Nikki, certainly, had an expansive mind. Thanks, for sharing, Byron.

---

<Edit>

Julie wrote:

Beautiful Byron:) I was just listening to this song:)))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYfiRvL-zUU&feature=share

Annie wrote:

Wonderful poem Byron! Thank you :)

Jim Martin Wrote:

Nikki, certainly, had an expansive mind. Thanks, for sharing, Byron.

Hello Annie, Hello Julie and Hello Jim and hello everyone,

you are most wellcome ... I am glad you liked the poem :)

here is a photo of Nikki Giovanni in 1980.



more info about Nikki Giovanni in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Giovanni

Best Wishes
Byron

Nikki, certainly, had an expansive mind. Thanks, for sharing, Byron.

She certainly did - she sort of - owned the world by the end of it - or was that just me? :)

Bit of a long one...

Once Upon a Bedtime...

The sheet the sheet the blankets too and then the eiderdown...
The days before the duvet came caused many little frowns.
So in you'd get, all by yourself, and in a room all dark...
No night night kiss nor hall light on to make it seem less stark.

Which way to curl
which way to watch
for demons in the night?
The door the window cold and dark but what about what might...?

So courage plucked
she'd peer beneath
and breathe in deep relief!
No demons there to reach above
and freeze her neath a sheet.

But what about the bedroom door?
no...
he CANNOT come tonight...
but that still left the windowpane
to hold away the fright...

Make sure it's locked
make sure it's locked
make sure that is locked too...
a house that sleeps but for one child tiptoeing her way through.

Then finally with frozen feet (it is what stone slabs do)
she makes a final run to bed and gets deep in it too.
At quite what point she finally slept is anybody's guess...
but it always came before sweet illusions of caress
when duty said a little girl best not roll out of bed...
if all there was was stone 'pon which to catch her weary head.

So tuck her in!
And tuck her in
as tight as tight can be!
with sheet and sheet (and blanket too)
so just eiderdowns are free...

The trouble was she flew a lot,
that oh so little one... :)
She soared and dived and floated
inbetween the earth and sun. :)
But doing that in dreams you see,
imprisoned in a bed,
means curling round, and round again
until your feet become your head.
They do not breathe too well you know
parked on the pillow case
so flying must stop and battling start to free your little face...

Emerging from the other end (than you're supposed to do)
means everything in your bedroom is not what you're used to!
Colliding first with cupboards, then a wall (and curtains too)
is not much fun when all you want is a way out to the loo.

Then dawn arrives. It's time to rise and gaze upon the scene...
But...
What war was THIS...
this wreckage STREWN...
what mighty BEAST roared through?
Why are the sheets (and blankets too) so SPREAD about the room?

You'd better tidy up that MESS! and make that bed real FAST!
before anyone within the house should happen to go PAST!

Pick them up, untangle them and wrestle them one by one.
hurl and heave and flap about (don't blankets weigh a ton!?)
sneeze and bang your knees then tug and pull and tuck all round
The sheet the sheet the blankets too and then the eiders down.

Do you recall those days at all - or do you have them still?
The days before the duvet came
... well... they made me feel quite ill.

by anniet :)

Beautiful Annie! :)

---

rOZZ
Music
Pictures

Beautiful Annie! :)

+ 100

Lyrics from a song by Boudewijn De Groot, translated by Google Translate.


Mr. President, goodnight.
Sleep quietly in your beautiful white house.
Do not think too much about all those distant shores
where your boys are lonely, far from home.
Do not think of those forty-six deaths,
that mistake with that bombing.
And forget the fourth of the ten commandments
you know as a good Christian sure.

Do not think about all those young soldiers on the frontline
dying alone in the distant tropical night.
Let the soft pacifist clique talk,
Mr. President, sleep tight.

But dream of victory and triumph,
dream about your beautiful ideal of peace
that has never been achieved by bloody murder
dream, but that you will succeed this time.
Do not think about all those people who perish,
how many women, how many children have been killed.
Dream but you will pull the longest straw
and faith from the opposition a word.

Bayonets with bloody hilts
keep far from here at your command the guard
for the glory and honor of the free West.
Mr. President, sleep tight.

Fright, but not too bad when you are in your dreams
all those innocent victims see standing
yonder in the battle were killed
and ask you how long this should go. so
And you will surely know by this time
that there are people who are sick of violence,
that the blood and misery remember
and for whom still counts a lifetime.

Dream, but not too much of all those dead people,
dream about victory and power.
Do not think about all that desired peace.
Mr. President, sleep tight.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxYXLcy6WP8

---

rOZZ
Music
Pictures

Powerful and sad and horribly beautiful. Thank you Julie :) sadly very apt today...

Powerful and sad and horribly beautiful. Thank you Julie :) sadly very apt today...

+1

Sowing and Reaping


Don't like what the poets from the USA say?
Why?

Because, they aren't from Europe?
They haven't gone through WWII?

Haven't lived in an American ghetto?

