The star in the window shines clearly
to me alone, to me the lonely one
on the piano keys by the window
across the mountains, far away
The night wind whirls in the sky and sings
while the blue night dropped on the world
and it is full of sadness
across the planetary night
Stars look desolately down
for a whole hour rapidly vanishing
the distant line of the mountain
that lies there, cold and silent, with a thousand lights
The time has not come true
in the hush of evening
to give to my dreams, sweetness
beyond the borders of time and space
Seen in the sky outside through the window
is the allness of the universe
But this my sorrow is absolutely mine own
drawing the last curtain over my eyes
The biggest stars look at me with your eyes
They come from all the pasts
like an everlasting well
closed on my chest
How much it hurts, this heart
listening to what I say
when I am sitting at the window
free from my own muddle
The moon is climbing through the sky
with the rhythm of the clock
searching between the angles
the tumult of veins in flight
Night, black statue of prudence, holds
agony, agony, dream, ferment, and dream
in the north of an unreflecting sky.
The room was iridescent with agony
Silent and desolate. On either hand
By sharp and flame, the thought reveal
the broken light, the shadows wide
and the pulse of the poet's line.
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Without You..............................Hermann Hesse
The Poet.................................Hermann Hesse
Thinking of a friend at night............Hermann Hesse
Across the fields..........................Hermann Hesse
Tonight I can write the saddest lines..Pablo Neruda
Tonight I Can Write The Saddest Lines
Clenched Soul.............................Pablo Neruda
The light wraps you......................Pablo Neruda
Entrance of the rivers...................Pablo Neruda
How heavy the days......................Hermann Hesse
A swarm of gnats.........................Hermann Hesse
Lying in grass..............................Hermann Hesse
A night on the high sea..................Hermann Hesse
Waiting.................................Rabindranath Tagore
The sun of first day....................Rabindranath Tagore
One day in Spring.......................Rabindranath Tagore
I.......................................Rabindranath Tagore
At the last watch.......................Rabindranath Tagore
Brink of eternity.......................Rabindranath Tagore
Chain of pearls.........................Rabindranath Tagore
Last Curtain............................Rabindranath Tagore
Here I love you.........................Pablo Neruda
The old women of the ocean..............Pablo Neruda
Triangles...............................Pablo Neruda
Yours hands............................ Pablo Neruda
I know, I alone.........................Fernando Pessoa
Your eyes go sad........................Fernando Pessoa
As she passes by........................Fernando Pessoa
This....................................Fernando Pessoa
Ballad to the moon......................Frederico G Lorca
Weeping.................................Frederico G Lorca
Dawn....................................Frederico G Lorca
Adam....................................Frederico G Lorca
Ode to Salvador Dali....................Frederico G Lorca
Ode to Walt Whitman.....................Frederico G Lorca
Sonnet..................................Frederico G Lorca
Lament for Ignacio Sanches Mejias.......Frederico G Lorca
The passing show........................Ambrose G Bierce
Alone...................................Ambrose G Bierce
To E.S Salomon..........................Ambrose G Bierce
Geotheos................................Ambrose G Bierce
Author notes
Those are lines of poems of some of my (non Brazilian) favourite authors.
There are no links (just references), but again this isn't an official entry, just thought to keep it here with yours
A contest entry
- Joining lines in Oldpoetry (contest) by Mari Goes.
5500 points, ended March 19, 2008, 8 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 38 of 38
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finally a moment to comment on this piece, this poem is the reason that i began writing in Cento style, and not nearly with the grace and eloquence here; there is a seamless quality to the expression in these cobbled verses, that makes them into a single thing of beauty;
despite the easy familiarity and recognition of some of these verses there is but a faint echo bringing a smile when reading; so many of my favorite voices are here in a new harmony... excellent...PK
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I really wanted links. Could you go back and make all those work?
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Zal wel zijn
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minder bespreking meer verbindingen
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This outstandingly beautiful. Someday I'm going to try my hand at this. A Cento? They always look so complicated but end up to be free flowing and natural... or so the ones I've read and yours is especially good
Dee
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Beautiful, meaning and rhythm flow together seamlessly, truly touching and filled with sadness... I've never read this form before, this is amazing!
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how much it hurts...the cold,silent and lonely--the words bring out it all very well...the agony breaks my heart also...
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Here I love you by Pablo Neruda.. one of my very favourite poems by him - I even wrote an emulation of that poem, called "here my voice stumbles". Wow, Mari, this is so very beautiful and if I didn't recognize some lines from Hesse and Neruda I would never have guessed this is cento - you make it all flow with such ease.
I love this one - great work, beautiful poetry!!
