tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54311732024-03-14T11:32:44.735-07:00My Little Patch of Sunshinemylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.comBlogger1767125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-65261415821510408602014-06-25T22:34:00.001-07:002014-06-25T22:34:26.788-07:00Thoroughly Enjoyed Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Tonight inPhoenix<div>
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When our first was born, one of the things Bo talked about was taking him to the circus. We have been so fortunate the last few years to see the <a href="http://www.ringling.com/" target="_blank">Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey </a>circus when it comes through Phoenix every summer. We attended opening night tonight for their Legends show tonight, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! The show was exciting and the performers flawless! Nate absolutely loves the motorcycles that drive around in the metal globe, so he was excited to see that they were in the show again this year. He also spent a lot of time chuckling at the clowns. They sure do a great job of keeping your attention and amusement while crews set up other areas of the stage!</div>
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You still have time to get tickets! The show will be in Phoenix through Sunday, and you can check out<a href="http://www.mylittlepatchofsunshine.com/2014/05/the-circus-is-coming-to-phoenix.html" target="_blank"> this post for details on times and how to buy tickets</a>.<br />
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Lydia especially enjoyed the circus tonight, and tried to video a good chunk of it on her little camera phone so she could share with Grandma tomorrow. Here's what she had to say:<br />
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<i>*Disclosure: I am a Feld Family Ambassador, and in exchange for my time and efforts in attending shows and reporting my opinion within this blog, as well as keeping you advised of the latest discount offers, Feld Entertainment has provided me with complimentary tickets to Feld shows and opportunities to attend private Feld pre-Show events. Even though I receive these benefits, I always give an opinion that is 100% mine.*</i></div>
mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-60049553607367030822014-05-15T20:42:00.000-07:002014-06-25T22:11:41.331-07:00The Circus is Coming to Phoenix!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you've been around here for a while, you know how much my family enjoys the circus! We are very excited to see the latest <a href="http://www.ringling.com/" target="_blank">Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey</a> show, Legends, when it comes to Phoenix from June 25 - 30, 2014.<br />
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We will be there opening night, cheering on the clowns and amazing aerial acts. If you want to go, I can offer you a $5 discount on tickets. Just use the code MOMSAVE at <a href="http://www.ticketmaster.com/">www.ticketmaster.com</a> to save $5 per ticket. (Valid for all shows. Only one discount can be applied. Not valid on Ringmaster or VIP seats.)<br />
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One of the things my kids especially love is the All Access Show that you can attend before the actual show begins. Performers and animals fill the arena, and are accessible to everyone. My kids always love getting a picture with a clown when we go.<br />
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If you want to go, the show will be at US Airways Center from June 25 - 30, 2014. Tickets can be purchased through <a href="http://www.ticketmaster.com/">www.ticketmaster.com</a>. Here are the specifics:<br />
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<b>WHEN</b>:<br />
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Wednesday, June 25 – Monday, June 30<br />
Wednesday, June 25 7:00 PM<br />
Thursday, June 26 11:00 AM & 7:00 PM<br />
Friday, June 27 11:00 AM & 7:00 PM<br />
Saturday, June 28 11:00 AM, 3:00 PM & 7:00 PM<br />
Sunday, June 29 12:00 PM & 4:00 PM<br />
Monday, June 30 11:00 AM<br />
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<b>WHERE</b>: US Airways Center – 201 E. Jefferson Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004<br />
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<b>TICKETS</b>: Ticket prices range from $20, $25, $45 (VIP) and $105 (Ringmaster Zone)<br />
Opening Night tickets are just $15! (select seating only; not valid on VIP/premium levels) <br />
All seats are reserved; tickets available thru Ticketmaster.com, charge by phone at 800-745-3000 or visit the US Airways Center Box Office. <br />
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<i>*Disclosure: I am a Feld Family Ambassador, and in exchange for my time and efforts in attending shows and reporting my opinion within this blog, as well as keeping you advised of the latest discount offers, Feld Entertainment has provided me with complimentary tickets to Feld shows and opportunities to attend private Feld pre-Show events. Even though I receive these benefits, I always give an opinion that is 100% mine.*</i></div>
mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-74334486888372529212014-05-15T16:23:00.001-07:002014-05-15T16:23:22.067-07:002014 National Stuttering Awareness WeekWho knew when I had Nate, that his birthday would fall during National Stuttering Awareness Week and he would stutter? Nobody! But, it does! This week is National Stuttering Awareness Week and today is Nate's 12th birthday.<br />
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Nate is extremely kind, compassionate, intelligent and giving. He loves his family and will do just about anything for his siblings. He has a strong love of soccer, and plays his hardest on his club soccer team. He loves to serve on the altar at Mass, and his favorite role is carrying the crucifix during Mass. He's also musical, and excited that we are looking for a string bass for him to call his own this summer.<br />
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He is my selfie partner, the child who will always care for me when I'm not feeling well, and is the most empathetic of my three children. He will go out of his way to make sure others feel included. He is a thinker, and is always considering how others feel, as well as how things work.<br />
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Today, we made a video about stuttering in honor of National Stuttering Awareness Week. Here it is!<br />
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mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-51655902933501720882014-04-20T10:46:00.000-07:002014-04-20T10:46:00.137-07:00Habit is the hand that shapes the heart by Dmitri Shostakovich<table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="10" class="ez_wrap_table " data-ez-gwidth="148" data-ez-no-defined-width="true" data-role="table" ezoic="combined" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: initial; border-spacing: initial; color: black; font-family: 'DejaVu Serif'; font-size: 16px; max-width: 730px; word-break: normal;"><tbody style="max-width: 730px;">
<tr style="max-width: 730px; vertical-align: top;"><td style="-webkit-padding-start: 10px; background-color: transparent; background-origin: padding-box; border-spacing: 10px; bottom: auto; box-sizing: content-box; clear: none; left: auto; max-width: 730px; right: auto; top: auto; vertical-align: top; visibility: visible;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: medium; max-width: 730px;">H</span><span style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">abit is the hand that shapes the heart.</span><big style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">A</big><span style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;"> soul becomes the soldier of its faith.</span><big style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">P</big><span style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">eace prevails through courage and by art.</span><big style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">P</big><span style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">ride is vanity, the preacher saith.</span><big style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">Y</big><span style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">et love is sky to mountains and to seas.</span><big style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">E</big><span style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">vil and good lie blissful in its arms.</span><big style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">A</big><span style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">ll may find that joy with equal ease,</span><big style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">S</big><span style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">unlight radiant above life's storms.</span><big style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">T</big><span style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">he character is written on the face</span><big style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">E</big><span style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">ven as the soul receives its grace,</span><big style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">R</big><span style="background-color: transparent; max-width: 730px;">estored to innocence and on its knees.</span></td></tr>
