Poems - Englische Gedichte
It hurts so much
It's like a river of tears
I'm longing for your touch
But you aren't here.
I feel like a heap of crap
A nothing of nothing
What should I do?
These fucking stacks
they are running by me
I would go back
but I have to see
that the world is faster
She carries me away
in a world of agonies
I would like to pray
but my lips keep closed
why you couldn't stay?
I feel so lost and alone
My soul is running away
allover deap heaps of stone
My heart is teared
till the hard infinity.
(Trini)
(Danke an Trini)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Between dusk and dawn
Golden sunbeams glisten through
a silver blast of clouds
before the sun forever sets.
Flaming sparks in the horizon
prophesy the endless night,
when fire´s light is dying.
Eternal darkness soon will rise
until the flames reborn
forbidding starlight´s faceless shine.
(Jens Schriwer)
(Danke an Delia)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
We wear the mask
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,
This debt we pay to human guile,
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile,
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
(Paul Laurence Dunbar)
(Danke an Delia)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stages
As every flower fades and as all youth
Departs, so life at every stage,
So every virtue, so our grasp of truth,
Blooms in its day and may not last forever.
Since life may summon us at every age
Be ready, heart, for parting, new endeavor,
Be ready bravely and without remorse
To find new light that old ties cannot give.
In all beginnings dwells a magic force
For guarding us and helping us to live.
Serenely let us move to distant places
And let no sentiments of home detain us.
The Cosmic Spirit seeks not to restrain us
But lifts us stage by stage to wider spaces.
If we accept a home of our own making,
Familiar habit makes for indolence.
We must prepare for parting and leave-taking
Or else remain the slaves of permanence.
Even the hour of our death may send
Us speeding on to fresh and newer spaces,
And life may summon us to newer races.
So be it, heart: bid farewell without end.
Hermann Hesse (translated by Richard and Clara Winston)
(Danke an Delia)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sympathy
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals
- I know what the caged bird feels!
I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting
-I know why he beats his wing!
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart\'s deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings
-I know why the caged bird sings!
(Paul Laurence Dunbar)
(Danke an Delia)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Words Of Chief Joseph
I am tired of fighting,
our chiefs are killed
Looking Glass is dead
Tu-Hul-Hil-Sote is dead
The old men are all dead
he, who led the young men,
Alikut is dead.
It is cold and we have no blankets
The little children are freezing to death
My people, some of them, have run away to the hills
They have no blankets, no food
No one knows where they are, perhaps freezing to death
I want to have time to look for my children
And see how many I can find
Maybe I shall find them among the dead
Hear me my Chiefs,
I am tired
My heart is sick and sad
From where the sun now stands
I will fight no more forever.
Chief Joseph died in 1904 of a broken heart.
(Chief Joseph, the peaceful leader of the Nez Perces Nation)
(Danke an Evi)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Haiku
The moon,
the falling star
-- Look elsewhere
(Jack Kerouac)
(Thanks to Ingo Schäfer)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The old men
say
the earth
only
endures.
You spoke
truly.
You are right.
(Autor unbekannt)
(Danke an Matthias)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sonnet
A wind has blown the rain away and blown
the sky away and all the leaves away,
and the trees stand. I think I too have known
autumn too long
(and what have you to say,
wind wind wind - did you love somebody
and have you the petal of somewhere in your heart
pinched from dumb summer?
O crazy daddy
of death dance cruelly for us and start
the last leaf whirling in the final brain
of air!) Let us as we have seen see
doom's integration...a wind has blown the rain
away and the leaves and the sky and the
trees stand:
the trees stand. The trees,
suddenly wait against the moon's face.
(Edward Estlin Cummings)
(Danke an Nele)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Somewhere I have never traveled
Somewhere I have never traveled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which I cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though I have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose
or if your wish be to close me, I and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(I do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands
(Edward Estlin Cummings)
(Danke an Nele)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Her anxiety
Earth in beauty dressed
Awaits returning spring.
All true love must die,
Alter at the best
Into some lesser thing
Prove that I lie.
Such body lovers have,
Such exacting breath,
That thex touch or sigh.
Every touch they give,
Love is nearer death.
Prove that I lie.
(William Butler Yeats)
(Danke an Nele)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sonnet
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply;
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone;
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.
