Tag: poetry

The Still Point of the Turning World…

T. S. EliotI discovered the poem “Burnt Norton” in a recent post from Brain Pickings, a blog I have really found engaging on multiple levels. So many thoughts and literary works it has brought to my attention that I have wanted to pursue. But there is so much to read, so little time, and I DO so love my Sci-Fi & Fantasy escapes.

Anyway, back to the point. Below is a bit of the poem “Burnt Norton” by T. S. Eliot which is all about Time and our perception of it, and a little about writing & poetry, and how the universe and our bit of time in it, does have an order (Logos), and that writing and poetry is our attempts to encapsulate a bit of that order, that bit of time, into our own mutable words. I need to study this poem much more, as there are parts that I don’t quite grasp but “feel”. Continue reading The Still Point of the Turning World…

Thunder in the Night Redux

Tears in the Rainpoem © Jeffrey Beaty
November 5 rewrite of a “first draft” written November 4, 2015
8 lines

Looking at the original version of this poem that I wrote and published yesterday, an idea occurred to me about its arrangement that I wish I had thought of earlier. So I edited it to this version which I like a LOT better. Read the Poem

The golden apples of the sun

WB Yeats 1908Stumbled across this old W. B. Yeats poem in the weirdest of places (a sci-fi show). The mention of this poem interested me enough that I looked the poem up and it meant a lot to me. Wish I could write like this.

Anyway, thought I would quote it here so I won’t forget it. Continue reading The golden apples of the sun

Poem: It was nice knowing you when

Once Upon a Midnight Dreary, While I Pondered Weak & Weary
Not sure why I decided to go with this image for this poem, other than this bit of Poe describes the time & mood I was in when writing this. Image background created by indigodeep

poem © Jeffrey Beaty
January 31, 2011 — 1:45am
20 lines

Like most of my poetry from the past, this is a little bit of wallowing in depression it seems. I don’t write much poetry anymore. I don’t know if that means I’m less depressed or less creative than I once was.

To any old friends who are reading this and might feel uncomfortable… Don’t. The poem is a bit of maudlin dribble, but it is also secretly enjoying past versions of ourselves, and is merely an experiment in writing.

Anyway, I kind of like this bit of reminiscing about old friends. In part I like the structure of choppy sentences, its reference to “in jokes” that no one else would get, and the way it turns at the end to wonder if others ever feel the same. Continue reading Poem: It was nice knowing you when

Ode To Joy

Friedrich Schiller, German poet & writer (1759-1805)
Friedrich Schiller, German poet & writer (1759-1805)

This poem, (despite its age and that it was written in a foreign language,) is one of my favorite bits of lyric writing. I wish I could “live” what it recommends (I can’t…) but I “feel” the truth in most of it. A small, somewhat altered part of it appears in the final “choral” movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. That symphony is also my favorite, and what got me interested in the poem.

When ever I hear that 4th movement or read this poem, it reminds me of my old, blind, now deceased dog, Buddy — who, despite everything, was the most joyful creature. At least he gave me joy…

Below is the entire text of the poem, in both the original German, and in an English translation. I have bolded the one verse that really jumps out at me whenever I read it (the one about Joy driving the wheels of “the Cosmos” (that’s how I read it, anyway 😉 ). Ironically that verse is not in Beethoven’s ninth (though a slightly altered part of the chorus of that verse does appear). I also really like the verse and chorus which precedes my favorite verse, (the one that starts “All creatures drink Joy”) Continue reading Ode To Joy