Stephen+Farrington

Murph.

**Write-Off Forum**
1. Unfair - In the absence of justice. 2. Heat - When you need a one word description for the increase in energy on particles. 3. Happiness - Blank is bliss. 4. A mother's love - Because a dad's love is unnerving. 5. "I love you" - Because "I like you" doesn't pull its weight.

**Introductory Quote from a Poet:**
"The logical faculty has infinitely more to do with Poetry than the Young and the inexperienced, whether writer or critic, ever dreams of. " -William Wordsworth

**Ode to Life**
Life is insane.

Maddening, in due time, you will see, through spectroscopy, that life is only worth living while you're living it.

Many of us are daunted and challenged by many of life's twists and turns; fear not; want not the end; for it will come to pass as a "Trip Down Memory Lane".

So, as per the norm, life's term is unfazed and off-kilter from (or of) the daily crash that, for some reason, we all seem to enjoy.

That we see today is not unseen from tomorrow, and yet we can see it anyway.

**New Sonnet:**
The compound of mystery found at last Has been solved, due diligence found fast

That which has been wronged has not yet been found But rather gone without remorse, gone round.

The facts stare back, gazing torturously blank Into that which we have decided rank

And we do not like what we have to fear.

Gone before, but to never, yet, again, That which cannot befriend the common men.

“It’s been too past, it’s been gone too soon, yet still fresh as food, still held as young, it begets

The question: Are we not what we once were? Have we changed? Have we lost our stripes for fur?

To insulate; to protect; calm the fear.

**Extra Lines FTHOI:**
That which is our goal is not protected Its purpose denied, it's been inspected.

To find the faults with that, to be a shield Against the fear, we must, in the end, yield.

We cannot fail, it’s not in our nature Until that fear has melted, the glacier

Will not pass, find yourself and calm that fear.

**Ghazal:** (This one works, unlike the other three before it.)
Today was tough, I need to unwind tonight drinking solves most stuff, there will be ale tonight.

I just got arrested, I need a way out Hopefully someone will post bail tonight.

Back to school, back from it all, trying to cram, to no avail, I think I'll fail, tonight.

Done with school, I've done all I can, Nothing but bills in the mail, tonight.

Got a job on a ship, it's nothing but trouble, I see more and more of myself in a pail, tonight.

Finished with that, I'm hitchhiking today; gone to sleep by rail tonight.

Passed out in a bar and woke up nude some hooker robbed me, I'm sorry I'm male tonight.

Begging for scraps, my life on the street, the bread that I find is all stale tonight.

I'm slowly dying, I can feel myself go, my color is fading, I'm becoming pale tonight.

My name is Steve and this is my tale tonight.

**Statement on my own poetry:**
Poetry to me is something that is a form that relatively free-form, and makes some forms of writing, such as boring, repetitive crap (like everyday classwork) more bearable and interesting. As for my own personal tastes, I absolutely hate emotional poetry that's written as a form of "release" that is actually considered to be "good" or "profound" or "insert complimentary comment word here", mainly because it's usually whiny, confusing or needless. Keep your emotional (especially those written by angsty, needy, modern day American teenagers) thoughts to yourself, and out of publication, or just out of my literature.

I write poetry because it's wordplay. I love wordplay. I don't write poetry to vent something that can't be handled with excessive amounts (duh!) of video games, soda, junk food and some junk TV.

**Three Poems**
W.H. Auden was a writer that wanted to be heard for the things that he heard from other things, namely human emotions and nature’s ways in the world. As I continue to read his poetry, it makes sense that his writings become more and more decentralized, focusing less on things that we can comprehend and understand and more on the things that we can’t or will never know about.

Case in point: “As I walked out one Evening” (By W.H. Auden) code As I walked out one evening, Walking down Bristol Street, The crowds upon the pavement Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river I heard a lover sing Under an arch of the railway: 'Love has no ending.

'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you Till China and Africa meet, And the river jumps over the mountain And the salmon sing in the street,

'I'll love you till the ocean Is folded and hung up to dry And the seven stars go squawking Like geese about the sky.

'The years shall run like rabbits, For in my arms I hold The Flower of the Ages, And the first love of the world.'

