NationStates Jolt Archive


Poetry must keep you looking young.

Drunk commies deleted
08-02-2006, 17:37
Omar Khayam, a persian poet born in 1048, was recently arrested for mimicking a suicide bomber in protest of the Muhammad cartoons. It turns out he'd been previously arrested for drug charges. There's a picture of him if you click the link. He looks pretty good for his age.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4687996.stm
Eynonistan
08-02-2006, 17:42
And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted - "Open then the Door!
You know how little time we have to stay,
And once departed, may return no more."



Alike for those who for TO-DAY prepare,
And thoat after a TO-MORROW stare,
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries
"Fools! your reward is neither Here nor There!"



Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss'd
Of the Two Worlds so learnedly, are thrust
Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn
Are scatter'd, and their mouths are stopt with Dust.



Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise
To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies;
One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies;
The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.



Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out of the same Door as in I went.



With the the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand labour'd it to grow:
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd -
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."



Into this Universe, and why not knowing,
Nor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing:
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing.



The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.



And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,
Whereunder crawling coop't we live and die,
Lift not thy hands to It for help - for It
Rolls impotently on as Thou or I.


That's what I always say...
Frangland
08-02-2006, 17:43
are his looks in defiance of Frost's axiomatic poem?

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Mariehamn
08-02-2006, 17:44
News to random quotes of unknown poets. Nice.