Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Summer

     

“People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy” — Anton Chekov

SOURCE

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” — John Lubbock, The Use Of life

Midweek Motif ~ Summer

Write a Summer poem today.

In cold countries summer is a brief and enjoyable time and in a country like India it’s endless torture.

Yet Mother Nature knows well how and with what to fill in summer time. So do our poets J

Sonnet 18

by William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
   So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. 

Tis The Last Rose Of Summer

by Thomas Moore

Tis the last rose of summer
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone:
No flower of her kindred,
No rose-bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh. 

I'll not leave thee, thou lone one!
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go, sleep thou with them.
Thus kindly I scatter
Thy leaves o'er the bed,
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead. 

So soon may I follow,
When friendships decay,
And from Love's shining circle
The gems drop away.
When true hearts lie wither'd,
And fond ones are flown,
Oh! who would inhabit
This bleak world alone? 

Summer Stars

by Carl Sandburg

Bend low again, night of summer stars.
So near you are, sky of summer stars,
So near, a long-arm man can pick off stars,
Pick off what he wants in the sky bowl,
So near you are, summer stars,
So near, strumming, strumming,
So lazy and hum-strumming. 

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 ~ Barter / Trade)

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Resilience

http://www.theschooloflife.com/london/shop/resilience-one-day-workshop-5/

"The energy expended in pushing down despair is diverted from more creative uses, depleting the resilience and imagination needed for fresh visions and strategies."
~Joanna Macy

"There is no way to re-enchant our lives in a disenchanted culture except by becoming renegades from that culture and planting the seeds for a new one."

~Thomas Moore

"The more we focus on trying to instill grit, the less likely we’ll be to question larger policies and institutions."

~ Alfie Kohn

Midweek Motif ~
 Resilience

Whether the topic is climate change, endangered species, burnt trees or trauma of human varieties, we hope to discover resilience. More than resistance, "resilience" is growing better and stronger in moving beyond the obstacle. But what if real social change is needed?  
When is individual resilience enough?

Your challenge: In your new poem, define/clarify resilience by example. 

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Solitude

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Laugh, and the world laughs with you; 

Weep, and you weep alone. 

For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, 

But has trouble enough of its own. 

Sing, and the hills will answer; 

Sigh, it is lost on the air. 

The echoes bound to a joyful sound, 

But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you; 

Grieve, and they turn and go. 

They want full measure of all your pleasure, 

But they do not need your woe. 

Be glad, and your friends are many; 

Be sad, and you lose them all. 

There are none to decline your nectared wine, 

But alone you must drink life's gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded; 

Fast, and the world goes by. 

Succeed and give, and it helps you live, 

But no man can help you die. 

There is room in the halls of pleasure 

For a long and lordly train, 

But one by one we must all file on 

Through the narrow aisles of pain.

Reading © Classic Poetry Aloud, 2007.

Invictus

Related Poem Content Details

BY WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

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Out of the night that covers me, 

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be 

      For my unconquerable soul. 

In the fell clutch of circumstance 

      I have not winced nor cried aloud. 

Under the bludgeonings of chance 

      My head is bloody, but unbowed. 

Beyond this place of wrath and tears 

      Looms but the Horror of the shade, 

And yet the menace of the years 

      Finds and shall find me unafraid. 

It matters not how strait the gate, 

      How charged with punishments the scroll, 

I am the master of my fate, 

      I am the captain of my soul. 

Lodged
BY ROBERT FROST

The rain to the wind said,
'You push and I'll pelt.'
They so smote the garden bed
That the flowers actually knelt,
And lay lodged - though not dead.
I know how the flowers felt. 

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Please share your new poem with Mr. Linky below and visit others 

in the spirit of the community.

(Next week Susan's Midweek Motif will be ~ Birthdays )

Classic Poetry - "An Argument" by Thomas Moore

Thomas Moore, 1779 - 1852

An Argument

I've oft been told by learned friars,
That wishing and the crime are one,
And Heaven punishes desires
As much as if the deed were done.

If wishing damns us, you and I
Are damned to all our heart's content;
Come, then, at least we may enjoy
Some pleasure for our punishment!

Based on this short verse, an anomaly for Thomas Moore, a London-trained lawyer better known as poet, singer, songwriter and entertainer, one can assume he subscribed to the "eat, drink and be merry" philosophy.

Seems to have worked for him. During an era when the average life expectancy for a white male was just under 50, this prolific producer lived to be 72 and is considered Ireland's National Bard.

Raise your glass!