Your favorite poem

[Yooper 0]

Life is a fucked up highway,
with many twists and turns.
Sometimes it feels like heaven,
sometimes you end up burned.
Some people drive their Cadillacs,
and live in big white homes.
Some of us walk on the side of the road,
we were meant to roam.
I don't know what changes us,
or if we change at all.
But in ths great big world of ours,
sometimes I feel so goddamn small.
I'm gonna keep on walkin,
until I can't go on,
makin my way through the cold dark night,
until the rise of dawn.
I'm gonna walk to the end of the earth,
if that's where I've got to go.
So, I can see my baby again,
and press my lips to her's once more.
Life just ain't worth livin,
without somebody else in your bed,
without somebody else to hold in your arms,
without somebody else to cry when you're dead,
So, I'm gonna keep on walkin,
until I find my love.
So, we can be together in heaven,
runnin with the stars above.
Mizhakwit,
Chad

[froggie 0]

"I Remember a Place..."
I remember a place
when all my thoughts could do was race.
They ran around.
Causing a deafing sound.
They filled my soul
and made it so very cold.
I wonder how each new day
can shed a ray
of sunshine
into my mind.
How each new day
leaves me more able to say
that I am alright
that I no longer must fight
the emotions that I felt
the hand that I was dealt.
Just ten months ago
I suffered a blow
that warped my emotions
One that could engulf the greatest ocean.
I think of that chapter
and how it wrote no laughter.
Each paragraph
told only half
of the feelings that I felt.
and how I delt.
Because words can not say
why I felt that way.
But now I think back
and the tears that I lack
do not push through.
They are no longer new.
Now I'm healing
and now I'm dealing
and now I'm seeing
and now I'm being
who I once was before.
And now I'm closing an iron door.
And now all I can say
is that Im on my way
to being okay
I'm on my way
to a land that I can say
is where I want to be
a land that is me.

[froggie 0]

this isnt really a poem but its helped a lot. I was having one of those horrific Im-14-and-life-sucks moments. you know, before I actually had real problems :) in any case, I took out the family bible just to see if this whole "have faith and your questions will be answered thing" would work.. well, i opened the bible and what do I see on the very first page that I open to but a worn out book mark that says:
God grant me the serentity to accept the things I can not change
Courage to change the things I can
and wisdom to know the difference.
froggie

[Pammi 0]

Perhaps with all the apparent skydiver poets and poetry lovers here, someone knows of this one? I read a short poem a couple of years ago in the front of a book, but the book disappeared (it was someone else's in my office) before I could copy it down. It was about how everyone that comes into your life touches it, and changes you in some permanent way, even after they are gone and how they probably don't even realize it. I love it, but haven't been able to find it since. I don't even know who wrote it. Any ideas?
Pammi
"The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live."
http://trak.to/skydivechick

[SkySlut 0]

"There once was a man from Nantucket..."
-Slut
"I'll jump anything!"

[PalmettoTiger 1]

Quote

"There once was a man from Nantucket..."

Click here to see how that one got started!!
Blues, squares,
PTiger

[PalmettoTiger 1]

EDIT Whoops, sorry about the double post. It did put me up into Enthusiast, though! Woohoo! I've added a picture to my profile in honor of the occasion. It's slightly out of date, though. /EDIT

Quote

"There once was a man from Nantucket..."

Click here to see how that one got started!!
Blues, squares,
PTiger
Edited by palmettoTiger on 4/26/01 07:34 AM.

[skydiverkaz 0]

That'd be the one that they used in 4 Weddings and A Funeral, yes?

[SkySlut 0]

That is actually fairly interesting...I didnt know that was a real peom...I have only heard the dirty versions.
-Slut
"I'll jump anything!"

[skydiverkaz 0]

Again another, "when-life-sucks" poem (or for the pre-skydiving part of life).
Footprints
One night a man had a dream,
He dreamed he was walking along the beach with God
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life
For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints;
One belonged to him and the other to God
When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
He looked back at the footprinst in the sand.
To his suprise, he noticed that many times
along the path of his life
there was only on set of footprints.
He realised that this was at the very lowest
and saddest times of his life
This really bothered him and he questioned God about it
"God, you told me that when I decided to follow you,
you would walk and talk with me all the way.
So why is it, that during the most troublesome
times of my life, when I needed you most,
there was only one set of footprints?
I just don't understand why you would leave me."
God whispered "My precious, precious child,
I love you and would never leave,
never ever, during your trials and testings
When you saw only on set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you"
Soppy? Yeah, I know, but I liked it!
Love Kxxxx

[Tee 0]

Great idea Sangiro! I have so many poeams that I like, I especially like the ones that teach life lessons such as "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. Here are a couple more:
This is the beginning of a new day.
I have been given this day to use as I will.
I can waste it or use it for good,
But what I do today is important,
Because I am exchanging a day of my life for it!
When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever,
Leaving in its place something that I have traded for it.
I want it to be gain, and not loss;
Good, and not evil;
Success, and not failure;
In order that I shall not regret the price that I have paid for it.
~author unknown~
After A While . . .
After a while you learn the subtle difference between
holding a hand and chaining a soul.
And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning and
company doesn't mean security.
And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts
and presents aren't promises.
And you begin to accept your defeats with your head
up and your eyes open, with the grace of an adult,
not the grief of a child.
And you learn to build all your roads today
because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for
plans. After a while you learn that even sunshine burns if
you get too much.
So plant your own garden and decorate your own
soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you
flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure . . .
That you really are strong,
And you really do have worth.
Veronica A. Shoffstall
Tee

[Jessica 0]

With the mood I'm in today:
The Second Coming -- W. B. Yeats
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

[DrunkMonkey 0]

Here's a favorite:
THE PAY TOILET, Anonymous
Here I sit now,
Broken-Hearted,
Paid a Quarter,
And only Farted.