(Edna St. Vincent Millay)
(Danke an Nele)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do not go gentle into that good night
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
(Dylan Thomas)
(Danke an Nele)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Last Invocation
At the last, tenderly,
From the walls of the powerful fortress'd house,
From the clasp of the knitted locks, from the keep of the well-closed doors,
Let me be wafted.
Let me glide noiselessly forth;
With the key of softness unlock the locks- with a whisper,
Set ope the doors O soul.
Tenderly- be not impatient,
(Strong is your hold O mortal flesh,
Strong is your hold O love.)
(Walt Whitman)
(Danke an Nele)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
When you are old
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
(William Butler Yeats)
(Danke an Nele)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
He wishes for the cloths of heaven
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
(William Butler Yeats)
(Danke an Nele)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your beauty is more beautiful than the beauty,
the sun kneels for your beautiful face,
my heart likes to be beneath your wing:
You are my angel, I love you.
(Unknown author)
(Thanks to Pia Stuermer)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Love's fortune behold,
how,
for the desire of pomp and glory,
the beggar of you,
break the corner of the crown of the sovereignty.
I love you.
(Unknown author)
(Thanks to Pia Stuermer)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Close your eyes
travel through the time.
The sandman is ready for a long time
and a little star in wide space
is wishing you a beautiful dream.
(Unknown author)
(Thanks to Pia Stuermer)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
When little angels go to sleep,
then everybody can see them in the sky.
Because for each angel glows one star,
and I see your star willingly, exeptionally.
(Unknown author)
(Thanks to Pia Stuermer)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one:
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods:
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
(W.H. Auden)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Haiku
Evening coming --
the office girl
Unloosing her scarf.
(Jack Kerouac)
(Thanks to Ingo Schäfer)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Harvest
I want to show the land and how beautiful it is
With the rice grains, trees and mountains
I want to show you what you’ve been missing
Life lies on the eye of the people
I want to show you things you’ve never
Seen before.
I want to show you peace and quiet
At its best
I want to show you beauty at its
Greatest peak, that money doesn’t
Mean everything
I want to show you sunshine
I want to show you plants and what
Nature gives you
I want to show you bright yellow green
And blue color and how it links with
Everyday life.
I want to show you the pigs, sheep and
Other animals, what joy and happiness
They bring to people.
I want to show you that life is
Beautiful.
(Roth Ham)
(Thanks to Lydia)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Haiku
Missing a kick
at the icebox door
It closed anyway.
(Jack Kerouac)
(Thanks to Ingo Schäfer)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Supermarket in California
What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman,
for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees
with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.
In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images,
I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!
What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night!
Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!
--and you, García Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?
I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber,
poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.
I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the pork chops?
What price bananas? Are you my Angel?
I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans following you,
and followed in my imagination by the store detective.
We strode down the open corridors together in our solitary fancy tasting artichokes,
possessing every frozen delicacy, and never passing the cashier.
Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in a hour.
Which way does your beard point tonight?
(I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the supermarket and feel absurd.)
Will we walk all night through solitary streets?
The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we'll both be lonely.
Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in driveways,
home to our silent cottage?
Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher,
what America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry
and you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear
on the black waters of Lethe?
(Allen Ginsberg)
(Thanks to Ingo Schäfer)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Annabel Lee
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden lived, whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love, and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love,
I and my Annabel Lee,-
With a love that winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden lived, whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love, and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love,
I and my Annabel Lee,-
With a love that winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsmen came,
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre,
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me.
Yes! that was the reason (as all men know)
In this kingdom by the sea,
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we,
Of many far wiser than we;
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing my dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee,
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
And so, all the night-tide I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life, and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
(Edgar Allen Poe)
(Thanks to Andrea)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Panther
His gaze, going past those bars, has got so misted
with tiredness, it can take in nothing more.
He feels as though a thousand bars existed,
and no more world beyond them than before.
Those supply powerful paddings, turning there
in tiniest of circles, well might be
the dance of forces round a centre where
some mighty will stands paralyticly.
Just now and then the pupils' noiseless shutter
is lifted. - Then an image will indart,
down through the limbs' intensive stillness flutter,
and end its being in the heart.
(Rainer Maria Rilke; unbekannter Übersetzer)
(Thanks to HC)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ride On
True you ride the finest horse I have ever seen
Standing sixteen one or two with eyes wild and green
You ride the horse so well, hands light to the touch
I could never go with you no matter how I wanted to
Ride on see you
I could never go with you no matter how I wanted to.
