No.33

Edith Piaf, Roger McGough, Bette Midler, Jacques Brel, Dylan Thomas, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Robert Burns, Spike Middleton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Bishop, Shel Silverstein, Walter de la Mare, Eleanor Farjeon, etc.

Timothy Winters

Charles Causley 1917-2003

Timothy Winters comes to school 

With eyes as wide as a football-pool, 

Ears like bombs and teeth like splinters: 

A blitz of a boy is Timothy Winters. 

His belly is white, his neck is dark, 

And his hair is an exclamation-mark. 

His clothes are enough to scare a crow 

And through his britches the blue winds blow. 

When teacher talks he won't hear a word 

And he shoots down dead the arithmetic-bird, 

He licks the pattern off his plate 

And he's not even heard of the Welfare State. 

Timothy Winters has bloody feet 

And he lives in a house on Suez Street, 

He sleeps in a sack on the kitchen floor 

And they say there aren't boys like him anymore. 

Old Man Winters likes his beer 

And his missus ran off with a bombardier, 

Grandma sits in the grate with a gin 

And Timothy's dosed with an aspirin. 

The welfare Worker lies awake 

But the law's as tricky as a ten-foot snake, 

So Timothy Winters drinks his cup 

And slowly goes on growing up. 

At Morning Prayers the Master helves 

for children less fortunate than ourselves, 

And the loudest response in the room is when 

Timothy Winters roars "Amen!" 

So come one angel, come on ten 

Timothy Winters says "Amen 

Amen amen amen amen." 

Timothy Winters, Lord. 

Amen. 

-o0o-

A new Week End Blog

THE BEST OF MY CHOICE MY DELIGHT

begins tomorrow 

FRIDAY 31st AUGUST

thebestofmychoicemydelight.blogspot.com

and will be updated every week end

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No.32
Edith Piaf, Roger McGough, Bette Midler, Jacques Brel, Dylan Thomas, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Robert Burns, Spike Middleton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Bishop, Shel Silverstein, Walter de la Mare, Eleanor Farjeon, etc.

Kubla Khan

(a vision in a dream) 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan 

A stately pleasure-dome decree: 

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran 

Through caverns measureless to man 

   Down to a sunless sea. 

So twice five miles of fertile ground 

With walls and towers were girdled round; 

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, 

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; 

And here were forests ancient as the hills, 

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. 

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted 

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! 

A savage place! as holy and enchanted 

As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted 

By woman wailing for her demon-lover! 

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, 

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, 

A mighty fountain momently was forced: 

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst 

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, 

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail: 

And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever 

It flung up momently the sacred river. 

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion 

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, 

Then reached the caverns measureless to man, 

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean; 

And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far 

Ancestral voices prophesying war! 

   The shadow of the dome of pleasure 

   Floated midway on the waves; 

   Where was heard the mingled measure 

   From the fountain and the caves. 

It was a miracle of rare device, 

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice! 

 A damsel with a dulcimer 

   In a vision once I saw: 

   It was an Abyssinian maid 

   And on her dulcimer she played, 

   Singing of Mount Abora. 

   Could I revive within me 

   Her symphony and song, 

   To such a deep delight ’twould win me, 

That with music loud and long, 

I would build that dome in air, 

That sunny dome! those caves of ice! 

And all who heard should see them there, 

And all should cry, Beware! Beware! 

His flashing eyes, his floating hair! 

Weave a circle round him thrice, 

And close your eyes with holy dread 

For he on honey-dew hath fed, 

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

-o0o-

No.31

Edith Piaf, Roger McGough, Bette Midler, Jacques Brel, Dylan Thomas, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Robert Burns, Spike Middleton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Bishop, Shel Silverstein, Walter de la Mare, Eleanor Farjeon, etc.

What If This Road

Sheenagh Pugh

What if this road, that has held no surprises

these many years, decided not to go

home after all; what if it could turn

left or right with no more ado

than a kite-tail? What if its tarry skin

were like a long, supple bolt of cloth,

that is shaken and rolled out, and takes

a new shape from the contours beneath?

