Category Archives: Poetry

02
Oct
2011

Toads

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Posted in Poetry
Ah, were I courageous enough To shout Stuff your pension!
20
Jun
2011

If I were able to live my life anew…

10 comments
Posted in Best Bits, Motivation, Poetry
What would you do if you were able to live your life anew?
23
Mar
2011

Keep Ithaka always in your mind

1 comment
Posted in Poetry, Travel
May there be many a summer morning when, with what pleasure, what joy, you come into harbors seen for the first time.
25
Feb
2011

Freedom just around the corner

1 comment
Posted in Poetry
...But with truth so far off, what good will it do?
25
Oct
2010

The Men Who Don’t Fit In

7 comments
Posted in Iceland, Poetry
He’s a rolling stone, and it’s bred in the bone, he’s a man who won’t fit in… The Men Who Don’t Fit In – Robert W. Service There’s a race of men that don’t fit in, A race that can’t stay still; So they break the hearts of kith and kin, And they roam the [...]

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18
Oct
2010

Ulysses time lapse

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Posted in Iceland, Poetry, Video
As we trekked and paddled across Iceland Chris and I recorded two of our favourite poems, one line each day, and turned them into videos. What do you think? Ulysses -Alfred Lord Tennyson It little profits that an idle king, By this still hearth, among these barren crags, Matched with an aged wife, I mete [...]

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05
Aug
2010

The fight is won or lost far away

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Posted in Motivation, Poetry, Training
“The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses… “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses, behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights” – Muhammad Ali DON’T MISS A THING – FREE MONTHLY UPDATE BY EMAIL: Have you read [...]

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12
Apr
2010

A Paratrooper’s prayer

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Posted in Best Bits, Motivation, Our World, Poetry, Training
I am not religious, but I relish the power of this prayer, known often as the Paratrooper’s prayer. I bring this prayer to You, Lord, For you alone can give What one cannot demand from oneself. Give me, Lord, what You have left over, Give me what no one ever asks of You. I don’t [...]

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15
Mar
2010

So You Want To Be A Writer?

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Posted in Poetry, Writing
Pete sent this poem through to me. I’m not sure I believe it all, but it’s food for thought… So You Want To Be A Writer by Charles Bukowski if it doesn’t come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don’t do it. unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind [...]

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08
Mar
2010

Poetry Of Departures – Philip Larkin

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Posted in Poetry
Sometimes you hear, fifth-hand, As epitaph: He chucked up everything And just cleared off, And always the voice will sound Certain you approve This audacious, purifying, Elemental move. And they are right, I think. We all hate home And having to be there: I detect my room, It’s specially-chosen junk, The good books, the good [...]

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07
Feb
2010

The Explorer – Rudyard Kipling

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Posted in Expeditions, Poetry
“There’s no sense in going further–it’s the edge of cultivation,” So they said, and I believed it–broke my land and sowed my crop– Built my barns and strung my fences in the little border station Tucked away below the foothills where the trails run out and stop: Till a voice, as bad as Conscience, rang [...]

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31
Jan
2010

The Journey of the Magi – TS Eliot

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Posted in Poetry
A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The was deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.” And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory, Lying down in the melting snow. There were times we regretted The summer palaces on [...]

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24
Jan
2010

Home From Abroad – Laurie Lee

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Posted in Poetry, Travel
Far-fetched with tales of other worlds and ways, My skin well-oiled with wines of the Levant, I set my face into a filial smile To greet the pale, domestic kiss of Kent. But shall I never learn? That gawky girl, Recalled so primly in my foreign thoughts, Becomes again the green-haired queen of love Whose [...]

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17
Jan
2010

High Flight – John Gillespie Magee

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Posted in Poetry
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds…and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of…wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there, I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung [...]

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11
Jan
2010

Fill the unforgiving minute

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Posted in Motivation, Poetry
Things become cliches when they become too popular, too common. To become a cliche you first need to strike a chord. Kipling’s ‘If’ is, I believe, a poem worth re-reading as we head into the New Year. If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, [...]

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10
Jan
2010

The Bright Field – R. S. Thomas

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Posted in Poetry
I have seen the sun break through to illuminate a small field for a while, and gone my way and forgotten it. But that was the pearl of great price, the one field that had treasure in it. I realize now that I must give all that I have to possess it. Life is not [...]

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05
Jan
2010

I lived a full life and one that was my own choice

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Posted in Best Bits, Expeditions, MicroAdventure, Poetry, Ramblings
Go as a pilgrim and seek out danger far from the comfort and the well lit avenues of life. Pit your every soul against the unknown and seek stimulation in the comfort of the brave. Experience cold, hunger, heat and thirst and survive to see another challenge and another dawn. Only then will you be [...]

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27
Dec
2009

Sea-Fever by John Masefield

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Posted in Poetry
I must 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. [...]

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20
Dec
2009

Ulysses – Alfred, Lord Tennyson

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Posted in Poetry
It little profits that an idle king, By this still hearth, among these barren crags, Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole Unequal laws unto a savage race, That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. I cannot rest from travel; I will drink Life to the lees. All times I [...]

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16
Dec
2009

Ten Great Poems of Journeys

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Posted in Poetry, Travel
I usually take a book of poetry on my travels. You can re-read them, and they also make you think. Here are 10 of my favourite poems of journeys. I’ll put one up in full on the site each Sunday for the next 10 weeks. - Ulysses: Alfred, Lord Tennyson - Sea-Fever: John Masefield - [...]

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