~ Nicolette
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I know, I alone by Pessoa
It's short, I like it...but that isn't why I like it
Speaks of that undefinable feeling, that what we feel is unspeakable for it's peculiar to us. Quite good. -
At the last watch
I'd read this one before, I guess I never added the comment here.
Even skeptics find words that make us cringe, make us feel the hurt, that is the case with this poem. Logic dictates that it's melodrama but the hurt is so real, and the notion, though common to us all, is told with skill and power. One of my favs so far.
Brink Of Eternity
The metaphor of love, in this case the "she" is that divine spirit, the essence of Grace. Not much I can say about that without stepping on toes.
Last Curtain
Sad because well, it speaks of a sad subject...
And those with that usual romantic look at life and death, still the reader can't help but be struck with the vision, and know that in some way he is right...that we must find that essence of what is important in life.
That's the last of the Tagor poems I think, now on to more of Neruda's.
Old Woman of the Ocean by Neruda
An intriguing poem...and elusive (for me anyway.) Seems to deal with experience and knowledge, that with age comes wisdom, not only of things that have come but of things to be and an understanding of the fleeting nature of time.
Triangles
For me it's a tragic poem, and similar to the previous but dealing more with the transitory nature of our thoughts and experiences. There's a synchonicity to it, with us, the birds with that distance travelled, quite a good poem actually.
Here I Love You
More like Tagore's poetry is this one. That notion that in all things love imbues, of course it's well written, just it's been written so many times, true, by lesser poets often.
Your Hands
This one reminds me why I often say I dislike poetry. Off to Pessoa now.
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I
Ah, one of my favorites that I've read by Tagore. Here he expresses finder greater depth within himself through the love of another...once again highly romanticized but at least this time it's different territory and the notion of better understanding oneself through love is interesting.
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One Day in Spring....
Tagore's highly romanticized vision of love and the nature of synchronicity and its depths that two must take to reach it.
Chain of Pearls.
For me, the saving grace of tagore
s poetry is the beauty with which it is written. For me the content is far too romaniticized but the lyrical beauty (for me) in undeniable.
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Wow, this is outstanding. You've done such a wonderful job here...I can only imagine how long it took you to do this.
I think that I'll post a column on cento ( if there isn't one already )..I am really starting to like this form
I appreciate how you did your author notes. I wish we could use html in the author notes to make it look cleaner lol.
hehe out of habit I was about to say good luck in the contest! lol
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Refresing!
Oh this is so in synchronization with nature.Lovely harmony and melancholy in this write.I loved the list of distinguished poets.That is one elite gathering.
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Hey Mari.. Loneliness and immaturity sound better as a couple than a thoughtful person feeling alone.. Its a very sad write.. Missing someone of the past can be beautiful, sad and ugly at the same time... And insight only opens eyes wider to inhale the understanding of the situation....
But the poetic and nature relatedness of the poem is though connoting 'alone', is beautifully done..
Huggles Kunj.
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ah, i was going to mention the mine own line to say maybe use my own but i see that in some places you have created this piece using lines from other poems, a canto i think it is called? not sure at the moment, anyway, it works well, a good solid atmosphere here, sad though that is.
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Immensity of distance, overwhelming and looming, makes my heart sigh at the silence mocking the clock with its hand before its face, a mere imitation of the moon pooling it's beams across piano keys and window sill... not a hint of melody to accompany the quiet etchings of loneliness. What a beauty, Mari! ~ Karen
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Exactly how I saw it Karen!
Thanks
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OMG!!
Is this like a Cento girly
Wow!!
What a piece You have penned
A lot of work I could see went into this
Love this and I was certainly swept away...
Had to go find myself after inhaling this
Magnificent verse!
Loved it!!
Thank You for sharing Your Talent!
Many blessings to You
Best wishes too
and much love~ Desire~*~
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Awesome
Mari, this is absolutely mind blastingly brilliant-you have managed to compile a phenominal poem with all those refrences and given it your voice- when I was reading it it sounded so you- I would never have imagined their origin- I personally feel it is much more challenging when you work like this ,as you have done with the above piece- you are bound by these words -but you have made them sound so effortless and smooth like I said it has your voice- your feel - your tone- you indeed are a talented one
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Obviously I'm not a cultured poet as I'm familiar with any of the poets you've mentioned here with the exception of Pablo Neruda but I do know what I like when I read it. This one I like because of recent events in my life have given me pause to think about the exact same things you talk about in your poem. Being alone together with yourself can be angonizing at times...lol. Excellent work Mari.
Sincerely,
Leo Long
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The Sun Of The First Day by tagore
Well he may be a believer and I a skeptic but we meet on the same plane with this poem. There are no answers to our questions of life's meaning and the nature of God and the here-after. No matter how much faith one may have, it's still a mystery. Words from an old man who was trying to deal with his mortality.