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mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-82559375282457583262014-04-20T10:41:00.000-07:002014-04-20T10:41:00.190-07:00Turn off the TV! by Bruce Lansky<div class="tab-content active" id="poem-top" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">
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Turn Off the TV!</h1>
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<span class="author" style="background-color: white; color: #4d493f; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0.05em; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/bruce-lansky" style="color: #043d6e; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">BRUCE LANSKY</a></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"></span><br />
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My father gets quite mad at me;</div>
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my mother gets upset—</div>
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when they catch me watching</div>
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our new television set.</div>
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My father yells, “Turn that thing off!”</div>
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Mom says, “It’s time to study.”</div>
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I’d rather watch my favorite TV show</div>
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with my best buddy.</div>
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I sneak down after homework</div>
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and turn the set on low.</div>
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But when she sees me watching it,</div>
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my mother yells out, “No!”</div>
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Dad says, “If you don’t turn it off,</div>
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I’ll hang it from a tree!”</div>
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I rather doubt he’ll do it,</div>
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’cause he watches more than me.</div>
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He watches sports all weekend,</div>
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and weekday evenings too,</div>
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while munching chips and pretzels—</div>
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the room looks like a zoo.</div>
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So if he ever got the nerve</div>
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to hang it from a tree,</div>
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he’d spend a lot of time up there—</div>
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watching it with me.</div>
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mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-3851973865450180782014-04-19T10:44:00.000-07:002014-04-19T10:44:00.099-07:00Zucchini Shofar by Sarah Lindsay<div class="tab-content active" id="poem-top" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">
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Zucchini Shofar</h1>
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<span class="author" style="background-color: white; color: #4d493f; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0.05em; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/sarah-lindsay" style="color: #043d6e; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">SARAH LINDSAY</a></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"></span><br />
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No animals were harmed in the making of this joyful noise:</div>
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A thick, twisted stem from the garden</div>
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is the wedding couple's ceremonial ram's horn.</div>
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Its substance will not survive one thousand years,</div>
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nor will the garden, which is today their temple,</div>
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nor will their names, nor their union now announced</div>
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with ritual blasts upon the zucchini shofar.</div>
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Shall we measure blessings by their duration?</div>
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Through the narrow organic channel fuzzily come</div>
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the prescribed sustained notes, short notes, rests.</div>
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All that rhythm requires. Among their talents,</div>
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the newlyweds excel at making</div>
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and serving mustard-green soup and molasses cookies,</div>
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and taking nieces and nephews for walks in the woods.</div>
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The gardener dyes eggs with onion skins,</div>
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wraps presents, tells stories, finds the best seashells;</div>
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his friends adore his paper-cuttings—</div>
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"Nothing I do will last," he says.</div>
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What is this future approval we think we need;</div>
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who made passing time our judge?</div>
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Do we want butter that endures for ages,</div>
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or butter that melts into homemade cornbread now?</div>
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—the note that rings in my deaf ear without ceasing,</div>
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or two voices abashed by the vows they undertake?</div>
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This moment's chord of earthly commotion</div>
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will never be struck exactly so again—</div>
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though love does love to repeat its favorite lines.</div>
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So let the shofar splutter its slow notes and quick notes,</div>
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let the nieces and nephews practice their flutes and trombones,</div>
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let living room pianos invite unwashed hands,</div>
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let glasses of different fullness be tapped for their different notes,</div>
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let everyone learn how to whistle,</div>
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let the girl dawdling home from her trumpet lesson</div>
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pause at the half-built house on the corner,</div>
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where the newly installed maze of plumbing comes down</div>
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to one little pipe whose open end she can reach,</div>
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so she takes a deep breath</div>
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and makes the whole house sound.</div>
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mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-43785611018643627022014-04-18T10:27:00.000-07:002014-04-18T10:27:00.375-07:00The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert BrowningMy father inspired my appreciation for Robert Browning (and a variety of other poets!) Here's a classic that many know the story of, but few remember it started as a poem, or that Robert Browning wrote it!<br />
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The Pied Piper of Hamelin</h1>
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<span class="author" style="background-color: white; color: #4d493f; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0.05em; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/robert-browning" style="color: #043d6e; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">ROBERT BROWNING</a></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"></span><br />
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Hamelin Town's in Brunswick,</div>
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By famous Hanover city;</div>
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The river Weser, deep and wide,</div>
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Washes its wall on the southern side;</div>
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A pleasanter spot you never spied;</div>
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But, when begins my ditty,</div>
