How To Speak Poetry

Debate on Leonard Cohen's poetry (and novels), both published and unpublished. Song lyrics may also be discussed here.
carm
Posts: 254
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 7:47 pm

Re: How To Speak Poetry

Post by carm »

How bountiful

this solitude,

surrounded,

filled

and mastered

by

the Name,

from which all things

arise

in splendour,

depending

one

upon

the

other.

…and finally,
insane for the light,

you

are the butterfly

and you

are gone.

It is not necessary

to be

in love,

or to be

in love

with butterflies.


Echoes,
voices,
traces
of text

born

out of other words,
staggeringly beautiful,

entwined
and
spiraling

in the mind.
Attachments
butterflyaway.jpg
butterflyaway.jpg (38.58 KiB) Viewed 9362 times
Diane

Re: How To Speak Poetry

Post by Diane »

2.jpg
It is not necessary

to be

in love
I even heard

the angels

declare it

from above.

There ain't

no cure

for love.


~ ~


A desire

for higher

love-making

sweeps you

upward


until the

lengthening

wings

break into

fire.


I praise what is

truly alive,


what longs

to be burned

to death.


Leonard Cohen wrote:
As I lay dead

in my love-soaked bed,

angels came to kiss my head.

carm wrote:
Echoes,
voices,
traces
of text

born

out of other words,
staggeringly beautiful,

entwined
and
spiraling

in the mind.
1.jpg
carm
Posts: 254
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 7:47 pm

Re: How To Speak Poetry

Post by carm »

Take the word butterfly.

Leonard writes:
Do not make so much of the word.
It is said
that if a butterfly
enters your guestroom
and perches behind
the bamboo screen,
the person
whom you
most love
is coming
to see you.

.....

Spirits succinctly uniting, by curves of chance.

Two souls
standing upright
and strong,
face to face,
silent,
drawing nigh
and nigher,
until
the lengthening air
breaks into fire –
'tis as though
each soul
is dropped
into some golden orb
of perfect song.

.....

And this desire
sweeps you upward,
and finally,
insane for the light,
you are the butterfly
and you are gone.

Winged prayers
usurp the palest canvas,
with the bliss of being –
so colourful, so alive.

A strange feeling comes over you,
when you see the silent candle burning.

You can see a face
as you saw it
when you were young,

in the middle of the night,
wondering how to be beautiful.

How bountiful
this solitude,
surrounded,
filled and mastered
by the Name,

from which
all things arise
in splendour,
depending

one
upon
the
other.

We live in all we seek…

Now come into my arms.
You are the image of my beauty.

.....

Echoes, voices, traces of text
born out of other words entwined and spiraling…

I even heard the angels declare it from above.

As I lay dead in my love-soaked bed, angels came to kiss my head.

......

Witness
this riot of colour
In the resurrection of
the butterfly,

And how its
script so freely
calligraphies
the open air,
coruscating,
all over
and everywhere,
as it ascends
the infinite
passages
of silent
unending light,
dreaming of origins,
and glorified
at each breadth
and depth.

.....

Look how a certain beauty
has alighted the winged angel
that has descended here,
vivaciously linked
to blossoms of grace,
newly born
out of pure madness,
and who’s profile
of stone and light
burns a feverish
flaming gold,
in the blaze
of double-pulsed
allegories,
this winged dancer
of so many holy places,
whose liquid flame
dovetails in
that ecstatic light,
until its radiant surface
is sanded down
to a golden new skin,
brighter than crystal clear,
thus, it dissolves of itself
into sweet wine,
by means
of passions inferno –
its echo,
becomes eternal,
like a burgeoning
cycle of song –
just as the nightingale
strains aloud
its heart-rending tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGiF-NIb0f8

Tho‘ you are singing somewhere still
I can no longer hear you…
Attachments
angel.jpg
carm
Posts: 254
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 7:47 pm

Re: How To Speak Poetry

Post by carm »

Released into the
seductiveness of sleep,
lost to the pre-existence
of previous things.

Scrolling upwards,
toward surfeits of beauty,
messaging the invisible –
purposed with a joy,
and a delicate savoir-faire.

