#must read poems

[geryone]

Pig, Sam Sax

#quotes #poetry #quote #poem #sam sax #id in alt text #that you are reading this must be enough……..INSANE

[beaft]

literally just realised that "william the gonnagle", terry pratchett's scottish bard character who defeats his enemies by reciting poetry at them, is a reference to "william mcgonagall", often hailed as the worst poet in the english language (or indeed any language). it has taken me a full two decades to understand this joke. discworld truly is the gift that never stops giving

#i must have read the wee free men upwards of twenty times and never got it #and then last week i was reading 'the tay bridge disaster' (mcgonagall's most famous Bad Poem) and i was like. hang on. OH FUCK.

[finelythreadedsky]

 On one level the book is about the life of a woman who is hardly more than a token in a great epic poem, on another it’s about how history and context shape how we are seen, and the brief moment there is to act between the inescapable past and the unknowable future. Perhaps to write Lavinia Le Guin had to live long enough to see her own early books read in a different context from the one where they were written, and to think about what that means.

-Jo Walton

#thinking of how her last four novels between 2004 and 2008 show a progressive blossoming of interest in classical literary traditions #following nearly half a century's worth of a career where she seems to actively avoid the influence of classical or medieval europe #idk. but i think this explains annals of the western shore as much as lavinia. #she gets so interested in what it means to share the same stories across space and time (and class and gender and nationality) #to be united in a community by having the same poetry #and in such an obvious way thinking about classics as a discipline is an incredible way to work through that #and i do think its an interest that must come out of having witnessed her own work unite people in community across time #if you're talking about the way stories and poems bring people together across time... #i read the texts passed on to me by renaissance humanists and 19th century philologists and byzantine monks and late antique scribes... #and they're the same across time and space but they're also not #and to have seen her own work reach people across space and time and be the same but also not... that must have been incredible #so: did living long enough to see her own early books read in a different context and to think about what that means #drive her to think about classical literature as she clearly was for the better part of a decade? #mine #reception #anyway i gotta think about this and email [redacted] tomorrow

[potato-lord-but-not]

I noticed her eyes once for the first time: they were green, and blue, and brown. They were the colors of the earth. And that revelation has stuck in my brain and I have many feelings about it.

#wait I wrote a little something about it I’ll put it here #because I CAN and NO ONE can stop me ty #Looking into her eyes I see a little earth: greens blues and browns. To see the world held in the iris of your lover must mean something. #Something I can’t write down because I don’t know how. #To see the world through her eyes makes me see the world as I see her: beautiful. Worthy of love. #To treat her with kindness is to treat the world with kindness. She is the earth and all it’s love. #She is everything to me. #ok that’s all thanks for reading #traditional art #artists on tumblr #art poetry #short poem #pink #pink aesthetic #sapphic #sapphic art #wlw #nblw #bi4bi #starry eyed

[catilinas]

Dunt: a poem for a dried up river

Alice Oswald

Very small and damaged and quite dry, a Roman water nymph made of bone tries to summon a river out of limestone

very eroded faded her left arm missing and both legs from the knee down a Roman water nymph made of bone tries to summon a river out of limestone

exhausted        utterly worn down

a Roman water nymph made of bone being the last known speaker of her language she tries to summon a river out of limestone

little distant sound of dry grass        try again

a Roman water nymph made of bone very endangered now in a largely unintelligible monotone she tries to summon a river out of limestone

little distant sound as of dry grass     try again

exquisite bone figurine with upturned urn in her passionate self-esteem she smiles looking sideways she seemingly has no voice but a throat-clearing rustle

as of dry grass                                        try again

she tries leaning pouring pure outwardness out of a grey urn little slithering sounds as of a rabbit man in full night-gear, who lies so low in the rickety willowherb that a fox trots out of the woods and over his back and away              try again

she tries leaning pouring pure outwardness out of a grey urn little lapping sounds        yes as of dry grass secretly drinking        try again

little lapping sounds    yes as of dry grass secretly drinking        try again

Roman bone figurine year after year in a sealed glass case having lost the hearing of her surroundings she struggles to summon a river out of limestone

little shuffling sound as of approaching slippers

year after year in a sealed glass case a Roman water nymph made of bone she struggles to summon a river out of limestone

little shuffling sound as of a nearly dried-up woman not really moving through the fields having had the gleam taken out of her to the point where she resembles twilight        try again

little shuffling clicking she opens the door of the church little distant sounds of shut-away singing    try again

