Amy's Place ... Poetry and Potpourri ... December, 2008

12-01-08 | JustAmy; St.Louie1; MamaBear; Billie

[JustAmy]

Welcome To....


'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets
and those who enjoy poetry.
'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.
Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepers
your thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*.

Enjoy! :)











Never Forget!





Bad Penny



Amy's personal guardian ~
the ever charming, lovable, huggable,
LouieWolf




Many thanks for stopping by. : )

[Billie]

I had never read this poem .... thanks for posting it Billie.

Neither had I, but it's been fun choosing a few to post today, on his birthday. :)

[Billie]

I think vacation via train would be fun, but we've never done a whole vacation like that. I do enjoy leisurely trips by car, seeing new scenery along the way, though.

I DON'T like flying and especially don't since 9/11 - and I know I wouldn't handle very well the hassle you got on your flight to LA, yorkie!

[jaycee]

I just had to remark on this picture again. I looked at the beautiful muscular horse, the moon, etc. and thats all I saw.
As I kept reading posts, I kept hearing of the beautiful girl. I checked back once and still didn’t see it.

Last night when Kitty made another remark about it, I went back again and there was that beautiful face that I just kept missing. Its funny when you look too hard, you can’t see it.
It was lovely!

[Billie]

Yes, I was disappointed that the graphics for Texas were missing but glad to see that the info was still there. I hate to think that Fotki and/or Photobucket may shut down. I think I have all of the graphics on my hard drive but the links would no longer work.

I didn't remember I used aol so much when I was doing "Finest" posts, but just now I went to look for the small wedding ring gif I used in a profile I did about the same time as the Texas profile, and evidently I uploaded every single graphic to aol then, too. Sigh! A whole opening post full of little red x's :(

[Billie]

Awesome poem about military boots,etc...! It has a reading cadence like unto marching,cool! ,p>Hi, Majie! Thank you - am glad you enjoyed Kipling's military boots poem, too! Hut, Two, Three!

[jaycee]

Amy, that is so pretty. I love those lacy frames you’ve been using a lot lately....they are beautiful!

[Billie]

Great information on today’s holidays, Billie. I really enjoyed re-visiting Aqua’s New Year’s Eve thread. Aqua .... Your thread was lovely.

Thanks, Amy. Hope Aqua is reading today. I was glad I went back to check all the Finest' New Year threads and could use it in the holidays for today. :) I thought it was one of her prettiest openings! But actually, ALL of hers were stunning. :)

[Billie]

I found this so sweet and meloncoly this morning (naturally). Christmas time is wonderful for me but very sentimental. I listened to Mary’s song twice while reading the words. It is beautiful. She has a most soothing voice. Thanks, Billie, as always.

I think she does, too, Jaycee, and have always loved that particular song. I only hoped that I didn't make anyone sad, though was sure it would bring back sweet memories for those who have lost their spouses.

[Billie]

Thanks for the Holidays, Billie. I went and checked out last year’s New Years Eve and got a bunch of good laughs. I am going back and look some more as soon as I can. I saw the beautiful green dress you made me....wow! I also have the red one too now. I remember how much fun we had last year!

We did, didn't we? You know, the green dress was one of the 'dollz' readymades, and they all just pale in comparison to the dolls in gowns I started doing with 'real' gowns later. :) As for your red one, don't post it yet, okay? I noticed something about it that bothered me a little and tweaked it a bit. I'll give you a new link tomorrow for the new one. (the hand on the old one looks like a "manhand"!) LOL I fixed it last night) :)

[Billie]

Yes, I did post the graphic of the little girls catching snowflakes on their tongues on Christmas Eve. I posted Michael Buble’s “Let it Snow” link with it. I posted quite a few Christmas graphics that day and I think that was the last day I was here until yesterday - briefly. :)

[Billie]

I just had to remark on this picture again. I looked at the beautiful muscular horse, the moon, etc. and thats all I saw. As I kept reading posts, I kept hearing of the beautiful girl. I checked back once and still didn’t see it. Last night when Kitty made another remark about it, I went back again and there was that beautiful face that I just kept missing. Its funny when you look too hard, you can’t see it. It was lovely!

:) Quite understandable. The face actually was supposed to fade into the background and not be the focus of the picture. :)

[jaycee]

Oh, I wasn’t going to post it! Didn’t you say we would do all that on New Year’s Eve? I believe I remember that~~~I will check out the hand....haven’t noticed anything before! LOL!

[Billie]

Didn’t you say we would do all that on New Year’s Eve? I believe I remember that~~~I will check out the hand....haven’t noticed anything before! LOL!

You will if you look at that hand more closely - especially when compared to some of the others, and when compared to the revised one you will get tomorrow! :)

I know you wouldn't post it today, but some of you get here earlier than I do every morning, and tomorrow IS New Year's Eve! (I need to be first in the morning! LOL)

[Lady Jag]

Beautiful stuff, Billie and all. Been out since alarm clock this morning and glad to be in the day. So I thought I would post something slightly different from a favorite orator of mine.

