http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/ Poem of the Month Copyright OnTheLam 2006 Solupress News - www.solupress.com http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article407.asp"The wind is tossing the lilacs, The new leaves laugh in the sun, And the petals fall on the orchard wall, But for me the spring is done. Beneath the apple blossoms I go a wintry way, For love that smiled in April Is false to me in May." [italic]Sara Teasdale, "May" [/italic]http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article406.asp[italic]OH, to be in England now that April ’s there And whoever wakes in England sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough In England—now! [italic] [bold]Home thoughts from Abroad [/bold]by Robert Browning (1812-1889) click link to read in full http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article404.asp[italic]Gone were but the Winter, Come were but the Spring, I would go to a covert Where the birds sing. Where in the whitethorn Singeth a thrush, And a robin sings In the holly-bush. Full of fresh scents Are the budding boughs Arching high over A cool green house: Full of sweet scents, And whispering air Which sayeth softly: “We spread no snare; [/italic] February's poem is by the English Romantic poet Christina Rossetti. Read it in full at the link. http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article401.asp[italic]A cloudy winter morning it was, As if dawn did not want to break, And out there in the fog, A hollow bell had struck. [/italic] Click to read in fullhttp://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article400.asp[italic]How like a winter hath my absence been from thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what darkness seen! What old December's bareness everywhere! [/italic] by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)[/italic] Click on link to read in full http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article399.asp[bold] The Morns are Meeker than they were[/bold] "The morns are meeker than they were, The nuts are getting brown; The berry's cheek is plumper, The rose is out of town. The maple wears a gayer scarf, The field a scarlet gown. Lest I should be old-fashioned, I'll put a trinket on." This month's poem is by one of The Naked Reader's favourite poets, the American lyric poet Emily Dickinson http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article122.asp[bold]Poem for October[/bold] "It was my thirtieth year to heaven Woke to my hearing from harbour and neighbour wood And the mussel pooled and the heron Priested shore The morning beckon........" http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article391.asp[bold][italic]Ode to Autumn by John Keats[/bold][/italic] [italic]"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; by John Keats (1795-1821)[/italic]http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article388.asp[italic]He'd Nothing but his Violin [italic] "He'd nothing but his violin, I'd nothing but my song, But we were wed when skies were blue And summer days were long;" by Mary Kyle Dallas (1837-1897) [/italic] Click on heading to read poem in full and find out more about its author http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article387.asp[italic]What is pink? A rose is pink By the fountain's brink. What is red? A poppy's red In its barley bed.[/italic] From [italic]Sing-Song[/italic], a book of nursery rhymes by Christina Rossetti published in 1893. Click on heading to read in full http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article385.asp[bold]June Thunder [/bold] by Louis MacNeice (1907-63) [italic] .......Then the curtains in my room blow suddenly inward, The shrubbery rustles, birds fly heavily homeward, The white flowers fade to nothing on the trees and rain comes Down like a dropscene. [/italic] Click on link to read poem in full http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article382.asp"Now the bright morning-star, day’s harbinger, Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her The flowery May, who from her green lap throws The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose....." http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article379.asp[bold]Home Thoughts from Abroad [/bold] Oh, to be in England Now that April’s there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough In England—now! http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article405.aspFor winter's rains and ruins are over, And all the season of snows and sins; The days dividing lover and lover, The light that loses, the night that wins; And time remembered is grief forgotten, And frosts are slain and flowers begotten, And in green underwood and cover Blossom by blossom the spring begins. http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article375.asp"The afternoon is bright, with spring in the air, a mild March afternoon, with the breath of April stirring, I am alone in the quiet patio looking for some old untried illusion - some shadow on the whiteness of the wall some memory asleep on the stone rim of the fountain, perhaps in the air the light swish of some trailing gown." [italic] Antonio Machado 1875-1939[/italic] Selected Poems, # 3, Translated by Alan S. Truebloodhttp://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article366.asp[bold]Can Death be Sleep[/bold] Can death be sleep, when life is but a dream, And scenes of bliss pass as a phantom by? The transient pleasures as a vision seem, And yet we think the greatest pain's to