Weekly/Fortnightly Poetry Suggestions

[fshort]

I suggest
For Children Who Die by Langston Hughes

This is for the kids who die,
Black and white,
For kids will die certainly.
The old and rich will live on awhile,
As always,
Eating blood and gold,
Letting kids die.

Kids will die in the swamps of Mississippi
Organizing sharecroppers
Kids will die in the streets of Chicago
Organizing workers
Kids will die in the orange groves of California
Telling others to get together
Whites and Filipinos,
Negroes and Mexicans,
All kinds of kids will die
Who don’t believe in lies, and bribes, and contentment
And a lousy peace.

Of course, the wise and the learned
Who pen editorials in the papers,
And the gentlemen with Dr. in front of their names
White and black,
Who make surveys and write books
Will live on weaving words to smother the kids who die,
And the sleazy courts,
And the bribe-reaching police,
And the blood-loving generals,
And the money-loving preachers
Will all raise their hands against the kids who die,
Beating them with laws and clubs and bayonets and bullets
To frighten the people—
For the kids who die are like iron in the blood of the people—
And the old and rich don’t want the people
To taste the iron of the kids who die,
Don’t want the people to get wise to their own power,
To believe an Angelo Herndon, or even get together

Listen, kids who die—
Maybe, now, there will be no monument for you
Except in our hearts
Maybe your bodies’ll be lost in a swamp
Or a prison grave, or the potter’s field,
Or the rivers where you’re drowned like Leibknecht

But the day will come—
You are sure yourselves that it is coming—
When the marching feet of the masses
Will raise for you a living monument of love,
And joy, and laughter,
And black hands and white hands clasped as one,
And a song that reaches the sky—
The song of the life triumphant
Through the kids who die.

[TriciaG]

I found a reference on the web that it was written in 1938, so it wouldn't be PD yet.

[mungojerry311]

Here's a nice one I found on Gutenberg from A Treasury of War Poetry: British and American Poems of the World War 1914-1917. Here's the link: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8820. I could BC this one, but I'm not sure.

Done
When There Is Peace by Austin Dobson

"When there is Peace our land no more
Will be the land we knew of yore."
Thus do our facile seers foretell
The truth that none can buy or sell
And e'en the wisest must ignore.

When we have bled at every pore,
Shall we still strive for gear and store?
Will it be Heaven? Will it be Hell,
When there is Peace?

This let us pray for, this implore:
That all base dreams thrust out at door,
We may in loftier aims excel
And, like men waking from a spell,
Grow stronger, nobler, than before,
When there is Peace.

[TriciaG]

Here's a nice one I found on Gutenberg from A Treasury of War Poetry: British and American Poems of the World War 1914-1917. Here's the link: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8820. I could BC this one, but I'm not sure.

When There Is Peace by Austin Dobson

"When there is Peace our land no more
Will be the land we knew of yore."
Thus do our facile seers foretell
The truth that none can buy or sell
And e'en the wisest must ignore.

When we have bled at every pore,
Shall we still strive for gear and store?
Will it be Heaven? Will it be Hell,
When there is Peace?

This let us pray for, this implore:
That all base dreams thrust out at door,
We may in loftier aims excel
And, like men waking from a spell,
Grow stronger, nobler, than before,
When there is Peace.

Looks good. Would you be willing/able to do this next week, June 26? You don't have to coordinate it, but you're welcome to do so.

[TriciaG]

Well, I guess it's time we put this one in as a Fortnightly, and let more people have the pleasure of reading it aloud. When you have a slot (but not til June), I'll BC. https://www.bartleby.com/102/55.html

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 1807–1882

A Psalm of Life
What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist

TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!—
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,—act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

This was done in 2019, but you're welcome to do it again. It appears we don't have a FP running; do you want to start this one today? Or, there's still The Chambered Nautilus: viewtopic.php?p=1976751#p1976751

EDIT: Maybe not this week, as it's getting a bit late. How about July 3?

