• rmuk@feddit.uk
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    6 days ago

    Sorry if this was already posted, but I didn’t see it:

    There Will Come Soft Rains by Sara Teasdale

    There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

    And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum trees in tremulous white,

    Robins will wear their feathery fire Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

    And not one will know of the war, not one Will care at last when it is done.

    Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree If mankind perished utterly;

    And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, Would scarcely know that we were gone.

    There’s also a short story by Ray Bradbury with the same title that quotes the poem.

    • ApollosArrow@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      These are what I came to post. This has always stayed on my mind. Given what is going on in the world, the fact that the short story takes place in 2026 is very timely…

    • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I have the short story as read by Leonard Nimoy. it’s one of my most favorite Bradbury tales read by one of the best narrators of my childhood.

      I’m happy I downloaded it, as it seems to not be found on YouTube anymore…

  • hexagonwin@lemmy.today
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    6 days ago

    First they came https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_They_Came


    First they came for the Communists
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a Communist

    Then they came for the Socialists
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a Socialist

    Then they came for the trade unionists
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a trade unionist

    Then they came for the Jews
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a Jew

    Then they came for me
    And there was no one left
    To speak out for me

  • traxex@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    7 days ago

    Two Headed Calf makes me cri every tim

    Tomorrow when the farm boys find this freak of nature,

    they will wrap his body in newspaper and carry him to the museum.

    But tonight he is alive and in the north field with his mother.

    It is a perfect summer evening: the moon rising over the orchard, the wind in the grass.

    And as he stares into the sky, there are twice as many stars as usual.

  • HailSeitan@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    This Be The Verse by Philip Larkin

    They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

    They may not mean to, but they do.

    They fill you with the faults they had

    And add some extra, just for you.

    But they were fucked up in their turn

    By fools in old-style hats and coats,

    Who half the time were soppy-stern

    And half at one another’s throats.

    Man hands on misery to man.

    It deepens like a coastal shelf.

    Get out as early as you can,

    And don’t have any kids yourself.

  • fdnomad@programming.dev
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    6 days ago

    The View from Halfway Down by Alison Tafel?

    The weak breeze whispers nothing. The water screams sublime. His feet shift, teeter-totter; Deep breath, stand back - it’s time.

    Toes untouch the overpass, Soon he’s water bound. Eyes lock shut, but peek to see The view from halfway down.

    A little wind, a summer sun, A river rich and regal. A flood of fond endorphins Brings a calm that knows no equal.

    You’re flying now; you see things Much more clear than from the ground. It’s all okay – it would be, Were you not now halfway down.

    Thrash to break from gravity; What now could slow the drop? All I’d give for toes to touch The safety back at top.

    But this is it. The deed is done. Silence drowns the sound. Before I leaped, I should have seen The view from halfway down.

    I really should have thought about The view from halfway down.

    I wish I could have known about The view from halfway down.

  • raldone01@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    The Clock Man by Shel Silverstein

    “How much will you pay for an extra day?” The clock man asked the child.

    “Not one penny,” the answer came.

    “For my days are as many as my smiles.”

    “How much will you pay for an extra day?” He asked when the child was grown.

    “Maybe a dollar or maybe less, for I’ve plenty of days of my own.”

    “How much will you pay for an extra day?” He asked when the time came to die.

    “All of the pearls in all of the seas, and all of the stars in the sky.”

  • Fondots@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    This Is Just To Say
    By William Carlos Williams

    I have eaten
    the plums
    that were in
    the icebox

    and which
    you were probably
    saving
    for breakfast

    Forgive me
    they were delicious
    so sweet
    and so cold

    Besides that, I have a book of poetry that I’m not going to share, but I will share the story of why I own it.

    I work in 911 dispatch. We have a frequent caller, she actually doesn’t live in our area, but her mother and father do. This is what I’ve pieced together about them.