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Almost five hundred years ago,</div>
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To see the townsfolk suffer so</div>
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From vermin, was a pity.</div>
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Rats!</div>
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They fought the dogs, and killed the cats,</div>
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And bit the babies in the cradles,</div>
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And eat the cheeses out of the vats,</div>
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And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles,</div>
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Split open the kegs of salted sprats,</div>
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Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,</div>
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And even spoiled the women's chats</div>
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By drowning their speaking</div>
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With shrieking and squeaking</div>
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In fifty different sharps and flats.</div>
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At last the people in a body</div>
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To the Town Hall came flocking:</div>
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'Tis clear, cried they, our Mayor's a noddy;</div>
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And as for our Corporation — shocking</div>
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To think we buy gowns lined with ermine</div>
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For dolts that can't or won't determine</div>
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What's like to rid us of our vermin!</div>
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Rouse up, Sirs! Give your brains a racking</div>
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To find the remedy we're lacking,</div>
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Or, sure as fate, we'll send you packing!</div>
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At this the Mayor and Corporation</div>
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Quaked with a mighty consternation.</div>
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An hour they sate in council,</div>
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At length the Mayor broke silence:</div>
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For a guilder I'd my ermine gown sell;</div>
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I wish I were a mile hence!</div>
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It's easy to bid one rack one's brain —</div>
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I'm sure my poor head aches again</div>
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I've scratched it so, and all in vain.</div>
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Oh for a trap, a trap, a trap!</div>
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Just as he said this, what should hap</div>
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At the chamber door but a gentle tap?</div>
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Bless us, cried the Mayor, what's that?</div>
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(With the Corporation as he sate,</div>
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Looking little though wondrous fat);</div>
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Only a scraping of shoes on the mat?</div>
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Anything like the sound of a rat</div>
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Makes my heart go pit-a-pat!</div>
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Come in! — the Mayor cried, looking bigger:</div>
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And in did come the strangest figure!</div>
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His queer long coat from heel to head</div>
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Was half of yellow and half of red;</div>
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And he himself was tall and thin,</div>
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With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin,</div>
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And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin,</div>
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No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin,</div>
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But lips where smiles went out and in —</div>
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There was no guessing his kith and kin!</div>
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And nobody could enough admire</div>
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The tall man and his quaint attire:</div>
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Quoth one: It's as my great-grandsire,</div>
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Starting up at the Trump of Doom's tone,</div>
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Had walked this way from his painted tombstone!</div>
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He advanced to the council-table:</div>
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And, Please your honours, said he, I'm able,</div>
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By means of a secret charm, to draw</div>
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All creatures living beneath the sun,</div>
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That creep, or swim, or fly, or run,</div>
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After me so as you never saw!</div>
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And I chiefly use my charm</div>
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On creatures that do people harm,</div>
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The mole, and toad, and newt, and viper;</div>
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And people call me the Pied Piper.</div>
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(And here they noticed round his neck</div>
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A scarf of red and yellow stripe,</div>
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To match with his coat of the self-same cheque;</div>
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And at the scarf's end hung a pipe;</div>
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And his fingers, they noticed, were ever straying</div>
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As if impatient to be playing</div>
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Upon this pipe, as low it dangled</div>
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Over his vesture so old-fangled.)</div>
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Yet, said he, poor piper as I am,</div>
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In Tartary I freed the Cham,</div>
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Last June, from his huge swarms of gnats;</div>
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I eased in Asia the Nizam</div>
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Of a monstrous brood of vampyre-bats:</div>
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And, as for what your brain bewilders,</div>
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If I can rid your town of rats</div>
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Will you give me a thousand guilders?</div>
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One? fifty thousand! — was the exclamation</div>
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Of the astonished Mayor and Corporation.</div>
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Into the street the Piper stept,</div>
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Smiling first a little smile,</div>
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As if he knew what magic slept</div>
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In his quiet pipe the while;</div>
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Then, like a musical adept,</div>
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To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled,</div>
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And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled,</div>
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Like a candle-flame where salt is sprinkled;</div>
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And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered,</div>
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You heard as if an army muttered;</div>
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And the muttering grew to a grumbling;</div>
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And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;</div>