[sangiro 26]

Quote

Here I sit now,
Broken-Hearted,
Paid a Quarter,
And only Farted.

...as always, we degress.
Safe swoops
Sangiro

[leapinlizard 0]

Danny, Donny, Jordan, Joey,
Dweezil, Frankie, Moon and Zoe,
Whole-wheat, rye or even Pita,
Nacho, Chedder, Swiss Velveda
Oh, the blue skies are calling me back again!!!

[Deleted 0]

After some longgg thought, I wrote this myself; I want it to be read at my memorial service (which is hopefully a longg ways off!!!!)
LET THIS END WHERE IT BEGAN.....
Let this end where it began,
Where I faced my fears and said "I can!"
Where cares were few, where laughter flowed,
Where no one told me "You’re too old..."
Let this end where I felt free,
Where I could come and simply ‘be’...
Where I learned to jump and learned to fly,
And found a passion for the sky.
This place was home; here I felt whole -
You saw my heart, you touched my soul...
You all became my family,
I loved how you watched out for me!
So now it ends where it began,
One Alpha Mike is up again
Into the sunset’s magic light
The Caravan climbs for my last flight.
Big way at dusk - my ashes cast...
Part of this place, I’m home at last.
My heart finds peace, my soul flies free
Blue skies, light winds - eternally.....
Back on the ground the beer light’s on;
The ‘Hut’ is stocked, go have some fun!
Please raise a toast; toss back those beers,
Please party on, please shed no tears....
"cc"

[Deleted 0]

I wrote this, but I want it to be anonymous.
I've got an itchy sore
a yellow scaley scab
and though it's often threatened to
it's never bled
They tell me not to pick it
I can only make it worse
And though I've had some scary moments
I've never bled
So I hope you understand
that while I'd like to let you near
to see my sore,
you could make me bleed

[BlueSkyz 0]

My favorite is still "An Irish Airman...", but since that's already here - another good one...
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high pilèd books, in charact'ry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain ;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance ;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour !
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love ! - then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.
Blue Ones,
Dave

[Deleted 0]

Mortal Skygod
The hawk floats gently upon the sky,
a winged predator who will kill in the blink of an eye.
So pure and graceful to see,
the skydiver falls fast as can be.
Trying to be a hawk in 60 seconds of one G,
when they meet the hawk will not speak.
Disdainful of the skydiver who must walk upon his feet.
Remember this sky gods who are not very sleek,
you to also walk upon your feet.
So when you pass the novice lad or lass,
as they struggle with the skydiving path.
Treat them kindly at every chance,
because to the hawk you too are crass.
Both the novice and sky god have feet of clay,
the hawk can out fly you and ole day....
© Snuffy Smith D-17105
(more poetry featured by Snuffy at http://www.skydive.ie/poetry.htm)

[pyke 0]

well, I have several that I refer to often for inspiration, but none have ever touched me SO much as this poem by Robert Service. If ever asked which is my favourite poem, this one comes out of my mouth faster than you can finish your question.....
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold
Those arctic trails have their secret tales, that'll make your blood run cold
Those northern lights have seen queer sights
But the queerest they ever have seen
Was that night on the barge of Lake Lamarge
When I cremated Sam McGee
Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee
Where the cotton blooms and blows
And why he left his home, in the south to roam 'round the Pole
God only knows
It was Christmas day and we were mushing away
Down the Dawson trail
The icy cold through the parkas fold
Would chill you clean to the bone....
it is like 7 pages long, so I will spare Sangiro the space, but if you ever want to read a FANTASTIC poem about friendship against all odds, then The Cremation of Sam McGee is perhaps the best.
Cheers for the idea, man I love this stuff too!
(SpeedRacer...Man, good on ya!!! My brother is the only other person I have met who can quote the Jabberwocky from memory!)
Cheers,
Kia Kaha,
Pyke
NZPF A-2584

[freefallfreak 0]

Froggie,
I read that too but our version down here in S.C. goes like this...
God, grant me the serenity, to accept the things I cannot change,
The Courage to change the things I can,
And the Weaponry to make the difference...
FFF

[freefallfreak 0]

Merrick,
This one should have been written and shown to me a few months ago...and I should have taken it to heart...
FFF

[freefallfreak 0]

A final one and I will stop...
There once was a man named James,
Who had a passion for silly games.
He lighted the hair.
Of his young love's affair,
And laughed - as she pee'd through the flames...
FFF

[jtval 0]

i write lyrics and peoptry also, but i will post something you may have heard b4. i9f you didnt im sure you will here it again(maybe atfter the last jump)

heres to you and here's to me
good friends we will always be.
but if we ever disagree
fuk you and here to me!!! :-)
bottoms up
JT

[Zennie 0]

What's a poetry discussion without a little haiku? And who better to do some haiku than the Zen-meister? here's a couple for ya (wrote 'em off the cuff, so sorry of they suck).
I exit the door.
Falling. Floating. Smiling. Glee!
Freefall is too short.
Under canopy.
Nice smooth pull on my toggle.
Round & round I spin!
------------
Blue Skies!
Zennie