Numinous the flame
of those silent hours,
dreaming the word
B U T T E R F L Y –
tethered to its graceful,
harmonious sway.
Attachments
Poetry1.jpg
Diane

Re: How To Speak Poetry

Post by Diane »

Carm, how excellent to see you. I so love your poetry, and 're-mixes'! (I shall return should inspiration strike.)
carm
Posts: 254
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 7:47 pm

Re: How To Speak Poetry

Post by carm »

Hi Diane, thanks for bringing me back to this thread. I do hope inspiration finds its way to you soon… :D

. . . . .

Life’s imperfections softened by
the cellophaned yellow of the sun.
Alive and puissant, its spill of light,
gifted to all that abide somewhere
beneath its blissful comfort of warmth.
Once received, one begins to consider
if ever for a day, they’ve been without.

. . . . .

Finding peace, they take rest, humbly easing themselves deeper into that
lovely sunlit day as its flame ever so gently caresses their enlivened centre.
Attachments
Butterfly.jpg
Diane

Re: How To Speak Poetry

Post by Diane »

Hello Carm:-)

I was grimly wondering how I was going to be inspired. Then I read the actual piece you posted at the top of this thread. Yay.

It is not necessary to invent a sunny day or a field of daffodils. It is not necessary to be in love, or to be in love with butterflies.

It is not necessary to be inspired; only to read what's in front of you.



Image


Image



------

carm wrote:
We live in all we seek…
Image
Last edited by Diane on Sun Jul 10, 2011 12:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
Diane

Re: How To Speak Poetry

Post by Diane »

Butterfly: antennae rounded clubs on the ends
Moth: antennae thin or often feathery

Butterfly: body thin and smooth
Moth: body thick and fuzzy

Butterfly: active during the day
Moth: active during the night

Butterfly: colorful
Moth: dull

Butterfly: pupal stage, chrysalis
Moth: pupal stage, cocoon

Butterfly: wings held vertically when resting
Moth: wings held flat against body when resting

-------------

it seems there are a lot of opposites, when it comes to butterflies and moths.

is it necessary, do you think, to be in love, or to be in love with moths?

is the butterfly the light, and the moth crazy around it?

Rumi wrote:

Say, I am You


I am dust particles in sunlight.
I am the round sun.

To the bits of dust I say, Stay.
To the sun, Keep moving.

I am morning mist,
and the breathing of evening.
I am wind in the top of a grove,
and surf on the cliff.

Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,
I am also the coral reef they founder on.

I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
Silence, thought, and voice.

The musical air coming through a flute,
a spark of stone, a flickering in metal.
Both candle and the moth crazy around it.
Rose, and the nightingale lost in the fragrance.

I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
the evolutionary intelligence, the lift, and the falling away.

What is, and what isn't.

You who know, Jelaluddin,
You the one in all, say who I am.
Say I am you.

When you see the silent
candle burning you
are the butterfly
and you are gone.

Finally insane
for the light
I am both candle
and the moth crazy around it.
carm
Posts: 254
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 7:47 pm

Re: How To Speak Poetry

Post by carm »

Diane, thanks for your words… :D

Diane writes:
It is not necessary to be inspired; only to read what's in front of you.
Attachments
the word1.jpg
carm
Posts: 254
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 7:47 pm

Re: How To Speak Poetry

Post by carm »

Diane writes that Rumi wrote:
Say, I am You


I am dust particles in sunlight.
I am the round sun.

To the bits of dust I say, Stay.
To the sun, Keep moving.

I am morning mist,
and the breathing of evening.
I am wind in the top of a grove,
and surf on the cliff.

Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,
I am also the coral reef they founder on.

I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
Silence, thought, and voice.

The musical air coming through a flute,
a spark of stone, a flickering in metal.
Both candle and the moth crazy around it.
Rose, and the nightingale lost in the fragrance.

I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
the evolutionary intelligence, the lift, and the falling away.

What is, and what isn't.

You who know, Jelaluddin,
You the one in all, say who I am.
Say I am you.
. . . . .

Slilence.

Thought.

And Voice.

What is

and what isn't.

. . . . .

You

the one in all,

say

who I am.

Say

I am you.
Attachments
Say.jpg
Diane

Re: How To Speak Poetry

Post by Diane »

Image


Silence.

Thought.

And Voice.

What is

and what isn't.

You

the one in all,

say

who I am.

Say

I am you.



Verse 41 from Book of Mercy, by Peter Danielson: http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/pdan2009.mp3



And you say,



I am in this heart,



I and my name are here.


