Weekly/Fortnightly Poetry Suggestions

Short Poetry Collections, Short Story Collections, and our Weekly Poetry Project
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williamjones
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Post by williamjones »

fshort wrote: February 10th, 2021, 11:22 pm I didn’t find this in our catalogue.


The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Langston Hughes - 1902-1967


I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

This would be a wonderful reading!!
It's not so much poetry as Elevated Prose, but the imagery and pounding of the word "rivers" is captivating.
I hope it succeeds in becoming a Weekly Poetry item. I'll happily enjoy others' readings and even offer my own.
-- Bill Jones

When you think that you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't.
--- Thomas Edison
czandra
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Post by czandra »

I've recorded two pieces: Thackeray's End of the Play, and Chapter One of full Book, The art of tormenting.
I asked my librarian about the noise, and she said, "no one would come here
if they weren't allowed to talk out loud." So I read out loud.

Je lis à haute voix car refléchir fait trop de bruit!
czandra
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Post by czandra »

https://librivox.org/uploads/aradlaw/Thackeray_The_End_of_the_Play_.mp3

Thackeray's "The end of the play"
I didn't get intro and ending right, but will next time. Can you add them?
I asked my librarian about the noise, and she said, "no one would come here
if they weren't allowed to talk out loud." So I read out loud.

Je lis à haute voix car refléchir fait trop de bruit!
TriciaG
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Post by TriciaG »

czandra wrote: February 14th, 2021, 8:48 am https://librivox.org/uploads/aradlaw/Thackeray_The_End_of_the_Play_.mp3

Thackeray's "The end of the play"
I didn't get intro and ending right, but will next time. Can you add them?
Welcome!

This thread is for suggestions for the weekly and fortnightly poem. If you want to submit a poem recording, that would go in the Short Poetry Collection. The current one is here: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=85389

Read the first post carefully for naming instructions, and what you need to post when you submit it (text source, intro/outro, etc.) ;)
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
pschempf
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Post by pschempf »

David -

Here's a suggestion for a poem in response to the last fortnightly poem -

Longing for Spring-time, by George Logan Moore

https://dvpp.uvic.ca/poems/chambers_series/1879/pom_7047_longing_for_springtime.html
Fritz

"A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules."

Trollope
ezwa
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Post by ezwa »

May I suggest "In a library" by Anne Charlotte Lynch Botta (1815-1891)?
It's in the top third of the second column here.
Ezwa

« Heureux qui... sait d'une voix légère passer du grave au doux, du plaisant au sévère »
Boileau
« Soyez joyeux dans l'espérance, patients dans la tribulation, persévérants dans la prière. »
Rm 12:12


Envie de lire du dramatique ?
aradlaw
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Post by aradlaw »

Thanks Ezwa, here is a better version
https://archive.org/details/poems01bottgoog/page/n36/mode/2up

THOUGHTS IN A LIBRARY.

Speak low— tread softly through these halls ;
Here genius lives enshrined,—
Here reign, in silent majesty,
The monarchs of the mind.

A mighty spirit-host they come,
From every age and clime ;
Above the buried wrecks of years,
They breast the tide of Time.

And in their presence-chamber here,
They hold their regal state,
And round them throng a noble train,
The gifted and the great

Oh, child of Earth! when round thy path
The storms of life arise.
And when thy brothers pass thee by,
With stem, unloving eyes, —

Here shall the Poets chant for thee
Their sweetest, loftiest lays ;
And Prophets wait to guide thy steps
In wisdom's pleasant ways.

Come, with these God-anointed kings,
Be thou companion here ;
And in the mighty realm of mind,
Thou shalt go forth a peer!
David Lawrence

* Weekly & Fortnightly Poetry - Check out the Short Works forum for the latest projects!
RomaSingh
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Joined: September 17th, 2020, 1:01 pm

Post by RomaSingh »

Here's a nice one by Robert Louis Stevenson if you haven't already done it.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19722

FOREIGN LANDS
Up into the cherry tree
Who should climb but little me?
I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad on foreign lands.
I saw the next door garden lie,
Adorned with flowers, before my eye,
And many pleasant places more
That I had never seen before.[29]
I saw the dimpling river pass
And be the sky's blue looking-glass;
The dusty roads go up and down
With people tramping into town.
If I could find a higher tree
Farther and farther I should see,
To where the grown-up river slips
Into the sea among the ships.
To where the roads on either hand
Lead onward into fairy land,
Where all the children dine at five,
And all the playthings come alive.
Vik1
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Post by Vik1 »

May I suggest "Sunlight on the Garden" by Louis Macneice in his poetry collection "The Earth Compels". It is not in our catalog. The poem has an appealing spiral structure to express feelings of transience.

https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.184369/2015.184369.The-Earth-Compels-Of-Louis-Macneice_djvu.txt
(poem on page 10)

The Sunlight on the Garden

The sunlight on the garden
Hardens and grows cold,
We cannot cage the minute
Within its nets of gold,
When all is told
We cannot beg for pardon.

