I'm looking for poetic mantra or quote ideas for the female protagonist of my novel. Something her mother used to say maybe. Something she says before going into battle, when she's scared, when she needs to be brave. Also, something that looks good on the page. Nothing too long. Something memorable.

Chanced upon this poem by Ocean Vuong!! Snow on your lips like a salted cut!! wow. and the whole thing about opening your eyes will take you back to the house. i have mostly read poems transporting you to a place that you think of but his opening eye to be back home is a such a beautiful way to say how broken his house was.

the image of his mother's boyfriend kneeling at his bedside only made me imagine what all must have happened. This poem is so layered!!! what a genius!!

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hiya! do y'all have poems that 1) may be a bit hard to understand 2) are sort of niche.. BUT you can't find the meanings of no matter where you search online??? (or you'd just want another take lmao)

I was wondering if anyone would be interested in viewing and recommending some poems (I need some motivation to do it lols) if I were to start posting literary breakdowns of poems!

I want you to be honest because so far I've only done it for class (and I find it pretty damn fun), but I don't know if this is something others would be interested in hahahaa

“Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” is one of the strangest poems I’ve read. The title comes from a line in King Lear, but Browning builds a whole nightmare around it.

Roland is a knight searching for the Dark Tower. From the first stanza he distrusts everything, even the old cripple who points him the way. Then the landscape gets worse and worse: burnt grass, a starving blind horse, a river where he’s afraid he’s stabbing a baby’s corpse with his spear. Nothing attacks him. The land itself feels hostile, and that’s scarier than any monster would be.

What stayed with me is that Roland doesn’t really want to win anymore. He says he just wants the journey to end, whichever way. He remembers friends like Cuthbert and Giles who tried before him and were disgraced, and he expects the same. I think that’s very human. Sometimes you keep going not because you’re hopeful but because stopping feels worse.

The ending is my favourite part. The tower appears out of nowhere, plain and squat, and he sees the ghosts of all the failed knights watching from the hills. We never learn what’s inside or whether he survives. He just sets the horn to his lips, “dauntless,” and blows. The quest was never about the prize. It’s about choosing courage when you already think you’ll lose.

The form adds to the tension. Each six-line stanza rhymes ABBAAB, and the repeated sounds feel trapped and circular, like his journey.

Browning said the poem came to him almost like a dream, and it reads like one. I don’t fully get it, and maybe I’m not supposed to. That’s why I keep thinking about it.

We’ve been at it down south for two years now and we feel now is the perfect time to really branch put and grow our posse. Over the next few months, we’re looking for Cowboy and Cowgirl poets from diverse backgrounds to TELL THEIR STORY, contributing tales of their ancestors, the land, the west and what makes us who we are. It is our goal to thus help tell the complete and true story of the the West and revitalize this great American artform here in Los Angeles. Some more info on who we are:

Cowboy Poetry LA is a contemporary cultural organization celebrating the poetry, music, art, storytelling, and traditions of the American West — reimagined for Los Angeles and a new generation.

We exist as an organization that hosts cowboy poetry events. It’s an effort to build a living community around Western expression, where traditional cowboy culture meets the creative energy of LA.

Cowboy Poetry LA is a project performance based participation from creating workshops with typewriters, producing cultural events, bringing artists together, and giving Western poetry a place in Los Angeles.

We’ve worked to connect the organization with the wider folklife community, including our involvement in the Elko National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and other arts events.

Cowboy Poetry LA is a Los Angeles-based folklife and cultural organization celebrating the poetry, music, storytelling, and creative traditions of the American West. Through participatory writing workshops, open mics, live performances, and community gatherings, we bring Western heritage into conversation with contemporary art and culture. Our mission is to keep these traditions alive by creating spaces where people can share stories, make new work, and connect across generations.

Cofounder - Zane York

https://www.instagram.com/cowboypoetryla

How do the greats like Rimbaud, Shelley, etc. do it? How do you genuinely get on that level? I know they practiced a lot, but how do you form words in the ways they did? I'm just so curious.

I have experienced this most in critique groups!! Every line has to take you somewhere and lead to an experience we never had before!! Billy Collins put it really well and I am going to use this a lot!!

" all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with a rope and torture a confession out of it" .

That day in Ui-dong
sleet fell
and my body, companion to my soul
shivered with each falling tear.

Get on your way.

Are you hesitating?
What are you dreaming, hovering like that?

Two-storey houses lit like flowers,
beneath them I learned agony
and towards a land of joy as yet untouched
foolishly reached out a hand.

Get on your way.

What are you dreaming? Keep walking.

Towards memories forming on a streetlamp, I walked.
There I looked up and inside the lightshade
was a pitch-black house. Pitch-black
house of light

The sky was dark and in that darkness
resident birds
flew up casting off the weight of their bodies.
How many times would I have to die to fly like that?
Nobody could hold my hand.

What dream is so lovely?
What memory
shines so brightly?

Sleet, like the tips of mother’s fingers,
raking through my dishevelled eyebrows
striking frozen cheeks and again
stroking that same spot,

Hurry up and get on your way.

So, I've been asked to do a reading at a relatives wedding and I'm struggling to find one that fits. If anyone has any suggestions based on the following themes I'd love to read them.

Themes:

- Friendship. We are cousins but lived in the same city for a number of years and developed a relationship separate from our family which we both value.

- Hope and the complexities of life. Our families are pretty messy and we're not related by blood but we made something good out of it. Not perfect but it works.

- The idea that family can be something you build, not necessarily what you're born into

- Grief. We recently lost someone close to us due to illness who's presence will be missed on the day