Esoteric Poetry Thread
I think it is no surprise to those who know me, hate me or not, that I love poetry. There has been poetry shared in other threads by some but rarely in it’s entirety. Understand, this is not a thread for mainline poetry. Um, example...
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.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
I could recite that when I was 10 and understood it’s meaning. Don’t you want to think a bit deeper? Example from a well known poet...
OUT-WORN heart, in a time out-worn,
Come clear of the nets of wrong and right;
Laugh, heart, again in the grey twilight,
Sigh, heart, again in the dew of the morn.
Your mother Eire is always young,
Dew ever shining and twilight grey;
Though hope fall from you and love decay,
Burning in fires of a slanderous tongue.
Come, heart, where hill is heaped upon hill:
For there the mystical brotherhood
Of sun and moon and hollow and wood
And river and stream work out their will;
And God stands winding His lonely horn,
And time and the world are ever in flight;
And love is less kind than the grey twilight,
And hope is less dear than the dew of the morn.
William Butler Yeats, Into the Twilight
Yeah, not rocket science there but do you get the point?
Better example...
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way
than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
Pablo Neruda, XVII(I do not love you)
Seems straight forward at first but it is not.
To me these are all old acquaintances, looking for something more even if it is original. Like...
things got terribly ugly incredibly quickly
things got ugly embarrassingly quickly
actually things got ugly unbelievably quickly
honestly things got ugly seemingly infrequently
initially things got ugly ironically usually
awfully carefully things got ugly unsuccessfully
occasionally things got ugly mostly painstakingly
quietly seemingly things got ugly beautifully . . .
Terrance Hayes, American Sonnet for the New Year
Anyway, don’t expect much but if anyone wants to share I would like to listen. Besides, I believe that the hearts of all D&D fans are hearts of poets.
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.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
I could recite that when I was 10 and understood it’s meaning. Don’t you want to think a bit deeper? Example from a well known poet...
OUT-WORN heart, in a time out-worn,
Come clear of the nets of wrong and right;
Laugh, heart, again in the grey twilight,
Sigh, heart, again in the dew of the morn.
Your mother Eire is always young,
Dew ever shining and twilight grey;
Though hope fall from you and love decay,
Burning in fires of a slanderous tongue.
Come, heart, where hill is heaped upon hill:
For there the mystical brotherhood
Of sun and moon and hollow and wood
And river and stream work out their will;
And God stands winding His lonely horn,
And time and the world are ever in flight;
And love is less kind than the grey twilight,
And hope is less dear than the dew of the morn.
William Butler Yeats, Into the Twilight
Yeah, not rocket science there but do you get the point?
Better example...
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way
than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
Pablo Neruda, XVII(I do not love you)
Seems straight forward at first but it is not.
To me these are all old acquaintances, looking for something more even if it is original. Like...
things got terribly ugly incredibly quickly
things got ugly embarrassingly quickly
actually things got ugly unbelievably quickly
honestly things got ugly seemingly infrequently
initially things got ugly ironically usually
awfully carefully things got ugly unsuccessfully
occasionally things got ugly mostly painstakingly
quietly seemingly things got ugly beautifully . . .
Terrance Hayes, American Sonnet for the New Year
Anyway, don’t expect much but if anyone wants to share I would like to listen. Besides, I believe that the hearts of all D&D fans are hearts of poets.
5
Comments
That being said, wow, good stuff! I will have to turn the lights off later, put my tablet down and just listen to it again. I will be looking for just the lyrics as well.
Thank you for sharing that.
Myself, I keep returning to Dylan Thomas, simply because he uses words so beautifully. "Under Milk Wood" is a classic in my eyes, but far too long to transcribe here. So instead I'll offer up another favourite:
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 that 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
It's a body dead in the car and it's prob'ly one of yours
The writing all across the window and the walls
Whether it was true or false, we shouldn't have got involved
Remember, we walked past the teacher, take the chalk and laugh
We wrote punishments: "I will not talk in class."
