I'm rather fond of poetry and during a bored lockdown skim through poetry sites rediscovered this old gem.
God, A Poem (1983)
James Fenton
A nasty surprise in a sandwich,
A drawing-pin caught in your sock,
The limpest of shakes from a hand which
You’d thought would be firm as a rock,
A serious mistake in a nightie,
A grave disappointment all round
Is all that you’ll get from th’ Almighty,
Is all that you’ll get underground.
Oh he said: ‘If you lay off the crumpet
I’ll see you alright in the end.
Just hang on until the last trumpet.
Have faith in me, chum – I’m your friend.’
But if you remind him, he’ll tell you:
‘I’m sorry, I must have been pissed –
Though your name rings a sort of a bell. You
Should have guessed that I do not exist.
‘I didn’t exist at Creation,
I didn’t exist at the Flood,
And I won’t be around for Salvation
To sort out the sheep from the cud –
‘Or whatever the phrase is. The fact is
In soteriological terms
I’m a crude existential malpractice
And you are a diet of worms.
‘You’re a nasty surprise in a sandwich.
You’re a drawing-pin caught in my sock.
You’re the limpest of shakes from a hand which
I’d have thought would be firm as a rock,
‘You’re a serious mistake in a nightie,
You’re a grave disappointment all round-
That’s all you are’, says th’ Almighty,
‘And that’s all that you’ll be underground.’
Any one else got a particular favourite poem to share? Any topic? Self authored?
And Cog? I don't count limericks about over endowed people from Nantucket legitimate poetry. Yes, I am a literary Nazi. Heil!
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@Grinseed
Perhaps because it was the first poem I learned:
MY COUNTRY, by Dorothea MacKellar
Below the middle verse, my favourite:
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!
Link to full poem
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/my-country/
My favourite poet is Gerald Manley Hopkins.SJ . I have always loved his use of the language,
THE WINDHOVER
I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.
This poem is dedicated to Christ our Lord.
Also like some of the War Poets as well as the English romantics. Sadly, don't read much poetry these days.
@Grinseed
Loved that poem! the enjambments there are particularly strong.
One of my favorite poems is "The bells" by Poe....How it slowly takes u from high up and then slams u into the ground (literally)
https://poets.org/poem/bells
On the other end of the poetry spectrum.--If u are not as much of a Nazi when it comes to defining poetry-- There's a really nice poem that a girl performed in a local open mic (It's got a couple of Arabic words so gonna {translate} those.
========================
One True Religion - by Omnia El-Mashad
I'm not gonna talk
About Islam,
Or Christianity,
Or the off-brand
Egyptianized version
Of atheism that's a
Fad these days
الشعب المصري متدين بطبعه { "Egyptians are religious by nature." (a popular saying here that's often used ironically) }
So let's talk about the
Real religion that's
Irrigated by
A Nile more sewers
Than fresh water
A land fertilized by
Chemicals, pumped full
Of them more than a
Bottle-blond call girl
On a vegas strip
A religion morphed and
Mutated by too much
Incest, hindered by
Too many invasions and
Occupations and was it
Two empires or more?
Let's talk about parents' religion
Parents,
Who ration parenting like its
The fourth reich
Swastikas made of
"It's for your own good"s and
"We know what's best for you"s
A religion that promotes
Communism in the form
Of a girl's body
Not "yours" but "ours"
A body given to women
To nurture, to preserve
For her parents' honor
To scrupulously maintain
For her husband's pleasure
It's a sin to be touched but the
Greater sin is to be marked by
Someone other than the buyer
The greater sin is for the sun to turn
Your skin a few shades darker
For your hair to exist anywhere
But on your head
It doesnt matter if you're straight but
Your hair should be
It's a sin to want
To demand, to speak
When not spoken to,
And to utter any word
Not a synonym to حاضر {Yes, sir}
Women are voiceless
But I'm not here to talk
About them
Women are voiceless, but
What about those who've
Been programmed to only
Use a part of
Their lexicon in a
Specific order?
So let's not forget
The sons who are
Slapped by their fathers
And told to man up
Let's not forget the sons
Who are only allowed to
Grunt like animals in
Pleasure, but never as
Humans in pain
Let's not forget the
Man card that gets
Confiscated if they
Step aside and leave a
Spot for the woman beside
Them
Let's not forget that women
Can be just as hurtful
And that men can be
Just as victims
Sons who grow up to be
Ashamed of different parts of
Their body
Shamed for having
Humanity at their core
Boys who secretly like
Strong girls but have to
Beat them up and break
Them down just to
Avoid being called خول {pimp}
Boys who plunder
Just to hide how much
They'd rather be pillaged
Boys who are forced to
Grow thicker skin
Skin of concrete and gravel and
Broken glass and barbed wire
To imprison the man who just
Wants to be held sometimes
Boys who want to weep and feel
And still be seen as a man
Not just by other men but
Women too
Boys who don't want girls'
Eyes to skip over them just
Because they're too short
Too skinny
Too beardless
Too emotional
Too respectful
Too open
Too compassionate
Too unlike those we've been
Taught are males
You say men are trash, but
Society emasculates them for
Being anything but
Raise your sons
To man up
And let a girl have
Her voice
Man up
And wear pink if you
Want to
Man up
And jam to Taylor Swift
Man up
And cry
Man up
And let yourself
Let your girl's fingers
Do some dark magic
Man up
And take what you
Actually want
In a way that makes you feel
Human
Not what history told you
To take, in a way that
Predates evolution
Make a new religion
========================
Thought about sharing one of my own wannabe poems but realized I'd get roasted more than a theist with a flat earth claim lol