Poetry Round-up!

So I've totally been spamming poetry on the theory that it is the most efficient way to go HEY INTERNET THESE POEMS ARE AWESOME READTHEMREADTHEMREADTHEM, but I love you guys! I want you to ALSO have awesome poems and readthemreadthemreadthem. So, linkspam.

Answer, by Bei Dao (translated from the Chinese by Donald Finkel)
Listen. I don't believe!
OK. You've trampled
a thousand enemies underfoot. Call me
a thousand and one.

Incantation, by Czeslaw Milosz (translated from the Polish by the author and Robert Pinsky)
Human reason is beautiful and invicible.
No bars, no barbed wire, no pulping of books,
No sentence of banishment can prevail against it.

Belfast Tune, by Joseph Brodsky (Stanzas 1 & 4 = 100% Buffy Summers, y/n?)
Here's a girl from a dangerous town.
She crops her dark hair short
so that less of her has to frown
when someone gets hurt.

Draft of a Modern Love Poem, by Tadeusz Rozewicz (translated from the Polish by Magnus J. Krynski & Robert A. Maguire)
the most tangible
description of bread
is a description of hunger

Song For Those Who Know, by Hans Magnus Enzensberger (translated from the German by the author and Michael Hamburger)
Something must be done right away
that much we know
but of course it's too soon to act
but of course it's too late in the day
oh we know

I Feel the Dead, by Sophia de Mello Breyner (translated from the Portugese by Ruth Fainlight)
But I have lost my being in so many beings,
Died my life so many times,
Kissed my ghosts so many times

Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff, by A.E. Housman
Oh many a peer of England brews
Livelier liquor than the Muse,
And malt does more than Milton can
To justify God's ways to man.

Tommy, by Rudyard Kipling
Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

The Burning of Paper Instead of Children, by Adrienne Rich
knowledge of the oppressor
this is the oppressor's language

yet I need it to talk to you

Under a Certain Little Star, by Wislawa Szymborska (translated from the Polish by Magnus J. Krynski & Robert A. Maguire)
Accuse me not, O soul, of possessing you but seldom.

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond, by e.e. cummings
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility

The Rare RL Post

1) I admitted today that my grandma was right, I am totally ridiculous about food.

Backstory: I live in the middle of nowhere. You have to drive seven minutes to hit the ege of town. A formative theme in my life? If you're going to town, it'd better be worth it. Aw, we get home and McDonald's gave us the wrong food? Fuck it, I'm not going back to town. You left you book at your mom's? Fuck it, I'm not going back to town.

So today, when I had to go to the library, all the way across town (a whole five minutes extra drive, but whatever), I ended up hitting up five different places for food. Drinks from Sonic, muffins from TK's, cookies from Subway, sammies & salad from Quizno's, and breadsticks from Little Caesar's. This is why I'm always the one who picks up the food.

2) There is a (slim) chance that I may get a better job/escape the Atwoods hellhole. Good thoughts?

3) I am...losing all patience with Atwoods. Do you know how fucking sick I am of having to bite my tongue about customers' rude/inappropriate/racist/liberal-bashing jackassery? But Atwoods is a farm store that caters to a conservative customer base and they make you sign a thing when you get hired that you understand that and no, of course you don't have a problem with it (it's in the handbook; you sign a thing agreeing you've read/will abide by the handbook). So I had to just suck it up and move on when a locally influential asshole joked about ( cut because I WISH I COULD HAVE CUT THAT FIVE MINIUTES OUT OF MY LIFE )

. ALSO TIRED OF PEOPLE - 99% OF THEM OLDER MEN - ASKING ME PROBINGLY IF I KNOW THAT JESUS LOVES ME, OR WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME I WENT TO CHURCH. I DO NOT CARE IF YOU MEAN WELL, KEEP YOUR CULT OUT OF MY WORKPLACE.

3b) PLEASE STOP MAKING ME WATCH YOU PERJURE YOURSELF. Do not ask me "should I sign my name or his?" IT SHOULD ALWAYS BE YOURS. YOU CAN LEGALLY ONLY SIGN YOUR NAME, FUCKWAD. And NO, your Shih Tzu's cans of Science Diet/your daughter's $50 Ariat shirt/your wife's $200 Ferrino boots/your ornamental trees are NOT "for farm use, take the tax off". Farm tax exemptable items must be DIRECTLY USED IN THE PRODUCTION OF AGRICULTURE. Every time you use your exempton, we give you a little piece of paper SAYING THAT and you sign it and YOU ARE IN HERE EVERY WEEK, HOW HAVE YOU NOT READ IT AT LEAST ONCE.

3c) I am pretty sure a disabled veteran's tax exemption is for the veteran/veteran's immediate family, not veteran/wife/children/grandchildren/cousins/friends/former sons-in-law!

4) Wow, that got kind of ranty. Sorry? I also spent a chunk of today thinking about how ridiculously awesome my grandma is? No, guys, she is so funny and mean and amazing that the most common reaction to meeting her is "why can't my grandma be like that?" We got in a slapfight once while driving! Jeannie, Atwoods employee voted Most Likely to Fucking Throw Down, freely admits that my grandma is scary and could kick her ass. Her reaction to open heart surgery? "Screw that, next time just let me die." She cooks better than everyone! She's the one who got me hooked on NCIS and House and CSI: New York and about 15 other shows

5) My yard is SO PRETTY. Dad went crazy one year and planted like 25 trees on top of the ones that came with the house when we bought it?* So there are more trees than anyone's ever counted (the yard is like, an acre-and-a-half, maybe?) and there are seven redbud trees clustered right in front of my north window (which runs basically the whole north wall of my room) and three or four mulberry trees out of my east window (right above my bed). Plus we're on a hill and have pasture (not ours) bordering us to the south and west and basically it is MADE OF GREEN AND GORGEOUSNESS AND PRETTY FLOWERS/WEEDS.

*Hilariously, at least some of this appears to have been so he could later chainsaw the fuck out of them when he's cranky. WE NEVER RUN OUT OF FIREWOOD.