Now it's pistols punishin' people for talkin' fast
And all these innocent bystanders is haulin' ass
I hate to say I told y'all, but I told y'all
Things fall apart when the center too weak to hold y'all
I'm just collectin' what you owed to my old jawn
You 'bout to get swooped down on and stoled on
Fools swear they wise, wise men know they foolish
Well, we was headed for the web, even before computers
I never thought you'd give me a reason to do this
Cain and Abel, Jesus and Judas
Caesar and Brutus, I see intruders, avert your eyes
I told you keep out of the hood: circumcise
How could you sleep? I thought you always was the first to rise
Ayo, you heard the line, "Everybody plays the fool"?
Well, I'll be that exception to the rule
The principal that hand-deliver lessons to the school
I was makin' major moves, my dollar déjà vu
My mission when my ambition was brandishin' a tool
To be a icon, wearin' slippers made of python
Get mine quicker 'cause I'm slick as a pipeline
Transportin' the oil, tribulation and toil
Hit the operation, but I'm back in the soil
Got my crown tilted, my gown quilted, silk with cashmere
Burnin' Rome down in a minute, built it last year
Newsflash, I dodged the bullet that killed the cashier
My homie told me to come with him to the masjid
Them brothers said, "Don't go from written bars filled with rage
To primetime television and your gilded cage
Then forget there's people in the world still enslaved."
I barbwired my wrist and let it fill the page
Gun fire and flares, sirens glare
I'm in a iron chair where people who care don't get the lion's share
When I don't give a fuck then I ain't fair
I'm on a higher tier with people gettin' money like the financier
Catch the herald, I'm fresh chopped and beveled
Rap on a doctorate level, so F. Scott Fitzgerald
Maybe I'm the new Rakim, maybe I'm fat Pharaohe
Undergarments of armor be my intimate apparel
Pre-Kardashian Kanye, my rhymeplay immaculate
Same cadence as D.O.C. pre-accident
Maybe my acumen's on par with Kool G. Rap and them
Give me the proper respect, mothafucka, we back again
For a couple things we lost in a fire
The drive, the desire to perform on a higher
Plateau, I'm at that show lost in a mire
Wonderin' how we got so far from inspired
Look, when photos were sepia-toned
And record players were somethin' you would keep in your home
Yo, the traveler, the meaning of Tariq he was known
For the exemplary performance uniquely his own
I made the twenty-one pound for some a newfound religion
Where money's put down, it's only one sound that make
OGs and young lions equally proud to listen
The secret amalgamism, a algorithm
Comin' from where only kings and crowns permitted the darkness
Where archaeologists found my image in parchment
Rolled into a scroll, holdin' a message for you
It said, "The only thing for sure is taxes, death and trouble."
The anomaly sworn solemnly, high snobbidy
Freakonomics and war policy, dichotomy
That's Heaven and Hades, Tigris and Euphrates
His highness, the apple of the Iris to you ladies
As babies we went from Similac and Enfamil
To the Internet and Fentanyl
When all consent was still against the will
I got that detox for y'all
The microphone doctor, black Deepak Chopra
I'm a griot that make you wanna peacock your arm
Every heavy dignitary payin' me top regards
Boy, I'm three optics far from your binoculars
So that smart money finna get the heat out the car
Yo, I'm K.Dot Lamar meets 2Pac Shakur
Got profiled by a few cops, too hot to charge
Listen, somebody said a price tag was on a rapper's head
So we gon' see a nice bag when a rapper dead
The mask black, the flag green, black and red
They'll probably wave a white flag after plasma shed
No doubt, yo the game went they own route
I can't explain what these lame kids is talkin' 'bout
Or how they fit they whole foot into they own mouth
I put a couple bodies in a brown bag, then I'm en route
I'm sneaker shoppin' with my son, a size 8
Prior to they release 'cause why wait?