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And out of the houses the rats came tumbling.</div>
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Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,</div>
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Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats,</div>
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Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,</div>
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Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,</div>
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Cocking tails and pricking whiskers,</div>
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Families by tens and dozens,</div>
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Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives —</div>
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Followed the Piper for their lives.</div>
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From street to street he piped advancing,</div>
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And step for step they followed dancing,</div>
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Until they came to the river Weser</div>
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Wherein all plunged and perished</div>
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— Save one who, stout as Julius Caesar,</div>
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Swam across and lived to carry</div>
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(As he the manuscript he cherished)</div>
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To Rat-land home his commentary,</div>
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Which was, At the first shrill notes of the pipe,</div>
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I heard a sound as of scraping tripe,</div>
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And putting apples, wondrous ripe,</div>
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Into a cider-press's gripe:</div>
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And a moving away of pickle-tub-boards,</div>
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And a leaving ajar of conserve-cupboards,</div>
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And a drawing the corks of train-oil-flasks,</div>
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And a breaking the hoops of butter-casks;</div>
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And it seemed as if a voice</div>
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(Sweeter than by harp or by psaltery</div>
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Is breathed) called out, Oh rats, rejoice!</div>
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The world is grown to one vast drysaltery!</div>
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'So munch on, crunch on, take your nuncheon,</div>
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'Breakfast, supper, dinner, luncheon!</div>
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And just as one bulky sugar-puncheon,</div>
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Ready staved, like a great sun shone</div>
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Glorious scarce an inch before me,</div>
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Just as methought it said, Come, bore me!</div>
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— I found the Weser rolling o'er me.</div>
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You should have heard the Hamelin people</div>
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Ringing the bells till they rocked the steeple;</div>
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Go, cried the Mayor, and get long poles!</div>
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Poke out the nests and block up the holes!</div>
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Consult with carpenters and builders,</div>
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And leave in our town not even a trace</div>
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Of the rats! — when suddenly up the face</div>
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Of the Piper perked in the market-place,</div>
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With a, First, if you please, my thousand guilders!</div>
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A thousand guilders! The Mayor looked blue;</div>
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So did the Corporation too.</div>
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For council dinners made rare havock</div>
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With Claret, Moselle, Vin-de-Grave, Hock;</div>
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And half the money would replenish</div>
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Their cellar's biggest butt with Rhenish.</div>
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To pay this sum to a wandering fellow</div>
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With a gipsy coat of red and yellow!</div>
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Beside, quoth the Mayor with a knowing wink,</div>
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Our business was done at the river's brink;</div>
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We saw with our eyes the vermin sink,</div>
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And what's dead can't come to life, I think.</div>
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So, friend, we're not the folks to shrink</div>
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From the duty of giving you something for drink,</div>
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And a matter of money to put in your poke;</div>
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But, as for the guilders, what we spoke</div>
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Of them, as you very well know, was in joke.</div>
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Beside, our losses have made us thrifty;</div>
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A thousand guilders! Come, take fifty!</div>
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The Piper's face fell, and he cried,</div>
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No trifling! I can't wait, beside!</div>
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I've promised to visit by dinner time</div>
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Bagdat, and accept the prime</div>
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Of the Head Cook's pottage, all he's rich in,</div>
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For having left, in the Caliph's kitchen,</div>
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Of a nest of scorpions no survivor —</div>
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With him I proved no bargain-driver,</div>
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With you, don't think I'll bate a stiver!</div>
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And folks who put me in a passion</div>
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May find me pipe after another fashion.</div>
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How? cried the Mayor, d'ye think I'll brook</div>
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Being worse treated than a Cook?</div>
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Insulted by a lazy ribald</div>
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With idle pipe and vesture piebald?</div>
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You threaten us, fellow? Do your worst,</div>
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Blow your pipe there till you burst!</div>
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Once more he stept into the street;</div>
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And to his lips again</div>
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Laid his long pipe of smooth straight cane;</div>
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And ere he blew three notes (such sweet</div>
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Soft notes as yet musician's cunning</div>
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Never gave th'enraptured air)</div>
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There was a rustling, that seem'd like a bustling</div>
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Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling,</div>
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Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering,</div>
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Little hands clapping, and little tongues chattering,</div>
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And, like fowls in a farm-yard when barley is scattering,</div>
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Out came the children running.</div>
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All the little boys and girls,</div>
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With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,</div>
