Clair de Lune - A Beautiful but Tragic Story...

Please, listen to the piece whilst reading the poem. Read it to your leisure. Do not rush. Do not worry about your problems for just this moment. Listen to and imagine the beautiful image Claude Debussy has created, with an edge of sadness and tragedy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-s53MpiO-o&list=PL311DF95062B5B090&feature=mh_lolz

Claire de Lune
by Paul Verlaine (1844 – 1896)

Your soul is a chosen landscape
Where charming masked and costumed figures go
Playing the lute and dancing and almost
Sad beneath their fantastic disguises.

All sing in a minor key
Of all-conquering love and careless fortune
They do not seem to believe in their happiness
And their song mingles with the moonlight.

The still moonlight, sad and beautiful,
Which gives the birds to dream in the trees
And makes the fountain sprays sob in ecstasy,
The tall, slender fountain sprays among the marble statues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-s53MpiO-o&list=PL311DF95062B5B090&feature=mh_lolz

A New World To See - a poem by Vanessa Kidson

A New World To See

Vanessa Kidson

Clouds so white, soft like cotton candy

The beach so warm, bright, and sandy

The meadow beyond, so lush with green

Such beauty as this; here only seen.

In the distance lay mountains, covered in blankets of mist

Beds of roses, so red – blush like they have been kissed

This day so lazy, but not quite mellow

The sky – sombre with grey, but the daisies; still vibrant yellow.

People of the city, come, there is a new world to see

Surely the life you’re living is not quite what you thought it would be

For if it were, your home would last more than a mere fifty years

And the end of a day’s work wouldn’t leave you in tears.

Surely your lust for lights will dim in time

As well as the thriving of your city’s sleepless crime

When will this world of endless days come to its end?

The angel will come, and your world’s arrogance will forever descend.

So people of the city, come, there is a new world to see

But it will only live up to your high standards if you so let it be.

This world of grace, a mystery to your mind

Leave it alone for this is the only of its kind.

This world – sleepless like yours –only makes a peep

The only pools to swim in are the rivers and lakes deep.

The only towers you will see are the great trees, mighty tall

And they will stand longer years after your skyscrapers fall.

Come people of the city! Come step into this life!

Leave behind the evils of your world, your ego and your strife.

Bring your love and care – tools for your new home

And use them well, to tend to your greening garden’s growth.