Look, in my estate I got electrified gates
For these blasé guys hatin' at a high rate
'Cause I dodged fate, then got great, the fly's straight
If we ain't family or friends then we don't vibrate
And I'm that gun in y'all face, none of y'all safe
If I catch you at the right time in the wrong place
Slippin', sippin' on somethin' with a strong taste
Like Whiskey or bootleg Bourbon with a corn base
My Levante resemble a vehicular threat
The mic I spray resemblin' the sickle of death
It ain't strenuous to come from a continuous breath
I set fire to the venue, I'ma spin you and step
Rinse, repeat, you checkin' for the sound of the beast
I'm the hound, I'ma creep, I get down, I'ma eat
I'ma keep somethin' to lay a naysayer to sleep
Playin' with heat, nobody and nothin' fuckin' with 'Riq
Yo, these weaklings is claimin' they cuttin' up in the street
Nigga peace, you ain't workin' with nothin' but the police
Listen, you ain't finna be nothin' but the deceased
Listen, you in interment with a permanent crease
I strike fear in the hearts of rap figures
Who mind bare the stigmas of time, no black privilege
From boom bap niggas to trap niggas
You in the trap with us, when the lines is as vivid
As the walls on the graph, autographed by the Lord of Wrath
I reside between the seconds on the chronograph
How much more CB4 can we afford?
It's like a Shariah Law on "My Cherie Amour"
How much hypocrisy can people possibly endure?
But ain't nobody workin' on a cure, my young bull
Y'all just regular, I'm an apex predator
Brim stay fresh, feathered up, etcetera
Nevertheless, I got a message and left
One dead messenger, yep
My pen is Henry Kissinger, Buzz Bissinger
Look, my caporegime is to no redeem
And my oldest son Ahmir Saleem out of New Orleans
Took a golf cart to the Baccarat from the Waldorf
What was on the wall? That depend on what you call art
I'ma say 300k ain't even in the ballpark
I charge more just for awkward small talk
So yes, who's fuckin' with it if it's not the best?
I get the lobby painted fresh upon my request
It's Kafka-esque, his holiness, stop the press
That Cobalt blue, reminiscent of Makkaresh
Lord, we got Padma Lakshmi for you
Let her massage your back with black seed oil
The foundation is firm, the flags need soil
Me? I need royalty because I bleed royal
Go through the veins to the brain, fabulous and strange
My journalistic range is a catalyst for change
It got anybody that listen pissin' flame
And 'cause the Hall of Fame got so many missin' names
I'll acknowledge the original People's not Oliver
Y'all go get the next challenger for Excalibur
I'm more policed for my core beliefs
They tried to capture me
And brand me on the cheek with a fleur-de-lis
The side of my heart'll be more discreet
I'm international, my passport page is like War and Peace
I've always played my part from the start
Back in Philly where the triggers is mandatory to spark
With a slightest inflammatory remark
I have you and the livin' a category apart
Listen, a grain of salt'll tip the scales, it never fails
Walk on egg shells, sleep on a bed of nails
Criminal records like record sales
Makin' heads or tails, we like Henrietta Lacks up in the cells
My mother was a working class, very lovin' woman
Who struggled, every dinner coulda been the last supper
I come home, chasin' good-for-nothin' half-cousins
And then walk in the crib to the smell of crack cookin'
She was introduced to that substance abuse
On some of the strongest drugs that the government produced
Look, I even got excused by the principal
My story is out of the dub dub interview
I've seen some ice-cold summers, hot winters too
I never thought I'd win Grammy Awards with The Roots
I never thought I would be gettin' long in the tooth
My OGs told me, "Boy you better go and live your truth!"
I am a walking affirmation, that imagination
And focus and patience gets you closer to your aspiration
And just 'cause they give you shit don't mean you have to take it
My words capture greatness, sworn affidavits
Yours truly, the celestial bein'
You stay seein' pullin' up in the fresh European
High-steppin' out of it dressed to a T and
Not another got more soul, 'less you Korean
I’ve been havin' visions of Nat Turner holdin' his master’s head
Like Yorick and Horatio in Hamlet
Smackin' it like a tennis racket, underhanded
Send a message through the Gram: ''The Eagle has landed.''
Dressed in a military jacket made of canvas
I am no guerilla, I just make 'em go bananas
Outstandin', red, black and green bandanas
Cocked hammers, hairs on my chin is outstanding
Can't manage the weight of war, they're just out ballin'
Look, I'll fall up from the sky to see my callin'
I'm not crawlin', I'm a free man like Morgan
Seein' manhood in the hood is a damn good bargain
If a black man don't tap dance
And every girl that got a fat booty don't lapdance
Well, I guess it's somethin' wrong, huh?