    Her father is in a nursing home. She calls frequently for police or EMS to go out for him alleging all kinds of abuse and mistreatment. This isn’t a particularly nice nursing home, but cops have been there multiple times and haven’t found any issues with her father.

    She’s very uncooperative with us when she calls, refuses to answer basically any questions, and when we or the police try to call her back to tell her the outcome or to get more information she basically never answers the phone.

    A few times she has actually shown up at the nursing home, caused a scene, and had to be escorted off the premises. One time her father was hospitalized for something (not sure what, but I didn’t see any calls for us that would have matched up with him, so it probably wasn’t something too serious if they took the time to arrange non emergency transport) and she showed up at the hospital, was escorted out, and spent the next day or two pretty much camped out at some nearby fast food places)

    Her mother has dementia, and is a frequent caller herself, she calls to complain about her caretakers and sometimes even gets into fights with them.

    I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to learn that the father checked himself into the nursing home to get away from his wife and daughter.

    They both occasionally call for well-being checks on each other. The daughter usually because she took her mother’s insane ramblings at face value, and the mother usually because she hasn’t heard from the daughter in a while (or at least doesn’t remember hearing from her) and because of some vague concerns that she can never really explain, things like “I’m worried because of everything happening in [city where daughter lives]” but she can’t tell me what’s supposedly happening there and when I looked up the local news there I couldn’t find anything particularly noteworthy.

    I’ve given the mother the direct phone number to the dispatch center that covers her daughter’s home multiple times (sometimes multiple times in the same night) so she can reach them directly, but she always calls 911 instead so I have to transfer her every time.

    During one such transfer, she was rambling about her daughter, and she mentions that her daughter is a writer.

    I of course had to search out what she had written.

    At first, all I could find was some mentions of her contributing to some magazines and such, but couldn’t actually find any of her actual writing, but digging a little deeper I was able to find some stuff she did in college. A bunch of poetry, and it was all terrible and weird. I’d pull it up to share with my coworkers occasionally when she was blowing up our phones.

    Then one day I went to do that and saw that she had written a book. I got a copy for myself and as Christmas presents for a couple of my favorite coworkers. It’s more of the same insane, rambling, nonsensical poetry.

  • VirtigoMommy@sh.itjust.works
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    7 days ago

    A poem my brother wrote

    Nothing changes, and it changes all at once. Nothing moves, nothing exists. Nothing is important, so we should learn nothing, we should study nothing, get close to nothing, be kind to nothing. We must come to understand nothing so well that we could maybe even see nothing in ourselves. Because nothing matters, nothing is important, and I think that’s something.

  • ArseAssassin@sopuli.xyz
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    7 days ago

    Nothing Is Too Small Not to Be Wondered About by Mary Oliver

    The cricket doesn’t wonder
    if there’s a heaven
    or, if there is, if there’s room for him.
    
    It’s fall. Romance is over. Still, he sings.
    If he can, he enters a house
    through the tiniest crack under the door.
    Then the house grows colder.
    
    He sings slower and slower.
    Then, nothing.
    
    This must mean something, I don’t know what.
    But certainly it doesn’t mean
    he hasn’t been an excellent cricket
    all his life.
    
  • LonelySea@reddthat.com
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    6 days ago

    Sea Fever by John Mansfield

    I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

    And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;

    And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,

    And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

    I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

    Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

    And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

    And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

    I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

    To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;

    And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,

    And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

  • jaycifer@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    This may come off as really pretentious, but when I’m feel a wistful melancholy for the past, I hear this short poem I wrote a few years ago called Still Here:

    I thought this feeling cast away

    Though here it is, perhaps to stay

    Though years have passed and I have cried

    My inward plea is still denied

  • grandel@lemmy.ml
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    6 days ago

    This is difficult to translate so I’m going to post it in it’s original language (German).

    Ein Ferd das hat vier Beiner

    Auf jeder Seite einer

    Dann hat es einmal keiner

    Umfallt

    - Unknown