die. How strange it is that man on earth should roam, And lead a life of woe, but not forsake His rugged path; nor dare he view alone His future doom which is but to awake. [bold]by John Keats 1795-1821[/bold] [italic] February's Poem of the Month is dedicated to the fine young Australian actor Heath Ledger, tragically found dead last month in New York, at the age of 28[/italic]http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article356.asp[bold]Winter Lady[/bold] "Well I lived with a child of snow when I was a soldier, and I fought every man for her until the nights grew colder." [bold]by Leonard Cohen 1934-present [/bold] [italic]Our poem for January is a song by the Canadian poet, novelist and singer songwriter Leonard Cohen. Cohen will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008 for his status among the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters." [/italic] http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article352.asp[bold]Mistletoe[/bold] Sitting under the mistletoe (Pale-green, fairy mistletoe), One last candle burning low, All the sleepy dancers gone, Just one candle burning on, Shadows lurking everywhere: Some one came, and kissed me there. [italic]by Walter de La Mare 1873-1956[/italic]http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article343.asp"Well, if you're travelin' in the north country fair, Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline, Remember me to one who lives there. She once was a true love of mine." [italic]by Bob Dylan[/italic] [bold]Click on heading to read in full.[/bold]http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article331.asp[bold]September [/bold] We sit late, watching the dark slowly unfold: No clock counts this. When kisses are repeated and the arms hold There is no telling where time is. [italic]by Ted Hughes (1930-1998)[/italic] Ted Hughes was one of England's leading poets of the twentieth century. He was married to the American poet Sylvia Plath (1932-63), author of [italic]The Bell Jar[/italic] and widely regarded as the most talented poet of her generation. http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article316.asp[bold]August [/bold] [italic]by Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)[/italic] "When my eyes are weeds, And my lips are petals, spinning Down the wind that has beginning Where the crumpled beeches start In a fringe of salty reeds; When my arms are elder-bushes, And the rangy lilac pushes Upward, upward through my heart" [italic]Read poem in full at link for August poem of the month [/italic]http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article295.asp [bold]A Thunderstorm by Emily Dickinson (1830-86) [/bold] The wind began to rock the grass With threatening tunes and low, He flung a menace at the earth, A menace at the sky. The leaves unhooked themselves from trees And started all abroad; The dust did scoop itself like hands And throw away the road. (Double click on heading to read in full)http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article272.asp[bold]The Lake Isle of Innisfree [/bold] "I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade." [italic]William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)[/italic] Click on link to hear the poet reading this poem (you need Real Player for this)http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article238.asp"It is Spring. Vast mists cover the Five Lakes. My dear, let me buy a red painted boat And carry you away. " [italic]by Wu Tsao 19th Century Chinese Lesbian poet Translated by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung [/italic] Read in full at our link to Poem of the Month http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article224.asp"April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain." [italic]T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) [/italic] http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article210.asp"For winter's rains and ruins are over, And all the season of snows and sins; The days dividing lover and lover, The light that loses, the night that wins; And time remembered is grief forgotten, And frosts are slain and flowers begotten, And in green underwood and cover Blossom by blossom the spring begins." [italic]Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) [/italic] from "Atalanta in Calydon" (1865) http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article198.aspWild Nights-Wild Nights! Were I with thee Wild Nights should be Our luxury! Futile-the Winds- To a Heart in Port- Done with the Compass- Done with the Chart! Rowing in Eden- Ah, the Sea! Might I but moor-Tonight-- In Thee!" [italic]Emily Dickinson (1830-86) [/italic]http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article168.asp[bold]Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening[/bold] "Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year..........." [italic]by Robert Frost 1874-1963 [/italic] http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article143.asp[bold]In a drear-nighted December[/bold] "In a drear-nighted December, Too happy, happy tree, Thy branches ne’er remember Their green felicity: The north cannot undo them, With a sleety whistle through them; Nor frozen thawings glue them From budding at the prime........ " http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article126.asp[bold]Poem for November[/bold] "There is wind where the rose was, Cold rain where sweet grass was, And clouds like sheep Stream o'er the steep Grey skies where the lark was......."