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And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls,</div>
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Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after</div>
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The wonderful music with shouting and laughter.</div>
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The Mayor was dumb, and the Council stood</div>
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As if they were changed into blocks of wood,</div>
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Unable to move a step, or cry</div>
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To the children merrily skipping by —</div>
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Could only follow with the eye</div>
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That joyous crowd at the Piper's back.</div>
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But how the Mayor was on the rack,</div>
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And the wretched Council's bosoms beat,</div>
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As the Piper turned from the High Street</div>
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To where the Weser rolled its waters</div>
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Right in the way of their sons and daughters!</div>
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However he turned from South to West,</div>
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And to Coppelburg Hill his steps addressed,</div>
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And after him the children pressed;</div>
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Great was the joy in every breast.</div>
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He never can cross that mighty top!</div>
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He's forced to let the piping drop,</div>
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And we shall see our children stop!</div>
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When, lo, as they reached the mountain's side,</div>
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A wondrous portal opened wide,</div>
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As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed;</div>
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And the Piper advanced and the children follow'd,</div>
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And when all were in to the very last,</div>
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The door in the mountain side shut fast.</div>
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Did I say, all? No! One was lame,</div>
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And could not dance the whole of the way;</div>
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And in after years, if you would blame</div>
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His sadness, he was used to say, —</div>
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It's dull in our town since my playmates left!</div>
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I can't forget that I'm bereft</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Of all the pleasant sights they see,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Which the Piper also promised me;</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
For he led us, he said, to a joyous land,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Joining the town and just at hand,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Where waters gushed and fruit-trees grew,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And flowers put forth a fairer hue,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And every thing was strange and new;</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And their dogs outran our fallow deer,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And honey-bees had lost their stings,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And horses were born with eagles' wings:</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And just as I felt assured</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
My lame foot would be speedily cured,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
The music stopped and I stood still,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And found myself outside the Hill,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Left alone against my will,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
To go now limping as before,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And never hear of that country more!</div>
<br /><div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Alas, alas for Hamelin!</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
There came into many a burgher's pate</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
A text which says, that Heaven's Gate</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Opes to the Rich at as easy a rate</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
As the needle's eye takes a camel in!</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
The Mayor sent East, West, North, and South,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
To offer the Piper, by word of mouth,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Wherever it was men's lot to find him,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Silver and gold to his heart's content,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
If he'd only return the way he went,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And bring the children behind him.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
But when they saw 'twas a lost endeavour,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And Piper and dancers were gone for ever,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
They made a decree that lawyers never</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Should think their records dated duly</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
If, after the day of the month and year,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
These words did not as well appear,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
"And so long after what happened here</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
"On the Twenty-second of July,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
"Thirteen hundred and Seventy-six:"</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And the better in memory to fix</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
The place of the Children's last retreat,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
They called it, The Pied Piper's Street —</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Where any one playing on pipe or tabor</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Was sure for the future to lose his labour.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Nor suffered they Hostelry or Tavern</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
To shock with mirth a street so solemn;</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
But opposite the place of the cavern</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
They wrote the story on a column,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And on the Great Church Window painted</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
The same, to make the world acquainted</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
How their children were stolen away;</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And there it stands to this very day.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And I must not omit to say</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
That in Transylvania there's a tribe</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Of alien people who ascribe</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
The outlandish ways and dress</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
On which their neighbours lay such stress</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
To their fathers and mothers having risen</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Out of some subterraneous prison</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Into which they were trepanned</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Long time ago in a mighty band</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
But how or why, they don't understand.</div>
<br /><div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
So, Willy, let you and me be wipers</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Of scores out with all men — especially pipers:</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And, whether they pipe us from rats or from mice,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise.</div>
</div>
</div>
mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-60383499569942210202014-04-17T06:30:00.000-07:002014-04-17T06:30:00.543-07:00Wind on the Hill by A. A. Milne<div class="tab-content active" id="poem-top" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">
<h1 style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 24px; font-weight: normal; margin: 10px 0px 3px; padding: 0px;">