When you ride into the night without a trace behind
Run your claw along my gut one last time
I turn to face an empty space where once you used to lie
And look for a spark that lights the night through a teardrop in my eye.
(Jimmy MacCarthy; as sung by Christy Moore; Cruachan)
(Thanks to Ingo Schäfer)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Should lanterns shine
Should lanterns shine, the holy face,
Caught in an octagon of unaccustomed light,
Would wither up, and any boy of love
Look twice before he fell from grace.
The features in their private dark
Are formed of flesh, but let the false day come
And from her lips the faded pigments fall,
The mummy cloths expose an ancient breast.
I have been told to reason by the heart,
But heart, like head, leads helplessly;
I have been told to reason by the pulse,
And, when it quickens, alter the actions' pace
Till field and roof lie level and the same
So fast I move defying time, the quiet gentleman
Whose beard wags in Egyptian wind.
1 have heard many years of telling,
And many years should see some change.
The ball I threw while playing in the park
Has not yet reached the ground.
(Dylan Thomas)
(Thanks to Ingo Schäfer)
Schienen Laternen
Schienen Laternen, das heilige Gesicht,
Gefangen in einem Achteck aus ungewohntem Licht,
Würde verschrumpfen, und jeder Junge der Liebe
Säh zweimal hin, eh er fiel aus dem Stand der Gnade.
Die Züge in ihrer heimlichen Dunkelheit
Sind geformt aus Fleisch, doch kommt erst der falsche Tag
Und fallen von ihren Lippen verblaßte Schminken,
Dann enthüllt das Mumiengewand eine alte Brust.
Mich lehrte man zu gehen nach dem Herzen,
Doch Herz, wie Kopf, führt unbeholfen an;
Mich lehrte man zu gehen nach dem Puls,
Und wenn er lebhafter wird, das Tempo der Handlung zu ändern
Bis Feld und Dach in einer Ebene liegen;
So überhol ich Schwager Zeit, den stillen Herren,
Sein Bart weht in Ägyptens Wind.
Ich habe viele Jahre des Lehrens gehört,
Und viele Jahre sollten einigen Wechsel sehen.
Der Ball, den ich beim Spielen warf im Park, hat
Noch nicht den Grund erreicht.
(Übersetzung: Erich Fried)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh great spirit - who dwells in the sky
lead us on the path of peath and understanding
let us all live together as brothers and sisters.
(Native american indian - Prayer of peace)
(Thanks to Matthias)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
My people - some of them are run away to hills,
and have no shelter !
No one knows where they are !
Hear me - my chiefs;
I am tired; my heart is sick and sad.
From where the sun stands -
I will fight no more - forever.
(Chief Josef - Comanchen)
(Thanks to Matthias)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The ode to time
Imagine there is a bank, which credits you account each morning with $ 86,400.
It carries over no balance from day to day,
allows you to keep no cash balance,
and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to to use during the day.
What would you do? Draw every penny of course!
Well everyone has such a bank.
Its name is time.
Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds.
Every night it writes you off, as lost,
whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.
It carries over no balance.
It allows no overdraft.
And each day it opens a new account for you.
Each night it burns the remains of the day.
If you fail to use the days deposits, the loss is yours.
There is no going back.
There is no drawing against "tomorrow".
You must live in the present on todays deposits.
Invest it so as to get the utmost in health, happiness und success!
The clock is running. Make the most of today.
To realise the value of a year - ask a student who has failed a grade.
To realise the value of a month - ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.
To realise the value of a week - ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realise the value of one day - ask a daily wage labourer who has kids to feed.
To realise the value of an hour - ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realise the value of a minute - ask the person who has missing the bus.
To realise the value of a second - ask the man who has avoided an accident.
To realise the value of a milisecond - ask the athlete who has won a silver medal in the Olympics.
Treasure every moment you have.
Treasure every moment shared with someone special.
Treasure the growing up and growing together.
Remember that time waits for no one.
Yesterday is history.
Today is a gift.
That is why it is called Present!
(Royal Navy Amateur Radio Societay London Group - HMS Belfast)
(Thanks to Matthias)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
remembering the time
when you used to stand there
beside me
with this smile on your face
was this my chance?
didn´t dare
didn´t take it
is it gone now?
can´t take it
(Lelena)
(Thanks to Sarah)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Indifference towards the rest of world
Some people do not know
some people should know
it is only their being
that makes you alive
feel happy
(Lelena)
(Thanks to Sarah)
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