And if it chose to lay itself down

in a new way; around a blind corner,

across hills you must climb without knowing

what’s on the other side; who would not hanker

to be going, at all risks? Who wants to know

a story’s end, or where a road will go?

-o0o-

No.30

Edith Piaf, Roger McGough, Bette Midler, Jacques Brel, Dylan Thomas, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Robert Burns, Spike Middleton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Bishop, Shel Silverstein, Walter de la Mare, Eleanor Farjeon, etc.

My Heart Leaps Up

William Wordsworth 1770 - 1850

 My heart leaps up when I behold 

   A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began; 

So is it now I am a man; 

So be it when I shall grow old, 

   Or let me die!

The Child is father of the Man;

And I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

-o0o-

No.29

Edith Piaf, Roger McGough, Bette Midler, Jacques Brel, Dylan Thomas, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Robert Burns, Spike Middleton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Bishop, Shel Silverstein, Walter de la Mare, Eleanor Farjeon, etc.

Now that You Too Must Shortly Go

Eleanor Farjeon 1881-1965

Now that you too must shortly go the way 

Which in these bloodshot years uncounted men 

Have gone in vanishing armies day by day, 

And in their numbers will not come again:

 

I must not strain the moments of our meeting 

Striving for each look, each accent, not to miss, 

Or question of our parting and our greeting, 

Is this the last of all? is this—or this? 

 

Last sight of all it may be with these eyes, 

Last touch, last hearing, since eyes, hands, and ears, 

Even serving love, are our mortalities, 

And cling to what they own in mortal fears:—

But oh, let end what will, I hold you fast 

By immortal love, which has no first or last.

-o0o-

No.28
Edith Piaf, Roger McGough, Bette Midler, Jacques Brel, Dylan Thomas, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Robert Burns, Spike Middleton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Bishop, Shel Silverstein, Walter de la Mare, Eleanor Farjeon, etc.

On the Farm

R.S. Thomas 1913-2000

There was Dai Puw. He was no good.

They put him in the fields to dock swedes,

And took the knife from him, when he came home

At late evening with a grin

Like the slash of a knife on his face.

There was Llew Puw, and he was no good.

Every evening after the ploughing

With the big tractor he would sit in his chair,

And stare into the tangled fire garden,

Opening his slow lips like a snail.

There was Huw Puw, too. What shall I say?

I have heard him whistling in the hedges

On and on, as though winter

Would never again leave those fields,

And all the trees were deformed.

And lastly there was the girl;

Beauty under some spell of the beast.

Her pale face was the lantern

By which they read in life’s dark book

The shrill sentence: God is love.

-o0o-

No.27

Edith Piaf, Roger McGough, Bette Midler, Jacques Brel, Dylan Thomas, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Robert Burns, Spike Middleton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Bishop, Shel Silverstein, Walter de la Mare, Eleanor Farjeon, etc.

Ae Fond Kiss

Robert Burns 1759-96

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever; 

Ae fareweel, and then forever! 

Deep in heart-wrung tears   I'll pledge thee, 

Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee. 

Who shall say that Fortune grieves him, 

While the star of hope she leaves him? 

Me, nae cheerfu' twinkle lights me; 

Dark despair around benights me. 

I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy, 

Naething could resist my Nancy; 

But to see her was to love her; 

Love but her, and love forever. 

Had we never lov'd sae kindly, 

Had we never lov'd sae blindly, 

Never met—or never parted— 

We had ne'er been broken-hearted. 

Fare thee weel, thou first and fairest! 

Fare thee weel, thou best and dearest! 

Thine be ilka joy and treasure, 

Peace. enjoyment, love, and pleasure! 

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever; 

Ae fareweel, alas, forever! 

Deep in heart-wrung tears   I'll pledge thee, 

Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee! 

-o0o-