3 Days Quote Challenge – Day Three – ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Goodnight.’

Thanks one final time to TravelBug, minzkhaitan.wordpress.com for nominating me for the 3 Day Quote Challenge! Check out their entertaining  blog if you haven’t already.

via 3 Days Quote Challenge:-Day

Rules:-

1) Thank the person who nominated you.

2) Post a quote for three consecutive days (1 quote for each day)

3) Share why this quote appeals so much to you.

4) Nominate 3 different bloggers for each day.

My third Quote comes from Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and the most famous Villanelle in the English Language. The refrain of the poem repeated alternately at the end of each verse and in the final stanza is:

“Do not go gently into that good night

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

The poem is set at the bedside of the poet’s dying father who the poet urges not to submit to death passively.

Imminently approaching retirement I take them as an anthem for the later part of my life. I’m older and, hopefully, wiser than I was but there is still so much I want to do and achieve. I have no intention of retiring to the sidelines and watching the world go by.

I want to write and do all the things full time employment didn’t give me time to do. I still run and, while I’m not as quick as I used to be, can still be competitive in my age group. I look forward to birthdays and being promoted to age categories where I can be more competitive still. The motto at our time of life is ‘use it or lose it’. If you don’t stay active muscles waste away and inactivity is all you are fit for.

I’ve travelled quite widely but there’s lots of places I still want to go. I’ve never been to the United States for instance – something I aim to put right later this year.

We have a huge allotment where we grow most of our own fruit and veg. I want to spend more time there enjoying the outdoors rather than be stuck I’m an office behind a PC. When I am at a computer I want to be discovering new things and creating things that please me and hopefully others.

When I’m ready to go I hope I’ll pass on with dignity and acceptance of my fate. I’ve had and aim to have had a good life so I will go gently into the good night but not yet, fate permitting not for a long time yet. While I have health and energy I will rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

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 :

I nominate:

https://nfaa.wordpress.com

https://secret-lifeof.com

https://hauntingangel.com

The rule of the Indian road

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The rule of the Indian road

Is not the same as our own

The bigger you are 

The more road you own

Is the rule of the Indian road.

 

No one holds back or ever gives way

Always go forward’s the rule of the day.

No matter how small the space

You’ll somehow or other get through.

 

You must use every inch of the road

Be you tuck tuck, or push bike or car.

No matter how small the space

There’s always a way to get through.

 

Forget all the rules at a junction

You all have to sort of nudge in.

There’s no holding back

Just find the right space

And somehow 

You’ll push yourself in.

 

Though their looming towards you

There’ll be a way through;

Breath in there should just be room.

 

The rule of the road is unruly

There’s no rhyme or reason at all.

And yet they’re not aggressive

You’ll seldom see anger or anxt.

 

You kind of get through

And others do too

There’s always just enough space.

 

Now you must sound your horn whenever you pass.

It’s considered the polite thing to do.

It’s never sounded in anger.

It just means nudge up let me through.

 

Now the rule of the road in India

Is we don’t need too many rules

But the main rule of all

That makes them all work

Is the rule that says

Thou shalt not kill.

Froth

pexels-photo-894696.jpeg

Sometimes a good cup of coffee

Is enhanced by the froth on its top.

If the coffee is strong

And the drink’s not too ‘long’

The flavour will come bursting through.

 

The froth can help hold the flavour

It lingers there on the tongue

But the coffee has to have substance

It’s no good if drunk on its own.

 

It can be the same with writing

A rhyme can push it along

You can jolly it up with rhythm

But if nothing is said

Your words will fall dead

They won’t stand the test of time.

 

Daily Prompt Froth – https://wp.me/p23sd-14NL

3 Day Quote Challenge – Day Two – “Two Cures For Love.”

6BDF702C-8DF9-41C5-B41E-14441D91CC39.jpegThanks to TravelBug, minzkhaitan.wordpress.com for nominating me for the 3 Day Quote Challenge! Check out this entertaining travel blog if you haven’t already.

via 3 Days Quote Challenge:-Day

MkRules:-

1) Thank the person who nominated you.

2) Post a quote for three consecutive days (1 quote for each day)

3) Share why this quote appeals so much to you.

4) Nominate 3 different bloggers for each day.

My second Quote comes from my favourite modern poet Wendy Cope.

Forget haiku’s, tankas and various Japanese forms and limericks I can do without. This is my favourite short poem. Not inspirational I’ll admit but witty and succinct.

I love Wendy Cope’s work, most of which is rather longer than this. It is technically brilliant, with its complicated rhyme schemes and compelling rhythms but light hearted and accessible. If you haven’t explored her work I’d recommend it.

