Poems with a Pimms

1. Poems with a Pimms Phil Mostert AAIA Conference Bournemouth 2011

2. Happy the man –Horace [Odes] Happy the man, and happy he alone, he who can call today his own: he who, secure within, can say, Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today. Be fair or foul, or rain or shine, the joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine. Not Heaven itself, upon the past has power, but what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.

3. Cloths of Heaven - W B Yeats Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

4. Nature Boy - Eden Ahbez There was a boy A very strange, enchanted boy They say he wandered very far Very far, over land and sea A little shy and sad of eye But very wise was he And then one day, One magic day he passed my way While we spoke of many things Fools and Kings This he said to me, The greatest thing you'll ever learn Is just to love and be loved in return.

5. Richard Corey - Edwin Arlington Robinson Whenever Richard Cory went down town,      We people on the pavement looked at him:   He was a gentleman from sole to crown,      Clean favoured, and imperially slim.      And he was always quietly arrayed, And he was always human when he talked;   But still he fluttered pulses when he said,      "Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.      And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,      And admirably schooled in every grace: In fine, we thought that he was everything      To make us wish that we were in his place.      So on we worked, and waited for the light,      And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;   And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, Went home and put a bullet through his head.

6. OZYMANDIAS - Percy Bysshe ShelleyI met a traveller from an antique landWho said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frownAnd wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold commandTell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.And on the pedestal these words appear:"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bareThe lone and level sands stretch far away.

7. ELDORADO - Edgar Allan Poe Gaily bedight, A gallant knight, In sunshine and in shadow, Had journeyed long, Singing a song, In search of Eldorado. But he grew old- This knight so bold- And o'er his heart a shadow Fell as he found No spot of ground That looked like Eldorado. And, as his strength Failed him at length, He met a pilgrim shadow- "Shadow," said he, "Where can it be- This land of Eldorado?" "Over the Mountains Of the Moon, Down the Valley of the Shadow, Ride, boldly ride," The shade replied- "If you seek for Eldorado!"

8. THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE – W B Yeats I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee, And live alone in a bee-loud glade. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening full of the linnet’s wings. I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

9. If you have ever wondered.. All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten - Robert Fulgham Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.These are the things I learned.. Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup? The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup - they all die. So do we. And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and sane living. Think of what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and cleaned up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

10. The Wild Honeysuckle - Philip Freneau Smit with those charms, that must decay,I grieve to see your future doom;They died--nor were those flowers more gay,The flowers that did in Eden bloom;Unpitying frosts, and Autumn's power,Shall leave no vestige of this flower. From morning suns and evening dewsAt first thy little being came;If nothing once, you nothing lose,For when you die you are the same; The space between is but an hour, The frail duration of a flower. Fair flower, that dost so comely grow, Hid in this silent, dull retreat, Untouched thy homed blossoms blow, Unseen thy little branches greet: No roving foot shall crush thee here, No busy hand provoke a tear. By Nature's self in white arrayed, She bade thee shun the vulgar eye, And planted here the guardian shade, And sent soft waters murmuring by; Thus quietly thy summer goes, Thy days declining to repose.

11. A Prayer For My Daughter – W B Yeats … I have walked and prayed for this young child an hourAnd heard the sea-wind scream upon the tower,And under the arches of the bridge, and screamIn the elms above the flooded stream;Imagining in excited reverieThat the future years had come,Dancing to a frenzied drum,Out of the murderous innocence of the sea. . .…May she be granted beauty and yet notBeauty to make a stranger's eye distraught,Or hers before a looking-glass, for such,Being made beautiful overmuch,Consider beauty a sufficient end,Lose natural kindness and maybeThe heart-revealing intimacyThat chooses right, and never find a friend. . .…In courtesy I'd have her chiefly learned;Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned . . .…

12. Rose From A Friend author unknown I would rather have one little rose From the garden of a friend, Than to have the choicest flowers When my stay on earth must end. I would rather have a pleasant word In kindness said to me, Than flattery when my heart is still And life has ceased to be. I would rather have a loving smile From friends I know are true, Than tears shed 'round my casket When to this world I bid adieu. Bring me all your flowers today Whether pink, or white, or red, I'd rather have one blossom now Than a truckload when I'm dead.

13. THE PLANTER’S DAUGHTER - Austin ClarkeWhen night stirred at seaAnd the fire brought a crowd in,They say that her beautyWas music in mouthAnd few in the candlelightThought her too proud,For the house of the planterIs known by the trees.Men that had seen herDrank deep and were silent,The women were speakingWherever she went –As a bell that is rungOr a wonder told shylyAnd O she was the Sunday In every week.

14. THOUGH THERE ARE TORTURERS - Michael Coady Though there are torturers in the world There are also musicians. Though, at this moment, men Are screaming in prisons There are jazzmen raising storms Of sensuous celebration And orchestras releasing Glories of the spirit. Though the image of God Is everywhere defiled A man in West Clare Is playing the concertina, The Sistine Choir is levitating Under the dome of St Peter’s And a drunk man on the road Is singing for no reason.

15. THOSE WINTER SUNDAYS - Robert Hayden Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labour in the weekday weather made blanked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I’d wake and hear cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, he’d call, And slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house, Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know Of love’s austere and lonely offices?

16. CYFAILL [Friend] - Dic Jones Mae fyngobeithionynrhanohonot, Mae fynioddefa’mhofnauyneiddot, Ynd’oriaueuraidfymalchdererot, Ynd’oriauiselfyngweddidrosot, Mae’n wellbyd y manllebot, - maedeunydd Fyholllawenyddfynghyfaill, ynot.

17. A MARRIAGE - R S Thomas We met under a shower of bird-notes. Fifty years passed, love’s moment in a world in servitude to time. She was young; I kissed with my eyes closed and opened them on her wrinkles. ‘Come,’ said death, choosing her as his partner for the last dance. And she, who in life had done everything with a bird’s grace, opened her bill now for the shedding of one sigh no heavier than a feather.

18. COMPARISONS – R S Thomas To all light things I compared her; to A snowflake, a feather. I remember she rested at the dance on my arm, as a bird on its nest lest the eggs break, lest she lean too heavily on our love. Snow melts, feathers are blown away; I have let her ashes down in me like an anchor.