little whispering fidgeting of a shut-away congregation wondering who to pray to little patter of eyes closing                                    try again

very small and damaged and quite dry a Roman water nymph made of bone she pleads she pleads a river out of limestone

little hobbling tripping of a nearly dried-up river not really moving through the fields, having had the gleam taken out of it to the point where it resembles twilight. little grumbling shivering last-ditch attempt at a river more nettles than water                                        try again

very speechless very broken old woman her left arm missing and both legs from the knee down she tries to summon a river out of limestone

little stoved-in sucked thin low-burning glint of stones rough-sleeping and trembling and clinging to its rights victim of Swindon puddle midden slum of over-greened foot-churn and pats whose crayfish are cheap tool-kits made of the mud stirred up when a stone's lifted

it's a pitiable likeness of clear running struggling to keep up with what's already gone the boat the wheel the sluice gate the two otters larricking along                                     go on

and they say oh they say in the days of better rainfall it would flood through five valleys there'd be cows and milking stools washed over the garden walls and when it froze you could skate for five miles      yes go on

little loose end shorthand unrepresented beautiful disused route to the sea fish path with nearly no fish in

#legally you must read. dunt: a poem for a dried up river by #alice oswald #one of my favourite poems of all time ever it's one that really Does need to be read in full like quotation will not reproduce the effect #of the repetitions!!!!!! #poetry #long post -- #beeps

[romulusfuckingroy]

connor roy the type of mf to write poetry about his love for willa

#must think on this further… #I’m picturing him doing it the WHOLE relationship like. in ep 102 when they’re at the hospital and he brings Willa? he just- #-got there from reading her a poem about her hair in the car #when she agrees to move in with him he writes a poem comparing their love to cleopatra and alexander #when she accepts his proposal he writes a full ass SONG #his wedding vows that nobody saw? I want to believe they rhymed #succession #connor roy #willa ferreyra #conwilla

[mauvaisfils]

Mary Oliver - Swan, 2010

#mary Oliver #poetry #praying #Woods #man I love her so much #i end up reading a Mary Oliver poem every few evenings because it’s sitting on my night shelf #and this one is a must share it hits my soul so hard

[madamescarlette]

😴😴

#you CAN get up at 5am to go to all saints mass #but watch out #(so sleepy sleepiest girl in the world) #(but i wanna go home and read my tome of poems and play ghost trick) #(alas i must be useful and make dinner but i have to complain about it first) #hope you're all doing well beloveds I'm sending my love to you today 💕

[haveyoureadthispoem-poll]

"If I must die, you must live to tell my story to sell my things to buy a piece of cloth and some strings..."

Read it here | Reblog for a larger sample size!

#if I must die #refaat alareer #palestine #palestinian poetry #closed polls #polls #poetry #poems #poetry polls #poets and writing #tumblr poetry #have you read this

[girlpetrarca]

guy who has only read the Letters of Abelard and Heloise, reading Ovid's Heroides: getting a lot of Abelard & Heloise vibes from this...

#is this too niche #no but! deianira?? briseide? I know Eloisa has read these poems. she must have. #not sure if I'll elaborate or not #but yeah #ovid #abelard and heloise #personal

[trans-cuchulainn]

the only list of information I've ever successfully memorised was that when I was ten i learned all the books of the (protestant) bible and can still recite them but that doesn't help me very often because I'm an agnostic medievalist and keep having to deal with random bonus books that we didn't have when i was a kid

so now i can list 66 of them in order and if you're a protestant that's very impressive. and then i can give you an assorted handful of apocrypha and it's up to you what you wanna do with those

#me looking at tobit: who r u. why are you here #i have also memorised one (1) poem #that's it that's all I've got for you #i must have read the Táin approximately fifty times by now and i still forget what happens in it. brain like a fucking sieve

[virtuouslibertines69]

"I am delicate. You’ve been gone. / The losing has hurt me some, yet / I must bend for you. See me arch. I’m turned on." - Anne Sexton, from The Complete Poems; “Eighteen Days Without You,

#literature #quote #reading #writing #poetry #poet #poem #books #anne sexton #the complete poems #eighteen days without you #photography #art #delicate #gone #losing #hurt #must #bend #for you #arch #turned on #skin

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

me when a magazine has the perfect theme for me to submit my poems to but I waited 2 months to do it & now submissions close tmrw