Are cynical towards life?
Write nonsense poetry?

Cry about the rotten deal, life's dealt them?
In other words, they haven't taken their parents'
"Suffer in silence." advice, to heart?

Are believers in skimming the cream, that was
generated by their parents' generation?

Would not be caught dead,
reading Marcus Aurelius'
"Meditations"?

*

As a member of the "silent generation",
which was born before WWII,

there's not much more to add.

*

Except --

Automation.

Union-busting.

Off-shoring.

Corporate and personal tax-evasion.

Wages, based on rice, corn, and beans.

Bio-engineered crops,
which have non-viable subsequent generations.

Astronomically-high tuition,
with the top of the one percent
pushing everyone else out of higher education.

Global warming.

Lip-service to ecology,
while continuing to plant
increasing acreage in lawns.

*

Not much interest in reading
depressing poetry
that's
too close to home.

And,
nobody likes reading
nonsense poems.


* * *

jm
28 July 2014

---

Yet again a lovely and thought provoking poem Jim :) Thankyou!

When it comes to the nonsense poem
let's examine the xylem and phloem
what goes up must come down
and now i will frown
cos nothing else seems to rhyme with an oem

:) could the above explain your last verse do you think? :)

oem = original equipment manufacturer.

The acronym explains itself
better than trying to make sense of nonsense.

Oops -- I've lost myself, Anniet. All of a sudden, I can't
stand reading this stuff.

---

A Driverless World


If people cause accidents,
there should be driverless cars.

If people cause wars,
there should be computer-controlled
legislative bodies.

If people cause a negative impact
on the environment,
there should be
silicone-people.

A question:

Where does love,
fit in?


* * *

jm
29 July 2014

---

Nice one Jim, very poignant:)

---

rOZZ
Music
Pictures

We Die, to Live


A thousand symphonies,
A thousand painted landscapes,
And,
A thousand tears.

No end, for us,
only to let the joys and sorrows
of life
sweep us towards our horizons.

To touch each other's hearts,
to open a shade
and let a brilliant ray of sunshine
warm a suffering soul --

Each sacrifice, for others . . .
We die, to live.

* * *

jrm
11 Aug 2014

---

Beautiful Jim!

---

rOZZ
Music
Pictures

Beautiful Jim!

Have to agree there!

Translated the text via Google Translate, simply love this song...

Je veux l'amour

That's thirty years da'k in your craft is
'k Did sung in Aalst, Peutie, Zwevezele and Genoelselderen
'k Do do fill, halls "I've also to deflate halls
'k Did known success, "I've known misery

'k Do acclaim had bloemekes, request songs
AC / DC, Cherie, A Bakske of straw
I do not know why, I do not know how it is
But artists usually have just one request number

Je veux de l'amour, je veux de l'amour
Where I go, where I am
Before I die, for I am undone, je veux de l'amour

"Got a syndicate," I've an agent
D'a work by rate, the other on percent
Those who, like me, working on the sentiment
Be through life not long spoiled

They are crazy
Je veux de l'amour
In a canoe, at the beach, in the elevator, on the tram, on the floor

I chat with the guy who offers me a glass
Until I have enough for the next step
I chat with the girl that looks cool
I apron me, compliment and a joke

But I want no joke, sir, I do not joke
Je veux de l'amour

I do not want money back from the operator
I want them to love me, pour toujours

When an artist is successful
Then he has talent, fans, engraved "No. erd like a king
When it does not go as well, what did he even than
Paranoia and doubts and a lot of thirst

Je veux de l'amour, je veux de l'amour, in that hell
If I vomit in the gutter, under 't drool, Hallef death
Je veux de l'amour

Love for me and my dog
That whole night in the car waiting for me
I want even the Prime Minister
All he has his little face not count
Je veux de l'amour, je veux de l'amour
For my sleepless wife, tears wet
When I get home, choking, at four o'clock ochtes
Je veux de l'amour
For my friends who also again tonight the way
In my action can not find
Je-je-je-je veux de l'amour
For my scattered madam
Forgot her pill, abortion, bound for Amsterdam
Je veux de l'amour
Now, not seffes, not directly, not sebiet, not soon, but now
Maintenant, tout de suite, heute, gvd
Je veux de l'amour, and money, money
To buy presents and give to everyone
Lest they love me

R. Van het Groenewoud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oPXkfdy4Hw

Some parts aren't translated because the words are a dialect:)

---

rOZZ
Music
Pictures

Thanks, Julie. It comes to me, at a unique moment -- my older daughter,
Katherine (Kate, Katie), just happily announced to me, via phone, an hour, ago,
that she and her boyfriend are going to get married (about time!). The l'amour is
theirs, certainly. So, the rest of our clan will be heading up to Burlington,
VT, within the next year. Interesting -- His family was in on the development,
some time, ago (He asked Katie; it doesn't always work that way, now-adays.).

So, sweet music, in the air!

---

Happy Days!

Good luck to them from this
happy couple here in Canada!

---