Niggas completely uninformed
I don't burn bridges, yo I keep the haters' runnin' for em'
I ain't one of y'all peers, I'm the sum of all fears
Somebody stronger than me? Who that? I'm all ears
Like Obama, I wish he had another four years
Y'all some jolly good Hollywood Squares
I'm like, ahem, approach the altar with your offering
I spoil rappers rotten like my only offspring
Being his excellency gets to be exhausting
You in the residency of the one they call King
Dada, Ali Baba, the talented Mr. Trotter
Inside of my right palm, the mark of the stigmata
Big Poppa, wig chopper, emperor Jaffe Joffer, muhfucka
I'm stronger than the coffee out in Kaffa
All y'all niggas vagina-hot, remind me of Icona Pop
I step in the booth, I'm a bull inside a China shop
Mollywhoppin', watch another cotton pickin' body drop
Every time we rock, yo they actin' like it's Mardi Gras
'Til the party stop, skirt off like she that Ferrari drop
Soul Cycle pumpin' that Earth, Wind & Fire ba-di-ah
Coolin' 'pon the dock, à la marina, hard body yacht
You seen another rapper cleaner, mami? Prob'ly not
How it feel to be the best that did it, I admit it
I'm visitin' from planet Bring-These-Niggas-Death-In-Minutes
And y'all know I'm exquisite, wicked as Wilson Pickett
The sickness I exhibit, I'm too legit to quit it
I don't fake it 'til I make it, I take it to the limit and break it
Never timid, what I'm 'bout, I represent it
Infinite just like Chace is, been a million places
Conversation is how beautiful my face is
People hated on how sophisticated my taste is
Then I pulled up on these mothafuckas in a spaceship
Pantomime, I'm made of elements you can't combine
I'm at a level of intelligence you can't define
Einstein, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Tesla
Recording artist slash psychology professor
I preach for the East, never fold under pressure
The beast from the East and I glide like Clyde Drexler
Ayo, my new name is eighty five X's
'Cause I'm the rap game certified specialist
When I was reckless I was worried 'bout the guest list
I'm helpin' rappers everywhere fulfill a death wish
Yo, Flex, I'm glad we made contact
My nigga, also know this shit for Combat
Brain matter contain too much data
I tell a story like fingerprints and blood splatter
I honestly feel like this is on another level. It's also worth mentioning that he recorded this live, on air, in one take. He didn't make a single mistake, did not even forget one word. That's surreal. In regards to the lyrics, there are several layers of meaning here, he uses several wordplays, metaphors, references. In this link some of those layers of meaning have been documented. For example, when he says:
Here is the explanation as to why he says "guerilla" instead of "gorilla", and what the red, black and green means in this context:
For Angela
The Windigo is a flesh-eating, wintry demon with a man buried deep inside of it. In some Chippewa stories, a young girl vanquishes this monster by forcing boiling lard down its throat, thereby releasing the human at the core of ice.
You knew I was coming for you, little one,
when the kettle jumped into the fire.
Towels flapped on the hooks,
and the dog crept off, groaning,
to the deepest part of the woods.
In the hackles of dry brush a thin laughter started up.
Mother scolded the food warm and smooth in the pot
and called you to eat.
But I spoke in the cold trees:
New one, I have come for you, child hide and lie still.
The sumac pushed sour red cones through the air.
Copper burned in the raw wood.
You saw me drag toward you.
Oh touch me, I murmured, and licked the soles of your feet.
You dug your hands into my pale, melting fur.
I stole you off, a huge thing in my bristling armor.
Steam rolled from my wintry arms, each leaf shivered
from the bushes we passed
until they stood, naked, spread like the cleaned spines of fish.
Then your warm hands hummed over and shoveled themselves full
of the ice and the snow. I would darken and spill
all night running, until at last morning broke the cold earth
and I carried you home,
a river shaking in the sun.
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,—
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me—
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Ulysses, Alfred Tennyson
one thing.
You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.
Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.
If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.
If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.
But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.
If You Forget Me, Pablo Naruda
It hurts so much. I know that I have used Pablo before. Ever wake up every day without someone that you can not live without? Read to the end and you will come close to understanding. Lose someone you cannot live without and you will understand.