[msfry]

I think I prefer the Chambered Nautalis for now, and can get that set up today if you say yea.

[mungojerry311]

Looks good. Would you be willing/able to do this next week, June 26? You don't have to coordinate it, but you're welcome to do so.

Yes, I've decided that I will coordinate it. Someday I want to BC a whole book and this I believe would be a great way to get my feet wet.

[msfry]

Tricia, did you miss this?

I think I prefer the Chambered Nautalis for now, and can get that set up today if you say yea.

[TriciaG]

Tricia, did you miss this?

I think I prefer the Chambered Nautalis for now, and can get that set up today if you say yea.

Didn't see it until just now. We left the house about 45 minutes before you posted it and just got home.

No one has posted to the fortnightly I put up, so if you want to still do this today, feel free. I'll pull mine off the board.

[msfry]

No one has posted to the fortnightly I put up, so if you want to still do this today, feel free. I'll pull mine off the board.

I'm just seeing this now, and am too sleepy to work on it now. Since you have one up, I'll take the next turn.

[mungojerry311]

Here's another interesting one I've found. It's called The Disguise by Walter De La Mare, from the book Collected Poems 1901-1918. This one would probably be a fortnightly poem as it seems that the weekly ones are shorter. I'm also willing to coordinate this one whenever the next opening is.

Here is the Gutenberg link to the whole book: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12031

Why in my heart, O Grief,
Dost thou in beauty hide?
Dead is my well-content,
And buried deep my pride.
Cold are their stones, beloved,
To hand and side.

The shadows of even are gone,
Shut are the day's clear flowers,
Now have her birds left mute
Their singing bowers,
Lone shall we be, we twain,
In the night hours.

Thou with thy cheek on mine,
And dark hair loosed, shall see
Take the far stars for fruit
The cypress tree,
And in the yew's black
Shall the moon be.

We will tell no old tales,
Nor heed if in wandering air
Die a lost song of love
Or the once fair;
Still as well-water be
The thoughts we share!

And, while the ghosts keep
Tryst from chill sepulchres,
Dreamless our gaze shall sleep,
And sealed our ears;
Heart unto heart will speak,
Without tears.

O, thy veiled, lovely face—
Joy's strange disguise—
Shall be the last to fade
From these rapt eyes,
Ere the first dart of daybreak
Pierce the skies.

[TriciaG]

Here's another interesting one I've found. It's called The Disguise by Walter De La Mare, from the book Collected Poems 1901-1918. This one would probably be a fortnightly poem as it seems that the weekly ones are shorter. I'm also willing to coordinate this one whenever the next opening is.

I've got MsFry lined up for the next fortnightly, starting July 3. I'm hesitant about promising anything beyond that date. (I'm afraid I'll forget, and also, I don't exactly know when David will be able to take up his mantle again, and I don't want to commit to things he may not follow through with.)

So maybe post again around July 10th (a week into the next fortnight) and we'll see where we are then.

[TriciaG]

MsFry has the fortnightly project starting today. If someone wants to take on the weekly, feel free - I haven't lined anything up for it yet, as far as I remember.

If no one posts a weekly by about 12:30 pm Eastern Time (in about 4 hours from this post), I'll set one up.

[TriciaG]

I noticed Wikipedia/Wikicommons doesn't seem to have a recording of "America the Beautiful" in its original poem form (just as musical versions)

Would any Americans be able to record it and upload it to Wikicommons? As thanksgiving has just been it would seem a good time to do it and I can help with integrating into the wiki-world (if you needed)

https://www.classical-music.com/features/articles/america-the-beautiful-lyrics/

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Katharine_Lee_Bates_America_the_Beautiful

https://www.bartleby.com/272/2.html

Launched. We won't upload it to Wiki Commons, but someone else could, once the project is cataloged.

[TriciaG]

Is anyone up for heading the weekly poetry starting tomorrow?

EDIT: Someone has stepped up.