Category Archives: Poetry

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
12
Apr
2010

A Paratrooper’s prayer

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Posted in 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 ask You for rest, Or quiet, Whether of [...]

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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 and your mouth and your gut, don’t do [...]

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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 bed, And my life, in perfect order: So to hear it said He walked out on [...]

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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 interminable changes On one everlasting [...]

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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 slopes, the terraces, And the silken girls bringing sherbet. Then [...]

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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 wanton form dilates as it delights. Her rolling [...]

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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 My eager craft through footless halls of [...]

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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. What’s your favourite line? Mine is “if you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk [...]

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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 hurrying on to a receding future, nor hankering [...]

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