#the theme is literally language all my poems are about language all I do is talk abt language #rachel why NOW i must do that #boohoo oh nooo I have to submit my work more!! the thing I told myself I would do!!! noooo the horrorrrrrssss #fr tho I am so used to submitting work Once and getting it picked up now #my last like 5 publications have been like that #FINGERS CROSSED FOR THIS TIME!!!! #I have been published in this mag already tho hehe <3 #tbf I have been published in every single major Canadian litmag except for like 3 & one I read at now #CANADIAN PUBLISHING IS SO SMALLLLL

[peskypoetry]

Fruit Rhyme 3: Banana (ALT) - Poem by the Pesky Poet

Fruit Rhyme 3: Banana (ALT) - Poem by the Pesky Poet 2019 Alt poem to Banana from the Original Fruit Rhyme series... #poetry #love #poetrycommunity #quotes #writersofinstagram #poem #poet #writer #instagram #poetsofinstagram #lovequotes #life #poems

Oh what such a fruit, Grows on a herb, Enjoyed with cereal, Or even on its own, Sometimes Straight, But quite often curved, Let up give a cheer, For this amazing fruit, That grows on a herb. ©The Pesky Poet Please share this post. Did you know sharing just one poem can make a poet’s day. Go on, share this page on Facebook or X.com. — You can help a poet today and get something to keep. Check…

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#fruit poetry #must read #Poem #Poet #Poetry

[kohakhearts]

cons of going to a “good schoolTM”: insane workload, unbearable classmates, next to no support when you have any kind of extenuating circumstances Including literal hospitalization, etc

pros of going to a “good schoolTM”: the 9-5 lifestyle is genuinely a major improvement

#taylor.txt #the extenuating circumstances point was not me btw. i know someone who had his degree delayed an entire year because of two weeks in psych #we’re in a co-op program or else maybe it wouldve just been one semester but. lol #i hate it here…i hate it #but hey…at least i have the world’s shittiest health insurance! #some of my classmates say they dont feel like working full-time is easier than going to school full-time but it so is #for me. anyway. even when i fumbled my time management bad on the field and make no mistake i was incredibly busy plus i chose a field #notorious for Unpaid Overtime and Taking Your Work Home. even then. it was still easier than this #i would never do undergrad again. i loved everything i learned. i took interesting and awesome classes #but i would never ever do it again. miserable overworked spent most of it friendless until i got on the field #i have a friend who keeps being like idk how you did 4 physics classes this sem and im like girl we are education students…thats an average #semester for a physics major. how must THEY feel #also i have to say just you know. generally. ive worked full-time while living with my parents #AND while living alone. and 50 hours a week was incredibly manageable in the former arrangement. i even wrote and edited an entire novel #in the beginning stages of a pandemic while working 50 hours a week of retail and fast food hell. 40 hours full-time with weekends off #while living alone though? thats hard. i still managed to go to the gym almost every day #currently? i cant get out of bed in the morning. i am putting in 12 hour days and then goinng to bed unable to sleep because im so stressed #i have dreams about school. tangentially theres a really good marxist poem i read last year about this phenomenon in workers #ANYWAY. i have just 8 more days 4 exams 1 research paper and video project #i think i can pass and then thats it. my next semester is hell but just because scheduling the actual classes will be easy #and then i get to go back on the field and actually want to wake up every day. lol #and 8 days from now i will have my christmas shopping done and my apartment will be clean and i will be a fanfic writing machine #also my friends and i booked a demolition room so im sure that will be beneficial kfldjfldndks

[elwenyere]

Then the War

They planted flowers because the house had many rooms and because they’d imagined a life in which cut flowers punctuate each room, as if each were a sentence not just to be decorated but to be given some discipline, what the most memorable sentences—like people—always slightly resist ... Spit of land; rags of cloud-rack. Meanwhile, hawk’s-nest, winter-nest, stamina as a form of faith, little cove that a life equals, what they meant, I think, by what they called the soul, twilight taking hold deep in the marshweed, in the pachysandra, where the wind can’t reach. Then the war. Then the field, and the mounted police parading their proud-looking horses across it. Then the next morning’s fog, the groundsmen barely visible inside it, shadow-like, shade-like, grooming the field back to immaculateness. Then the curtains billowing out from the lightless room toward the sea. Then the one without hair stroked the one who had some. They closed their eyes. If gently, hard to say how gently. Then the war was nothing that still bewildered them, if it ever had.

-- Carl Phillips

#poetry #carl phillips #reading phillips today in honor of the news #and i must blorbo tag this #because this poem is #melshian #to me