Poem for Sunday

Lines: "I Am"
By John Clare

I am -- yet what I am, none cares or knows;
My friends forsake me like a memory lost:
I am the self-consumer of my woes --
They rise and vanish in oblivion's host
Like shadows in love-frenzied stifled throes --
And yet I am and live -- like vapours tossed

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
Into the living sea of waking dreams
Where there is neither sense of life or joys
But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems;
Even the dearest that I love the best
Are strange -- nay, rather, stranger than the rest.

I long for scenes where man hath never trod,
A place where woman never smiled or wept,
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Untroubling and untroubled where I lie,
The grass below -- above, the vaulted sky.

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From Poet's Choice in The Washington Post, Edward Hirsch on Clare, about whom he says, "A secular religious sensibility -- 'the quiet love of nature's presence' -- animates his work, early and late...Clare was 'addicted' to poetry, helpless before his rural muse." The column also comments on Jonathan Bate's new John Clare: A Biography and "a splendid selected poems that demonstrates the complete range of Clare's achievement, which is no mean feat since he wrote more than 3,500 poems over a 35-year period."

I betaed this so I'm prejudiced but am pimping anyway heathcee's "There are none so blind..." and "...as those who will not see", sad romantic Arafara with lots of Faraboro overlaid and some Araboro too.

Created by my lovely rohandove, and why do I seem to be the only person on my Flist who got this answer?


Noble! Faramir Quiet, noble and a good man.
Protector of Ithilien, Faramir was the youngest
son of Denethor II and brother to Boromir of
Gondor. Captain of the Rangers, he was beloved
by his men.
Which Faramir Do You Prefer?
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office_ennui, they arrived yesterday and I am so happy! *smooches you and hopes things are better*

Jack and Stephen (the squirrels) are playing on my deck in the recycling bin. Excuse me, I must go take pictures.