Poetry to Die For: Christina Rossetti

One of my favourite poems of all time is ‘When I am dead, my dearest’ by Victorian poet Christina Rossetti. I realise it’s a morbid thought, but I’d love to record myself reading it out loud, and have it played at my funeral… For me it truly is poetry to die for…

'When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.'

Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

Fandango’s One Word Challenge: Plant

One Liner Wednesday: Ancestors

Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands’

Linda Hogan

One Liner Wednesday

Red Red Rose

I saw this lovely big red rose while out for a walk this afternoon, and it reminded me of Robert Burns 1794 song ‘A Red Red Rose’ which we learned (along with a lot more Rabbie Burns poems) at primary school in Scotland, the simple tune to which I’ve been humming gently ever since… ❤

O my Luve’s like a red red rose,

That’s newly sprung in June:

O my Luve’s like the melodie,

That’s sweetly play’d in tune’

Flower of the Day

In Praise of Colour

‘Colour is a power which directly influences the soul’ – Wassily Kandinsky

One Liner Wednesday

Landscapes of Home

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‘I think the kind of landscape that you grew up in, it lives with you. I don’t think it’s true of people who’ve grown up in cities so much; you may love a building, but I don’t think that you can love it in the way that you love a tree or a river or the colour of the earth; it’s a different kind of love.’ – Arundhati Roy

One liner Wednesday

321 Quote Me… Expression

Suze over at Suziland Too or Obsolete Childhood has challenged me to take part in the ‘321 Quote Me’ Challenge on the topic of Expression…

Rules are:-

1) Thank the selector – Thank you Suze!

2) Post two quotes for the dedicated topic of the day – OK, here goes…

‘Great art is the outward expression of the inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world’ – Edward Hopper

‘Photography, as a powerful meduim of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution’ – Ansel Adams

3) Select three bloggers to take part in ‘321 Quote Me’ – Nah, I’m too much of a rebel to follow ALL the rules… but the offer to join in is open to anyone else who wants to take part! 🙂

Anomaly

“Fortunately, some are born with spiritual immune systems that sooner or later give rejection to the illusory worldview grafted upon them from birth through social conditioning. They begin sensing that something is amiss, and start looking for answers. Inner knowledge and anomalous outer experiences show them a side of reality others are oblivious to, and so begins their journey of awakening. Each step of the journey is made by following the heart instead of following the crowd and by choosing knowledge over the veils of ignorance.” ― Henri Bergson

Often I feel that I am the anomaly in life, I am the one who is out of step with the rest of the world, unable or unwilling to fit my firmly square-edged peg into the restrictive round hole alloted to me. But then I read words like these, and feel reassured that perhaps I am, after all, philosophically on the right path for me, and feel glad of my different outlook to the accepted norm… 🙂

Fandango’s one Word Challenge: Anomaly