Our freedom as free lances
Advances towards its end;
The earth compels, upon it
Sonnets and birds descend;
And soon, my friend,
We shall have no time for dances.

The sky was good for flying
Defying the church bells
And every evil iron
Siren and what it tells:
The earth compels,
We are dying, Egypt, dying

And not expecting pardon,
Hardened in heart anew.
But glad to have sat under
Thunder and rain with you,
And grateful too
For sunlight on the garden.
aradlaw
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Post by aradlaw »

Thank you for the suggestion Viki1, unfortunately, Louis Macneice died in 1963 so he is not yet in the Public Domain as far as LibriVox is concerned. We try to make the Poetry projects accessible to all, so 70 years after the death of the author applies in this case. https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php?title=Copyright_and_Public_Domain
David Lawrence

* Weekly & Fortnightly Poetry - Check out the Short Works forum for the latest projects!
Vik1
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Joined: March 21st, 2021, 5:41 pm

Post by Vik1 »

May I suggest the following poem by Sarojini Naidu (1879 - 1949), the female activist who worked with Gandhi during India's struggle for independence from Britain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarojini_Naidu

Some of her other works are in our catalog but not the following poem. This piece is about soldiers from British India who fought in World War I:


The Gift of India - by Sarojini Naidu

Is there ought you need that my hands withhold,
Rich gifts of raiment or grain or gold?
Lo! I have flung to the East and West
Priceless treasures torn from my breast,
And yielded the sons of my stricken womb
To the drum-beats of duty, the sabers of doom.


Gathered like pearls in their alien graves
Silent they sleep by the Persian waves,
Scattered like shells on Egyptian sands,
They lie with pale brows and brave, broken hands,
They are strewn like blossoms mown down by chance
On the blood-brown meadows of Flanders and France.


Can ye measure the grief of the tears I weep
Or compass the woe of the watch I keep?
Or the pride that thrills thro’ my heart’s despair
And the hope that comforts the anguish of prayer?
And the far sad glorious vision I see
Of the torn red banners of Victory?


When the terror and the tumult of hate shall cease
And life be refashioned on anvils of peace,
And your love shall offer memorial thanks
To the comrades who fought in your dauntless ranks,
And you honour the deeds of the deathless ones,
Remember the blood of thy martyred sons!
williamjones
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Joined: April 26th, 2016, 7:47 pm
Location: Florida

Post by williamjones »

I keep coming back to this poem. So, I'm once more voting with fshort asking you to consider this poem for being the Weekly/Fortnightly poetry selection.
Real Soon Now.
Will you do that, please?
williamjones wrote: February 11th, 2021, 4:48 am
fshort wrote: February 10th, 2021, 11:22 pm I didn’t find this in our catalogue.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Langston Hughes - 1902-1967


I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

This would be a wonderful reading!!
It's not so much poetry as Elevated Prose, but the imagery and pounding of the word "rivers" is captivating.
I hope it succeeds in becoming a Weekly Poetry item. I'll happily enjoy others' readings and even offer my own.
-- Bill Jones

When you think that you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't.
--- Thomas Edison
annise
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Post by annise »

It is - and it should be in the catalogue somewhere if it is PD in the USA, but in general we try to keep the weekly poem able to be read by all readers, and if he died in 1967, it is not PD for non USA readers - maybe the short poetry collection would be a good place?

Anne
williamjones
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Joined: April 26th, 2016, 7:47 pm
Location: Florida

Post by williamjones »

annise wrote: April 6th, 2021, 4:28 pm It is - and it should be in the catalogue somewhere if it is PD in the USA, but in general we try to keep the weekly poem able to be read by all readers, and if he died in 1967, it is not PD for non USA readers - maybe the short poetry collection would be a good place?

Anne
Thanks for the advice.
-- Bill Jones

When you think that you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't.
--- Thomas Edison
williamjones
Posts: 2248
Joined: April 26th, 2016, 7:47 pm
Location: Florida

Post by williamjones »

annise wrote: April 6th, 2021, 4:28 pm It is - and it should be in the catalogue somewhere if it is PD in the USA, but in general we try to keep the weekly poem able to be read by all readers, and if he died in 1967, it is not PD for non USA readers - maybe the short poetry collection would be a good place?

Anne
Presto! there it is:
You were right on the money!

https://librivox.org/short-poetry-collection-083/
section 18

The Negro Speaks of Rivers
by LibriVox
Last edited by williamjones on April 8th, 2021, 12:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.
-- Bill Jones

When you think that you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't.
--- Thomas Edison
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