Wind on the Hill</h1>
</div>
<span class="author" style="background-color: white; color: #4d493f; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0.05em; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/a-a-milne" style="color: #043d6e; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">A. A. MILNE</a></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"></span><br />
<div class="tab-content active" id="poem" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">
<div class="poem" style="color: #505050; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 25px 0px 0px;">
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
No one can tell me,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Nobody knows,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Where the wind comes from,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Where the wind goes.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
It’s flying from somewhere</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
As fast as it can,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
I couldn’t keep up with it,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Not if I ran.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
But if I stopped holding</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
The string of my kite,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
It would blow with the wind</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
For a day and a night.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And then when I found it,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Wherever it blew,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
I should know that the wind</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Had been going there too.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
So then I could tell them</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Where the wind goes . . .</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
But where the wind comes from</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<em>Nobody</em> knows.</div>
</div>
</div>
mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-13131095107630744532014-04-16T10:14:00.003-07:002014-04-16T10:14:51.750-07:00If Only We Had Taller Been by Ray BradburyAnother spoken poem -- this time one by Ray Bradbury!<br />
<br />
Are you reading more poems this month? I'm posting a poem a day for National Poetry Month!<br />
<br />
<br />
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<embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/EBtZjbTDTDk?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-33673280645753706902014-04-15T10:18:00.000-07:002014-04-16T10:19:03.936-07:00The Quiet World by Jeffrey McDaniel<div class="tab-content active" id="poem-top">
Another poem for National Poetry Month.</div>
<div class="tab-content active" id="poem-top">
<br /><h1 style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 24px; font-weight: normal; margin: 10px 0px 3px; padding: 0px;">
The Quiet World</h1>
</div>
<span class="author" style="background-color: white; color: #4d493f; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0.05em; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/jeffrey-mcdaniel" style="color: #043d6e; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">JEFFREY MCDANIEL</a></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"></span><br />
<div class="tab-content active" id="poem" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">
<div class="poem" style="color: #505050; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 25px 0px 0px;">
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
In an effort to get people to look</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
into each other’s eyes more,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
and also to appease the mutes,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
the government has decided</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
to allot each person exactly one hundred </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
and sixty-seven words, per day.</div>
<br /><div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
When the phone rings, I put it to my ear </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
without saying hello. In the restaurant </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
I point at chicken noodle soup.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
I am adjusting well to the new way.</div>
<br /><div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Late at night, I call my long distance lover, </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
proudly say <em>I only used fifty-nine today. </em></div>
<em></em><div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<em>I saved the rest for you.</em></div>
<br /><div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
When she doesn’t respond,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
I know she’s used up all her words, </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
so I slowly whisper <em>I love you</em></div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
thirty-two and a third times.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
After that, we just sit on the line </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
and listen to each other breathe.</div>
</div>
</div>
mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-57844127472899234262014-04-14T06:30:00.000-07:002014-04-14T06:30:01.321-07:00To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne BradstreetContinuing a poem a day for the month of April! <br />
<br />
If ever two were one, then surely we.<br />If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;<br />If ever wife was happy in a man,<br />Compare with me ye women if you can.<br />I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,<br />Or all the riches that the East doth hold.<br />My love is such that rivers cannot quench,<br />Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.<br />Thy love is such I can no way repay; <br />The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.<br />Then while we live, in love let's so persever,<br />That when we live no more we may live ever.<br />mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-10826571524924030442014-04-13T06:30:00.000-07:002014-04-13T06:30:00.028-07:00Ae Fond Kiss by Robert Burns<div class="poem" jquery151021977918345997915="28">
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever; </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Ae fareweel, and then forever! </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee, </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee. </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Who shall say that Fortune grieves him, </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
While the star of hope she leaves him? </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Me, nae cheerfu' twinkle lights me; </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Dark despair around benights me. </div>
<br /><div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy, </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Naething could resist my Nancy; </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
But to see her was to love her; </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Love but her, and love forever. </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Had we never lov'd sae kindly, </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Had we never lov'd sae blindly, </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Never met—or never parted— </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
We had ne'er been broken-hearted. </div>
<br /><div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Fare thee weel, thou first and fairest! </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Fare thee weel, thou best and dearest! </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Thine be ilka joy and treasure, </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Peace. enjoyment, love, and pleasure! </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever; </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Ae fareweel, alas, forever! </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee, </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee! </div>
</div>
mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-85112062411061058982014-04-12T06:30:00.000-07:002014-04-12T06:30:01.540-07:00Beachcomber by Robert Service<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tablecollapse" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border-collapse: collapse; color: black; font-family: Arial;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="poemTitle" style="font-weight: bold; padding-left: 2px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">Beachcomber</span></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="poem" style="padding-left: 2px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">When I have come with happy heart to sixty years and ten,<br />I'll buy a boat and sail away upon a summer sea;<br />And in a little lonely isle that's far and far from men,<br />In peace and praise I'll spend the days the Gods allow to me.<br />For I am weary of a strife so pitiless and vain;<br />And in a far and fairy isle, bewilderingly bright,<br />I'll learn to know the leap and glow of rapture once again,<br />And welcome every living dawn with wonder and delight.<br /><br />And there I'll build a swan-white house above the singing foam,<br />With brooding eaves, where joyously rich roses climb and cling;<br />With crotons in a double row, like wine and honeycomb,<br />And flame trees dripping golden rain, and palms pavilioning.<br />And there I'll let the wind and wave do what they will with me;<br />And I will dwell unto the end with loveliness and joy;<br />And drink from out the crystal spring, and eat from off the tree,<br />As simple as a savage is, as careless as a boy.<br /><br />For I have come to think that Life's a lamentable tale,<br />And all we break our hearts to win is little worth our while;<br />For fame and fortune in the end are comfortless and stale,<br />And it is best to dream and rest upon a radiant isle.<br />So I'll blot out the bitter years of sufferance and scorn,<br />And I'll forget the fear and fret, the poverty and pain;<br />And in a shy and secret isle I'll be a man newborn,<br />And fashion life to heart's desire, and seek my soul again.<br /><br />For when I come with happy heart to sixty years and ten,<br />I fondly hope the best of life will yet remain to me;<br />And so I'll burn my foolish books and break my futile pen,<br />And seek a tranced and tranquil isle, that dreams eternally.<br />I'll turn my back on all the world, I'll bid my friends adieu;<br />Unto the blink I'll leave behind what gold I have to give;<br />And in a jewelled solitude I'll mould my life anew,<br />And nestling close to Nature's heart, I'll learn at last . . . to live.</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-2723020960292095772014-04-11T06:30:00.000-07:002014-04-11T06:30:05.159-07:00Say Yes by Andrea GibsonI'll go back to written poems tomorrow, but one last powerful spoken poem this week! <br />
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<br />
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<br />
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<br />
<br />
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<embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/t-z9XuuyLEY?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-39040195273358067252014-04-07T06:30:00.000-07:002014-04-07T06:30:00.619-07:00Slave of Habit by Pablo Neruda<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">“He who becomes the slave of habit,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">who follows the same routes every day,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">who never changes pace,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">who does not risk and change the color of his clothes,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">who does not speak and does not experience,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">dies slowly.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">He or she who shuns passion,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">who prefers black on white,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">dotting ones "it’s" rather than a bundle of emotions, the kind that make your eyes glimmer,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">that turn a yawn into a smile,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">that make the heart pound in the face of mistakes and feelings,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">dies slowly.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">He or she who does not turn things topsy-turvy,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">who is unhappy at work,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">who does not risk certainty for uncertainty,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">to thus follow a dream,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">those who do not forego sound advice at least once in their lives,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">die slowly.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">He who does not travel, who does not read,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">who does not listen to music,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">who does not find grace in himself,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">she who does not find grace in herself,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">dies slowly.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">He who slowly destroys his own self-esteem,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">who does not allow himself to be helped,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">who spends days on end complaining about his own bad luck, about the rain that never stops,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">dies slowly.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">He or she who abandon a project before starting it, who fail to ask questions on subjects he doesn't know, he or she who don't reply when they are asked something they do know,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">die slowly.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Let's try and avoid death in small doses,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">reminding oneself that being alive requires an effort far greater than the simple fact of breathing.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Only a burning patience will lead</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">to the attainment of a splendid happiness.” </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">― </span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4026.Pablo_Neruda" style="background-color: white; color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: initial;">Pablo Neruda</a>mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-18461912633189716062014-04-06T06:30:00.001-07:002014-04-06T06:30:00.771-07:00Questions of Travel by Elizabeth BishopPosting a poem a day throughout April -- Poetry Month. This one seemed appropriate as a I return to the States after my Danube River adventure!<br />
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Questions of Travel</h2>
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There are too many waterfalls here; the crowded streams<br />hurry too rapidly down to the sea,<br />and the pressure of so many clouds on the mountaintops<br />makes them spill over the sides in soft slow-motion,<br />turning to waterfalls under our very eyes.<br />--For if those streaks, those mile-long, shiny, tearstains,<br />aren't waterfalls yet,<br />in a quick age or so, as ages go here,<br />they probably will be.<br />But if the streams and clouds keep travelling, travelling,<br />the mountains look like the hulls of capsized ships,<br />slime-hung and barnacled.<br /><br />Think of the long trip home.<br />Should we have stayed at home and thought of here?<br />Where should we be today?<br />Is it right to be watching strangers in a play<br />in this strangest of theatres?<br />What childishness is it that while there's a breath of life<br />in our bodies, we are determined to rush<br />to see the sun the other way around?<br />The tiniest green hummingbird in the world?<br />To stare at some inexplicable old stonework,<br />inexplicable and impenetrable,<br />at any view,<br />instantly seen and always, always delightful?<br />Oh, must we dream our dreams<br />and have them, too?<br />And have we room<br />for one more folded sunset, still quite warm?<br /><br />But surely it would have been a pity<br />not to have seen the trees along this road,<br />really exaggerated in their beauty,<br />not to have seen them gesturing<br />like noble pantomimists, robed in pink.<br />--Not to have had to stop for gas and heard<br />the sad, two-noted, wooden tune<br />of disparate wooden clogs<br />carelessly clacking over<br />a grease-stained filling-station floor.<br />(In another country the clogs would all be tested.<br />Each pair there would have identical pitch.)<br />--A pity not to have heard<br />the other, less primitive music of the fat brown bird<br />who sings above the broken gasoline pump<br />in a bamboo church of Jesuit baroque:<br />three towers, five silver crosses.<br />--Yes, a pity not to have pondered,<br />blurr'dly and inconclusively,<br />on what connection can exist for centuries<br />between the crudest wooden footwear<br />and, careful and finicky,<br />the whittled fantasies of wooden footwear<br />and, careful and finicky,<br />the whittled fantasies of wooden cages.<br />--Never to have studied history in<br />the weak calligraphy of songbirds' cages.<br />--And never to have had to listen to rain<br />so much like politicians' speeches:<br />two hours of unrelenting oratory<br />and then a sudden golden silence<br />in which the traveller takes a notebook, writes:<br /><br />"Is it lack of imagination that makes us come<br />to imagined places, not just stay at home?<br />Or could Pascal have been not entirely right<br />about just sitting quietly in one's room?<br /><br />Continent, city, country, society:<br />the choice is never wide and never free.<br />And here, or there . . . No. Should we have stayed at home,<br />wherever that may be?" </div>