Genius

Genius, like gold and precious stones, is chiefly prized because of its rarity. Geniuses are people who dash of weird, wild, incomprehensible poems with astonishing facility, and get booming drunk and sleep in the gutter. Genius elevates its possessor to ineffable spheres far above the vulgar world and fills his soul with regal contempt for the gross and sordid things of earth. It is probably on account of this that people who have genius do not pay their board, as a general thing. Geniuses are very singular. If you see a young man who has frowsy hair and distraught look, and affects eccentricity in dress, you may set him down for a genius. If he sings about the degeneracy of a world which courts vulgar opulence and neglects brains, he is undoubtedly a genius. If he is too proud to accept assistance, and spurns it with a lordly air at the very same time that he knows he can't make a living to save his life, he is most certainly a genius. If he hangs on and sticks to poetry, notwithstanding sawing wood comes handier to him, he is a true genius. If he throws away every opportunity in life and crushes the affection and the patience of his friends and then protests in sickly rhymes of his hard lot, and finally persists, in spite of the sound advice of persons who have got sense but not any genius, persists in going up some infamous back alley dying in rags and dirt, he is beyond all question a genius. But above all things, to deftly throw the incoherent ravings of insanity into verse and then rush off and get booming drunk, is the surest of all the different signs of genius. Mark Twain

[Billie]

Thanks, Lady J. I don't post a lot of poetry - leave that up to those of you who do it so well. :) But, since it's Kipling's birthday I made an exception. :) "If" is probably one of the most well-known of his (it is to me anyway)

Love the "Genius", and wonderful photo of Mark Twain!

[Lady Jag]

I hate to tell you but it’s not your poetry I admire you for. Obviously it is for your graphics that I swoon.

I didn’t know it was Kipling’s birthday and I posted one of my favorite Kipling’s poems yesterday, White Horses.

Mark Twain was a genius - got cranky in his old age because he felt too much.

[Billie]

I hate to tell you but it’s not your poetry I admire you for. Obviously it is for your graphics that I swoon. I didn’t know it was Kipling’s birthday and I posted one of my favorite Kipling’s poems yesterday, White Horses.

LOL! I didn't check to see which post it was you were responding to and just thought it was the 3 Kipling poems I posted. :)

I noticed the White Horses poem yesterday and since I knew the 'holidays' for today, thought it was neat you did Kipling, but am sure the reason you posted it (and those gorgeous white horses) was because of the white horse opening yesterday - and Meg's first graphic.

Anyway, I thank you as I know you are an artist, too. I just use my graphics software as my 'studio' and enjoy every single one that I 'do' here. :)

[Lady Jag]

That’s right, it was the other horses that made me channel Kipling on the eve of his birthday.

Either that or it was memories of the Kiplinger Letter.

[Majie Purple]

Pretty rings & frame!!
& that poem is smmmmokin’!
LOL!

[ConorMacNessa]

Gunga Din

YOU may talk o' gin an' beer
When you're quartered safe out 'ere,
An' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it;
But if it comes to slaughter
You will do your work on water,
An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it.
Now in Injia's sunny clime,
Where I used to spend my time
A-servin' of 'Er Majesty the Queen,
Of all them black-faced crew
The finest man I knew
Was our regimental bhisti, Gunga Din.

It was "Din! Din! Din!
You limping lump o' brick-dust, Gunga Din!
Hi! slippy hitherao!
Water, get it! Panee lao!
You squidgy-nosed old idol, Gunga Din!"

The uniform 'e wore
Was nothin' much before,
An' rather less than 'arf o' that be'ind,
For a twisty piece o' rag
An' a goatskin water-bag
Was all the field-equipment 'e could find.
When the sweatin' troop-train lay
In a sidin' through the day,
Where the 'eat would make your bloomin' eyebrows crawl,
We shouted "Harry By!"
Till our throats were bricky-dry,
Then we wopped 'im 'cause 'e couldn't serve us all.

It was "Din! Din! Din!
You 'eathen, where the mischief 'ave you been?
You put some juldee in it,
Or I'll marrow you this minute,
If you don't fill up my helmet, Gunga Din!"

'E would dot an' carry one
Till the longest day was done,
An' 'e didn't seem to know the use o' fear.
If we charged or broke or cut,
You could bet your bloomin' nut,
'E'd be waitin' fifty paces right flank rear.
With 'is mussick on 'is back,
'E would skip with our attack,
An' watch us till the bugles made "Retire."
An' for all 'is dirty 'ide,
'E was white, clear white, inside
When 'e went to tend the wounded under fire!

It was "Din! Din! Din!"
With the bullets kickin' dust-spots on the green.
When the cartridges ran out,
You could 'ear the front-files shout:
"Hi! ammunition-mules an' Gunga Din!"

I sha'n't forgit the night
When I dropped be'ind the fight
With a bullet where my belt-plate should 'a' been.
I was chokin' mad with thirst,
An' the man that spied me first
Was our good old grinnin', gruntin' Gunga Din.

'E lifted up my 'ead,
An' 'e plugged me where I bled,
An' 'e guv me 'arf-a-pint o' water—green;
It was crawlin' an' it stunk,
But of all the drinks I've drunk,
I'm gratefullest to one from Gunga Din.

It was "Din! Din! Din!
'Ere's a beggar with a bullet through 'is spleen;
'E's chawin' up the ground an' 'e's kickin' all around:
For Gawd's sake, git the water, Gunga Din!"

'E carried me away
To where a dooli lay,
An' a bullet come an' drilled the beggar clean.
'E put me safe inside,
An' just before 'e died:
"I 'ope you liked your drink," sez Gunga Din.
So I'll meet 'im later on
In the place where 'e is gone—
Where it's always double drill and no canteen;
'E'll be squattin' on the coals
Givin' drink to pore damned souls,
An' I'll get a swig in Hell from Gunga Din!

Din! Din! Din!
You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din!
Tho' I've belted you an' flayed you,
By the livin' Gawd that made you,
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!

Rudyard Kipling

Lamh Foistenach Abu!