The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Sat 12/22/2007)

[RetroLounge]

Apologia

My life is too dull and too careful -
even I can see that:
the orderly bedside table,
the spoilt cat.

Surely I should have been bolder.
What could biographers say?
She got up, ate toast and went shopping
day after day?

Whisky and gin are alarming,
Ecstasy makes you drop dead.
Toy boys make inroads on cash
and your half of the bed.

Emily Dickinson, help me.
Stevie, look up from your Aunt.
Some people can stand excitement,
some people can't.

Connie Bensley

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Connie Bensley was born in south-west London, and has always lived there, apart from wartime evacuation. Until her retirement she worked as a secretary to doctors and to an M.P. and as a medical copywriter. She has published four books with Bloodaxe: Central Reservations: New & Selected Poems which draws on two earlier collections, Progress Report and Moving In; and more recently, Choosing To Be a Swan (1994) and The Back & the Front of It (2000). Her latest collection is Private Pleasures (2007).

*************************************

:hi:

RL

[Guava Jelly]

1. I can identify

with everything but the orderly bedside table.
Great one thanks!

[RetroLounge]

6. Not to mention the orderly bed...

:hi:

RL

[Guava Jelly]

8. My bed is rarely ever fully made

It's nice though

It looks almost exactly like this one

[RetroLounge]

9. Dude. That is a cool bed...

:hi:

RL

[SPKrazy]

2. hmmm...

Nice message for the day

thanks

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

7. Most welcome

:hi:

RL

[MaggieSwanson]

3. Evening Song Of Senlin by Conrad Aiken

from Senlin: A Biography


It is moonlight. Alone in the silence
I ascend my stairs once more,
While waves, remote in a pale blue starlight,
Crash on a white sand shore.
It is moonlight. The garden is silent.
I stand in my room alone.
Across my wall, from the far-off moon,
A rain of fire is thrown . . .
There are houses hanging above the stars,
And stars hung under a sea:
And a wind from the long blue vault of time
Waves my curtain for me . . .
I wait in the dark once more,
Swung between space and space:
Before my mirror I lift my hands
And face my remembered face.
Is it I who stand in a question here,
Asking to know my name? . . .
It is I, yet I know not whither I go,
Nor why, nor whence I came.
It is I, who awoke at dawn
And arose and descended the stair,
Conceiving a god in the eye of the sun,—
In a woman's hands and hair.
It is I whose flesh is gray with the stones
I builded into a wall:
With a mournful melody in my brain
Of a tune I cannot recall . . .
There are roses to kiss: and mouths to kiss;
And the sharp-pained shadow of death.
I remember a rain-drop on my cheek,—
A wind like a fragrant breath . . .
And the star I laugh on tilts through heaven;
And the heavens are dark and steep . . .
I will forget these things once more
In the silence of sleep.

[RetroLounge]

10. thanks

:hi:

RL

[Tuesday Afternoon]

4. Who is Stevie and why should they look up from their Aunt?

Her picture looks vaguely familiar to me.

[RetroLounge]

13. I believe Stevie Smith

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevie_Smith

:hi:

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. My dear Retro!

Some people are really like that...

I cannot be!

This is an excellent glimpse into a timid soul...

I like to be neat and tidy...

But I will always be bold...

Thank you for this...:hug:

[lizziegrace]

11. Got the spoiled cat

orderly bedside table - not even close.

Courage. I wish for courage.

[RetroLounge]

12. ...

Toy boys make inroads on cash
and your half of the bed.


Just saying...

:D

RL

[lizziegrace]

14. Heh...

tried the boy-toy... crashed and burned.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.

:)

[xchrom]

15. toy boys are quite welcome in my half of the bed.

i can spend money on anything -- might as well spend it on a project that gets me laid.

vigorously -- laid.

[RetroLounge]

16. "vigorously -- laid."

The only way...

:hug:

RL

[BlueIris]

17. Kick.