Image
carm
Posts: 254
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 7:47 pm

Re: How To Speak Poetry

Post by carm »

I have tried in my way to be free.

I lift my hands to you.
I kneel toward my heart.

Do not fix your burning eyes on me when you speak about love.

Silence.
My love is here.
I and my name are here.

Speak the words, convey the data, step aside.

I have saved all my ribbons for thee.
And you say, I am in this heart, I and my name are here.

You the one in all, say who I am.

Step aside and they will know what you know because you know it already.
What is and what isn't.

And Voice.
Be by yourself.
Do not be afraid to be weak.

I have torn everyone who reached out for me.
Everywhere the blades turn, in every thought the butchery,
and it is raw where I wander; but you hide me in the shelter of your name,
and you open the hardness to tears.
You draw me back to close my eyes, to bless your name in speechlessness.

Do not be afraid to be weak.

In speechlessness.
Say I am you.

I forget you.
And you say, I am in this heart, I and my name are here.

Blessed are you in the smallness of your whispering.

These pieces were written in silence.
This is an interior landscape.
It is inside.
It is private.

Let the audience feel your love of privacy even though there is no privacy.

In speechlessness.
Say I am you.

Blessed are you who speaks to the unworthy.

Avoid the flourish.
Do not be ashamed to be tired.
You look good when you're tired.

I look far.
I forget you.
And I’m lost.

And you say, I am in this heart, I and my name are here.
The drifting is to you, and the swell of suffering breaks toward you.

Bind me, ease of my heart, bind me to your love.

Bound to you – your love, I fall away.
Gentle things you return to me, and duties that are sweet.

This wave of longing, through the air slips.
Invisibly I cling to the music that is you, that is of motion and of colour.

And you say, I am in this heart, I and my name are here.
Now come into my arms.
You are the image of my beauty.

And I am lost.

But I swear by this song
And by all that I have done wrong
I will make it all up to thee.

Bound to you – your love,
I end the day in mercy that I wasted in despair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI7tuRn3RC0
Attachments
Bind Me2.jpg
Diane

Re: How To Speak Poetry

Post by Diane »

carm wrote: Diane writes:
It is not necessary to be inspired ...

Try to look inspired

One two three, one two three one

There’s a rose in my hair

My shoulders are bare

I’ve been wearing this costume

Forever

Turn up the music

I'd crawl

to you baby

And I'd fall

at your feet

And I'd howl

at your beauty

like a dog in heat

I'd claw

at your heart

And I'd tear

at your sheet


Image
(photo by Daybis http://www.flickr.com/photos/daybis/3029754295/)



Everywhere

the blades turn,

in every thought

the butchery,

and it is raw

where I wander.


I end the day in mercy

that I wasted in despair.

This is an interior landscape.

You the one in all,

say who I am.


one two three

one two three

one

...

... two three


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtQys5Q9hjk

from this broken hill

I will sing

to you


Image
carm
Posts: 254
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 7:47 pm

Re: How To Speak Poetry

Post by carm »

And in this brief moment
where everything is still and perfect,
I see my path but I know not where it leads,
and in this not knowing I am inspired to travel it –
my heart, my spirit, a rage of flight…

It is bittersweet this melody,
yet I indulge, wrapped up in longing,
while an arc of flame circles above,
one two three, one two three one…

. . . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtGihagBdyo

. . . . .

But the green was so green
And the blue was so blue
I was so I
And you were so you
The crisis was light
As a feather…

One two three, one two three one.

. . . . .

And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will

One two three, one two three one.
Attachments
onetwothree1.jpg
Diane

Re: How To Speak Poetry

Post by Diane »

it is bittersweet this melody,
yet I indulge, wrapped up in longing -- Carm

that ragged, jagged melody
she still clings to me like a leech -- Springsteen

all deep things are song -- Thomas Carlye


we don't need to go any deeper -- LC


but we could go deeper ...


And in this brief moment
where everything is still and perfect,
I see my path but I know not where it leads,
and in this not knowing I am inspired to travel it –
my heart, my spirit, a rage of flight … -- Carm


the green was so green
And the blue was so blue
I was so I
And you were so you
The crisis was light
As a feather…

rags and feathers

rags of light

One two three, one two three

One

from which all things arise in splendor

depending one upon the other


it is not necessary to be in love

or to be in love with butterflies


the heart is a rage of directions

the raw heart beat against the world

the tears were for my lost victory


Image
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