Long Wordsworth Poems

L'Overture


Lest we forget
Words often mouthed
For the dead of bloody war
Forgot not those great ones
Whose battles were on the home front
Seeking only equality of voice

Ray Charles to you was a singer
Backwards and long ago he was...

Read More

Unquotable quotes: Poets, Poetasters and Platos – XXXVI

     For James McAuley – in remembrance of a memorable week in Cardiff 1965 

The greatest poet ever is NOT Homer, Lao Tse, Ovid,...

Read More

“On the Sonnet”
by John Keats

If by dull rhymes our English must be chained,
And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet
Fettered, in spite of painéd loveliness;
Let us find out, if we must be constrained,
Sandals more interwoven and complete
To...

Read More

“Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent's Narrow Room”
by William Wordsworth

Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room;
And hermits are contented with their cells;
And students with their pensive citadels;
Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his...

Read More

About Bill Posters and Bill Greenwell

Words not to use in poems

In 1993, I (Bill Greenwell) went on a three-day workshop with the poet Peter Sansom, who co-edits The North, and runs the Smith/Doorstop imprint. He’s...

Read More

Pariah heap - savagely subjecting myself to humiliation

Outward slovenly appearance bespeaks volumes
wordsworth their weight in gold
(exhumed from the pith
of these lovely bones -
beclothed with mottled skin)
presages afterlife of hellish horror
(think Dante's inferno),
nevertheless a respite from...

Read More

Negligent grooming habits unbridled

Apathy toward mine personal hygiene
i.e. relinquishing attention
linkedin with bare toiletries,
cuz I rarely spruced myself up
nor never maple leave
to cease being hard nut to crack
and rendered adopted
couture modus operandi
of yours truly shabby chic
figurative...

Read More

Song from Aella: Under the Willow Tree, or, Minstrel's Song
by Thomas Chatterton, age 17 or younger
modernization/translation by Michael R. Burch

MYNSTRELLES SONGE ("MINSTREL'S SONG")

O! sing unto my roundelay,
O! drop the briny tear with me,
Dance no more...

Read More

Rental rebate plus affordable rent...

One benefit living at
Highland Manor Apartments
until decrepit and bent...
constitutes qualifying for reimbursement
direct deposited into checking
as chump change event,
hence one generic grateful gent
feels self satisfied as Clark Kent.

After wing and prayer
granted courtesy...

Read More

Reverend Dr. Margret A. O'Neall Developmental Minister

Unitarian Universalist Church
situated in Cherry Hill, New Jersey,
whereat every Sunday morning, I
Matthew Scott Harris) blessedly zoom
virtually attend congregation 
(recent attendee) experience

fellowship, albeit an outlier,
these two score plus one year...

Read More

Heretofore stuffing said scandalous fête
worst day of year turkeys do hate
though vegan lifestyle
sweeping culinary tables of late
though me and the missus
still omnivorous foods sate

palates sprinkled (of course
while mouths full with borscht,
and eyes wide shut)
with garbled...

Read More

Man and poet? Bet you know it
Tender verse can get you girls
Plain or – whoopee! – eager groupie
Matching your poetic pearls

Just how much you get to touch, you
Can ascertain easily
You’re a freshman? Write for trash...

Read More

My faithful quill recumbent
Motionless
Stark against the virgin parchment posed upon my desk
The peeping moon breaks through grimy windows
Mocking me as the mantel clock chimes the cheerless Midnight
Another day laid to waste
The poet’s canvas unblemished
Harmonizing with...

Read More

"melliflous birds are still cooing in the forest of my amber dreams " (by poet)



a gift from my father - on the first day of college,
"Golden Treasury"...A book of poetry...
the first poem I read... "She...

Read More

An English Life

It is midnight the Milk train pulls into darnall station
No ordinary passengers here
Steelworkers with their families
Loaded with fishing tackle, sandwiches and maggots
The Fossdyke in Lincolnshire, their destination
The fare Half a crown for happiness

The...

Read More

Why Do I Write?

I was born in an era when Shakespeare, Shelley and Wordsworth were kings.  Reading them was like hearing beautiful music and after all these years…it still is. Then I fell in...

Read More

Monah Kaur and Robert Kumar fled from London, came to ‘Hindustan’; tied the knot
The 'Singhs' stopped their songs and 'Kumars at no. 42' burnt their studio; this rebellion; they will forget not
A petite piece of...

Read More

When tongue is silent, but muse is chanting - that's poetry.
When we write what the heart has been asking - that's poetry.

As dawn's hues glisten golden rays, in blue, bronze, orange skies,
musings mirror daydreams, so...

Read More

In the Church, I met a woman quite old,
Bending under the weight of years.
I wonder what made her steal my attention. 
Was it her struggle to hold back her tears?

Despite her frail stooping figure
She seemed...

Read More

To day I am thinking
About those memorable moments 
I spent during my childhood 
Amid the natural surroundings of
A deep lake surrounded by a dense forest.
 
The forest was so tall, deep and green
With its fearing...

Read More

SAMADHI

I am the Void
                   and THE ALL
I am the pen
       ...

Read More

In my New York suburb, I’m mildly fond
Of Helvellyn Road, and Gracemere pond
But the original Helvellyn called...  
Ravenglass too, even the name enthralled.
Of Lake poets, I eagerly read
And I found what Alfred Wainright once...

Read More

Scholars who took part in the last conference
On logical judgments and system of reference, 
Following the instrumental rationality, consumerism,
Cultural industry under economical anew fetishism,
Rested hanged on the sky of their great expectations.
But, all their sophisticated...

Read More

Awakening Contemplations

Perception of reality changing in a second 
The Invention of congeniality as I wait for you to beckon 
The Australian informality of “yeah whatever you reckon!”
The North Korean missile strikes looking to constantly threaten...

Read More

Ten Years Had Raced Into Oblivion's Cup
Second Poets Tribute Series, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  
Chained am I, to desolation's huge anchor
on its long black ship, cargo of hate and rancor
yet in spirit oft I roamed...

Read More