire.” 
― Roland Barthes

“An unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences.” 
― Edith Wharton



“In the Arab world, gratitude is a language unto itself. “May Allah bless the hands that give me this gift”; “Beauty is in the eyes that find me pretty”; “May Allah never deny your prayer”; and so on, an infinite string of prayerful appreciation. Coming from such a culture, I have always found a mere “thank you” an insufficient expression that makes my voice sound miserly and ungrateful” (169).
― Susan AbulhawaMornings in Jenin


Midweek Motif ~ Mother Tongue



I missed the International Mother Language Day on 21 February.  Did you?  Better late than never!  


From Wikipedia: 

"International Mother Language Day . . .  is an observance held annually worldwide to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism."


Your Challenge:  
Compose a poem on any subject/event which includes an experience of more than one language.  Make us experience it too.

Photo of little girl in Nepal leading class in pronunciation of alphabet
Little girl at Shreeshitalacom Lower Secondary School in Kaski, Nepal
leads class in pronunciation of alphabet.
Photo: World Bank




To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings. . . . . 
(Read the rest HERE at The Poetry Foundation.)

by Perez Firmat

Soy un ajiaco de contradicciones.
I have mixed feelings about everything.
Name your tema, I'll hedge;
name your cerca, I'll straddle it
like a cubano.
I have mixed feelings about everything.
. . . .

(Read the Rest HERE at NPR, Morning Edition,  10/17/2011)


~

For those who are new to Poets United:  
  • Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 
  • Post your Mother Tongue poem on your site, and then link it here.
  • If you use a picture include its link.  
  • Please leave a comment here. 
  • Visit and comment on our poems.

(Our next Midweek Motif is "A Woman's Day")


Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Auto-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
If this widget does not appear, click here to display it.

Blog Archive

Followers