 

“Two Cures For Love” by Wendy Cope

1. Don’t see him. Don’t phone or write a letter.
2. The easy way: get to know him better.

I hereby nominate:-

audrey driscoll.com

jeanleesworld.com

cashmereillusions.blog

The Poet’s Muse

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She’s a delicate flower the poet’s muse.

She can really inspire but will always refuse

To do menial tasks or help with chores.

She will take your hand, help you find new heights

And will gladly unveil her supreme delights.

But the humbler tasks she’ll blithely ignore.

For muses won’t work nine to five you know.

They’re not always ready or  ‘good to go’.

 

She may not deliver every day.

Too delicate in her temperament.

You can hector her but she won’t relent.

She can’t work like that. It’s not her way.

The poet’s muse is a sensitive flower.

If you treat her badly she’ll sulk and glower.

She’ll punish you, leave your head in hands

.

 

A poem a day’s not really her style.

She alas can’t inspire you all the while.

She loves to delight but not to plan.

So treat her kindly, don’t push her too hard

Respect how she’s made. The way that she’s wired.

Treat her gently, don’t let her get tired.

For a poet can’t work if he’s not inspired.

You were Luminescent

You were luminescent

I was incandescent

I glowed with the heat

Of my anger.

You shone with a cool, clear light.

I burned with the heat

Of my temper.

You glowed

With a gentle charm.

Your life was luminescent

I raged at your gentle calm.

via Luminescent

3 Days Quote Challenge – Day 1 – “A people sometimes will step back from war.”

Thanks to TravelBug, minzkhaitan.wordpress.com for nominating me for the 3 Day Quote Challenge! Check out this entertaining travel blog if you haven’t already.

via 3 Days Quote Challenge:-Day

Rules:-

1) Thank the person who nominated you.

2) Post a quote for three consecutive days (1 quote for each day)

3) Share why this quote appeals so much to you.

4)Nominate 3 different bloggers for each day.

My first Quote comes from a favourite poem of mine, ‘Sometimes’ by Sheenagh Pugh.

“A people sometimes will step back from war;
elect an honest man, decide they care
enough, that they can’t leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.”

It’s a reminder that there are good people in the world and sometimes good things can happen. Most importantly of all we sometimes live up to our own ideals and expectations and become the people we are meant to be.

I hereby nominate:-

thestoriesinbetween.com

Colouringthepast.com

Notesfromtheuk

 

Pantoum

Sometimes you have to plan ahead.

You plan what’s coming down the line.

You can’t just write what’s in your head.

You have to plan to make it rhyme.

 

You plan what’s coming down the line.

Choose words that rhyme as well as scan.

You have to plan to make it rhyme.

It will not work unless you can.

 

Choose words that rhyme as well as scan.

You must make sure you’ve thought it through.

It will not work unless you can

choose words that fit, have meaning too.

 

You must make sure you’ve thought it through.

So plan the end as you commence.

Choose words that fit, have meaning too;

You must make sure it all makes sense.

 

So plan the end as you commence.

You can’t just write what’s in your head

You must make sure it all makes sense.

Sometimes you have to plan ahead.

The pantoum is a form of poetry similar to a villanelle in that there are repeating lines throughout the poem. It is composed of a series of quatrains and the second and  fourth lines of each stanza are repeated as the first and third verse of the next. The pattern continues for any number of stanzas, except for the final stanza, which differs in the repeating pattern. The first and third lines of the last stanza are the second and fourth of the penultimate; the first line of the poem is the last line of the final stanza, and the third line of the first stanza is the second of the final. Ideally, the meaning of lines shifts when they are repeated although the words remain exactly the same: this can be done by shifting punctuation, punning, or simply recontextualizing.

Rush?

Rush? Rush?

Must I be quick?

Or is another meaning hid?

 

The basket mid the rushes hid

Is that where baby Moses is?

 

Or could the rushes hide a trap

That heedless prey may stumble on?

 

Or just be laid there on the floor

Soft bedding for a gentle nap?

 

The lesson is that fools rush in

First take a pause and then begin.

via Rush

The Daily Prompt

She loved him to bits – a triolet

She loved him to bits

He left her in pieces

She was out of her wits

She loved him to bits

But he was the pits

He had her in creases

She loved him to bits

He left her in pieces.

A triolet is a poem of eight lines with the rhyme scheme ABaAabAB The first, fourth and seventh lines are identical, as are the second and final lines, thereby making the initial and final couplets identical as well.