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Elizabeth Bishop</div>
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mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-64029039542607936012014-04-06T06:30:00.000-07:002014-04-06T06:30:02.796-07:00Still I Rise by Maya AngelouI enjoy her poems so much, and I can hear her reciting them. I am grateful that she has recorded many of her poems - her voice heightens each of her poems. Still posting a poem a day for Poetry Month!<h2 class="title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; color: #f88000; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.583em; margin: 42px 0px 12px;">
Still I Rise</h2>
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You may write me down in history<br />With your bitter, twisted lies,<br />You may tread me in the very dirt<br />But still, like dust, I'll rise.<br /><br />Does my sassiness upset you?<br />Why are you beset with gloom?<br />'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells<br />Pumping in my living room.<br /><br />Just like moons and like suns,<br />With the certainty of tides,<br />Just like hopes springing high,<br />Still I'll rise.<br /><br />Did you want to see me broken?<br />Bowed head and lowered eyes?<br />Shoulders falling down like teardrops.<br />Weakened by my soulful cries.<br /><br />Does my haughtiness offend you?<br />Don't you take it awful hard<br />'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines<br />Diggin' in my own back yard.<br /><br />You may shoot me with your words,<br />You may cut me with your eyes,<br />You may kill me with your hatefulness,<br />But still, like air, I'll rise.<br /><br />Does my sexiness upset you?<br />Does it come as a surprise<br />That I dance like I've got diamonds<br />At the meeting of my thighs?<br /><br />Out of the huts of history's shame<br />I rise<br />Up from a past that's rooted in pain<br />I rise<br />I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,<br />Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.<br />Leaving behind nights of terror and fear<br />I rise<br />Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear<br />I rise<br />Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,<br />I am the dream and the hope of the slave.<br />I rise<br />I rise<br />I rise. </div>
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Maya Angelou</div>
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mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-33297728072640672962014-04-05T06:30:00.000-07:002014-04-05T06:30:01.030-07:00Joy by Sara Teasdale<h2 class="title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; color: #f88000; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.583em; margin: 42px 0px 12px;">
Joy</h2>
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I am wild, I will sing to the trees,<br />I will sing to the stars in the sky,<br />I love, I am loved, he is mine,<br />Now at last I can die!<br /><br />I am sandaled with wind and with flame,<br />I have heart-fire and singing to give,<br />I can tread on the grass or the stars,<br />Now at last I can live! </div>
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<div class="poet" itemprop="author" style="color: black; font-size: 1.417em; margin: 22px 0px 25px;">
Sara Teasdale</div>
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mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-20361268602968554492014-04-04T06:30:00.000-07:002014-04-04T06:30:01.371-07:00Words by Anne SextonI really like this one . . . posting a poem a day for Poetry Month!<br />
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Words</h2>
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Be careful of words,<br />even the miraculous ones.<br />For the miraculous we do our best,<br />sometimes they swarm like insects<br />and leave not a sting but a kiss.<br />They can be as good as fingers.<br />They can be as trusty as the rock<br />you stick your bottom on.<br />But they can be both daisies and bruises.<br />Yet I am in love with words.<br />They are doves falling out of the ceiling.<br />They are six holy oranges sitting in my lap.<br />They are the trees, the legs of summer,<br />and the sun, its passionate face.<br />Yet often they fail me.<br />I have so much I want to say,<br />so many stories, images, proverbs, etc.<br />But the words aren't good enough,<br />the wrong ones kiss me.<br />Sometimes I fly like an eagle<br />but with the wings of a wren.<br />But I try to take care<br />and be gentle to them.<br />Words and eggs must be handled with care.<br />Once broken they are impossible<br />things to repair. </div>
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Anne Sexton</div>
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mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-26540882061263213812014-04-03T06:30:00.000-07:002014-04-03T06:30:00.772-07:00As I Grew Older by Langston Hughes<div style="margin: 42px 0px 12px;">
Posting a Poem a Day for Poetry Month</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #f88000; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.583em;">As I Grew Older</span></h2>
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It was a long time ago.<br />I have almost forgotten my dream.<br />But it was there then,<br />In front of me,<br />Bright like a sun—<br />My dream.<br />And then the wall rose,<br />Rose slowly,<br />Slowly,<br />Between me and my dream.<br />Rose until it touched the sky—<br />The wall.<br />Shadow.<br />I am black.<br />I lie down in the shadow.<br />No longer the light of my dream before me,<br />Above me.<br />Only the thick wall.<br />Only the shadow.<br />My hands!<br />My dark hands!<br />Break through the wall!<br />Find my dream!<br />Help me to shatter this darkness,<br />To smash this night,<br />To break this shadow<br />Into a thousand lights of sun,<br />Into a thousand whirling dreams<br />Of sun! </div>
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Langston Hughes</div>
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mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-464406072349833902014-04-02T06:30:00.000-07:002014-04-02T06:30:02.303-07:00Solitude by Ella Wheeler WilcoxWe've all heard the first couple lines of this poem, but I didn't realize it came from a poem. Continuing on posting a poem a day for Poetry Month.<h2 class="title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; color: #f88000; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.583em; margin: 42px 0px 12px;">
Solitude</h2>
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Laugh, and the world laughs with you;<br />Weep, and you weep alone.<br />For the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth,<br />But has trouble enough of its own.<br />Sing, and the hills will answer;<br />Sigh, it is lost on the air.<br />The echoes bound to a joyful sound,<br />But shrink from voicing care.<br /><br />Rejoice, and men will seek you;<br />Grieve, and they turn and go.<br />They want full measure of all your pleasure,<br />But they do not need your woe.<br />Be glad, and your friends are many;<br />Be sad, and you lose them all.<br />There are none to decline your nectared wine,<br />But alone you must drink life's gall.<br /><br />Feast, and your halls are crowded;<br />Fast, and the world goes by.<br />Succeed and give, and it helps you live,<br />But no man can help you die.<br />There is room in the halls of pleasure<br />For a long and lordly train,<br />But one by one we must all file on<br />Through the narrow aisles of pain. </div>
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Ella Wheeler Wilcox</div>
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mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431173.post-27344115067190093902014-04-01T06:30:00.000-07:002014-04-01T06:30:04.970-07:00Fa Lerszek (I'll Be a Tree)April is Poetry Month and I'll be posting a poem a day throughout April! This one seemed fitting since I visited Hungary a couple days ago. Scroll down for the English translation. <h2 class="title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; color: #f88000; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.583em; margin: 42px 0px 12px;">
<span style="font-size: 1.583em;">Fa Leszek (I'll Be a Tree)</span></h2>
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by <span style="color: black; font-size: 17px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">Sandor Petofi</span></div>
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Fa leszek, ha fának vagy virága.<br />Ha harmat vagy: én virág leszek.<br />Harmat leszek, ha te napsugár vagy...<br />Csak, hogy lényink egyesüljenek.<br /><br />Ha, leányka, te vagy a mennyország:<br />Akkor én csillagá változom.<br />Ha, leányka, te vagy a pokol: (hogy<br />Egyesüljünk) én elkárhozom.<br /><br />I'll Be a Tree<br /><br />I'll be a tree, if you are its flower,<br />Or a flower, if you are the dew-<br />I'll be the dew, if you are the sunbeam,<br />Only to be united with you.<br /><br />My lovely girl, if you are the Heaven,<br />I shall be a star above on high;<br />My darling, if you are hell-fire,<br />To unite us, damned I shall die. </div>
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mylittlepatchofsunshinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599334919240848068noreply@blogger.com0