But all the clocks in the city Began to whirr and chime: 'O let not Time deceive you, You cannot conquer Time.

'In the burrows of the Nightmare Where Justice naked is, Time watches from the shadow And coughs when you would kiss.

'In headaches and in worry Vaguely life leaks away, And Time will have his fancy To-morrow or to-day.

'Into many a green valley Drifts the appalling snow; Time breaks the threaded dances And the diver's brilliant bow.

'O plunge your hands in water, Plunge them in up to the wrist; Stare, stare in the basin And wonder what you've missed.

'The glacier knocks in the cupboard, The desert sighs in the bed, And the crack in the tea-cup opens A lane to the land of the dead.

'Where the beggars raffle the banknotes And the Giant is enchanting to Jack, And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer, And Jill goes down on her back.

'O look, look in the mirror, O look in your distress: Life remains a blessing Although you cannot bless.

'O stand, stand at the window As the tears scald and start; You shall love your crooked neighbour With your crooked heart.'

It was late, late in the evening, The lovers they were gone; The clocks had ceased their chiming, And the deep river ran on.

code

The lines “'The years shall run like rabbits, For in my arms I hold, The Flower of the Ages, And the first love of the world” speaks of undying love, which apparently the human race has not perfected as an art form, so the rest of the poem is convoluted to say the least (“Life remains a blessing,, Although you cannot bless” is a little hidden on its true meaning). In addition, the end of the poem leaves the lover’s tale unfinished, and apparently, nature itself could care less.

Second Poem: Epitaph on a Tyrant (By W.H. Auden) code Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after, And the poetry he invented was easy to understand; He knew human folly like the back of his hand, And was greatly interested in armies and fleets; When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter, And when he cried the little children died in the streets. code

The lines “Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after, He knew human folly like the back of his hand,” hint that this person, who’s apparently ruling a country or group of people, was very knowledgeable when it came to people that he was supposed to take care of, but as “When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter, And when he cried the little children died in the streets” says, he apparently controls a lot more of the power in that country/area than just the laws and policies. Again, Auden refers to things (in this case, complete power) that are difficult to understand and hard to think about, but they are feasible scenarios, so they could happen.

Third Poem: The Fall of Rome (By W.H. Auden)

code The piers are pummelled by the waves; In a lonely field the rain Lashes an abandoned train; Outlaws fill the mountain caves.

Fantastic grow the evening gowns; Agents of the Fisc pursue Absconding tax-defaulters through The sewers of provincial towns.

Private rites of magic send The temple prostitutes to sleep; All the literati keep An imaginary friend.

Cerebrotonic Cato may Extol the Ancient Disciplines, But the muscle-bound Marines Mutiny for food and pay.

Caesar's double-bed is warm As an unimportant clerk Writes //I DO NOT LIKE MY WORK// On a pink official form.

Unendowed with wealth or pity, Little birds with scarlet legs, Sitting on their speckled eggs, Eye each flu-infected city.

Altogether elsewhere, vast Herds of reindeer move across Miles and miles of golden moss, Silently and very fast. code

The lines “Outlaws fill the mountain caves” is totally not the least bit ominous, which is the same as “But the muscle-bound Marines/Mutiny for food and pay.”. First of all, when outlaws are hiding out in caves, and the marines (normally the people trying to kill the outlaws) are mutinying, that’s usually bad. In this case, this poem vaguely describes the fall of Rome as an empire, and that follows the trend of Auden writing about nature’s way in the world, because Rome, even though it was an accomplished empire that thrived on military conquest, was toppled within eighty years of Caesar’s fall.

“Caesar's double-bed is warm As an unimportant clerk Writes I DO NOT LIKE MY WORK On a pink official form.

Hence, nature (or the nature of people) killed Rome from the inside out, as people who hated Rome’s ideals and management system (they perfected bureaucracy) swept in, toppled the government, while the government’s systems either failed, deserted or mutinied. In addition to showing how nature’s ways work (or at least clue us towards them), this poem shows things that people will have a hard time understanding for what it truly was, mainly because modern day society is so far detached from the scarily real events that occurred during the fall of Rome.