14 out of 40 done...Bye, Past my bed time. -
Waiting by Tagore
My kind of poem...and it's one about becoming...or waiting to become. I guess I can identify since I'm still waiting for my purpose...reminds me in an odd way of a short story ny Henry James, "A Lion In The Jungle" I think it was called. Something like that...it dealt with that same desire to find one's purpose...though James' was more material, and Tagore's spiritual. I wonder if he ever found it? I doubt it...I don't think it exists...we simply desire more than we can manage. -
At Night on the high seas by Hesse
I liked this one too. The hurt rings out as the speaker looks out at the sea and asks it questions be probably already has the answers too. Mainly, if any of us are true to one another.
Poor Herman, he needed a toy to play with.
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"Lying in Grass" by H. Hesse
Ok, this is the first of the poems that I've read in this collection that I think is exceptional. Maybe because it speaks things that I feel, but I think it's more than that. It's in the tone, which is pained but earnest. It speaks of the eternal question that no one can answer, only speculate on and the pain comes out near the end as some sort of vitriolic anger...though it tempers at the end. -
"A swarm of gnats" I like. He takes a scene (the swarm) and uses it as symbolism for the transience of life...it's a tad hyperbolic but I still liked it.
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How Heavy The Days by Hermann Hesse
How heavy the days are.
There's not a fire that can warm me,
Not a sun to laugh with me,
Everything bare,
Everything cold and merciless,
And even the beloved, clear
Stars look desolately down,
Since I learned in my heart that
Love can die.
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I was tempted to do the Seinfeld, "Yada, yada, yada." but then I remembered that Hesse committed suicide, was obsessed by it before he actually did it...knowing that the poem take on a far more tragic tone. However, the last line for me was anti-climatic and hackneyed...still, i wish I'd written it...I mean the quality not the subject.
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Entrance of the rivers
Neruda's romantic look at nature...it's beautiful but by the end I was glad it was over...I need some realism...hurry up Bierce.
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"The Light Wraps you"
I wonder if I have a good translation for this one. It just seems odd how it reads, and no, not the allusions that Neruda uses, just in the flow of the lines.
Still I get the jist and see the whole poem as a moment in time, a glimpse of a mourner. I really like how Neruda draws life from one mourning death. This is my favorite of the seven I've read so far. -
Neruda's "Soul Is Clenched." Well, while I liked the tone, after a while all this melancholy turns my bile green. I wonder if poems written in or for the moment are really worthy of anything? I mean, they deal with transitory emotions, sort of like temporary insanity.
Can you say, "pandering to the public?"
I said I'd read them, I didn't say I'd like them.
Actually I still liked this one.
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"Tonight I could write the saddest lines" and sure enough Neruda then proceeds to do so...however...you knew one was coming didn't you...the sadness with with the topic not because of it. It's difficult to tell you what I think for my feelings are mixed. On one hand I do identify, as you know I was there once, where his words played but having long passed that silliness I now see just how phoney emotions like that are. Still parts of the poem do strike a chord...it's a womans poem mainly. I guess that is why women love Neruda.
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This reminds me. I haven't see any of those contest where they use all the song titles in them. Maybe that should be my next contest...
May the moon shine lovingly
and never be too bright
May the sun only lighten
and make the day just right
May a smile forever lighten
and your burdens be but few
And may happiness surround you
in everything you do
Hugs...Eddy
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All the "Across the's" gets annoying in nymber four but the theme is a one I like...wishing for home, and I see why you liked it and starting to see why you like each one.
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"Thinking of a friend at night" is a far superior poem than the first two. It seems to have far more sincerity, not to mention poetic skill. It's brooding but on an issue more intelligent and sympathetic. Maybe he can write poetry when he wants to.
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The Poet was better though still self-indugent. Poor Hess, poor poet...he writers much better fiction, at least in translation. It's odd thatb his fiction seems more poetic than his poetry.
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Done with Hesse's first. He's whined about his loft love, yawn.
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You even included my old pal Ambrose Bierce. I told you when you were writing this that I was impressed at how you made all these individual lines fit into a cohesive poem that actually conveyed a mood.
You even managed to form them into your tone of voice...well one of yours and that is the one of quiet sorrow. That mood always seems to hurt, it feels like it goes so deep.
I've read the fiction of Tagore, Hesse and of course Bierce, and have Lorca's play "Blood Wedding" around somewhere. I guess I'll have to look it up and read it now.
Ok, off to read all 40 poems as promised.
You're brilliant you know.
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ja Ik weet
I also like how it turned out, probably because I like the authors
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