No Takebacks

I think I'll start things off with a couple (goofy) haikus today.

Galactica knows
But turns a blind eye to it
Adama loves Thrace

They dance, sometimes close
Sometimes throwing hard punches
Never in private

From:

reginaspina.livejournal.com

OK, first the serious one (May Sarton's "Leaves before the Wind") (Especially the third stanza is SO Kara and Lee.)

Leaves before the Wind

We have walked, looked at the actual trees:
The chesnut leaves wide-open like a hand,
The beech leaves bronzing under every breeze,
We have felt flowing through our knees

As if we were the wind.

We have sat silent when two horses came,
Jangling their harness, to mow the long grass.
We have sat long and never found a name
For this suspension in the heart of flame

That does not pass.

We have said nothing; we have parted often,
Not looking back, as if departure took
An absolute of will--once not again
(But this is each day's feat, as when

The heart first shook).

Where fervor opens every instant so,
There is no instant that is not a curve,
And we are always coming as we go;
We lean toward the meeting that will show

Love's very nerve.

And so exposed (O leaves before the wind!)
We bear this flowing fire, forever free,
And learn through devious paths to find
The whole, the center, and perhaps unbind

The mystery

Where there are no roots, only fervent leaves,
Nourished on meditations and the air,
Where all that comes is also all that leaves,
And every hope compassionately lives

Close to despair.

- May Sarton

***

And here's the beginning of my Crack Pilots' Epic, "The Leeneid":

Lee and Kara Thrace I sing, who forc'd by fate
And haughty RDM's unrelenting hate,
Left shippers' hearts full heavy and sore;
Long sorrows from alternaships they bore.
O Muse! The causes and crimes relate;
What Ron Moore was provok'd and whence his hate;
For what offense the showrunner began
To persecute so hot a woman and man;
Of closure gave them not one smidgen,
Instead beset them with *poof* and the pigeon.

From:

And here's the beginning of my Crack Pilots' Epic, "The Leeneid":

Um ... WOW. Can't wait to read this. Beautifully done!

From:

I exhausted my poetry prowess yesterday with the blatant remix (plagiarism?) of the Dr. Seuss thing. I'll just sit back and enjoy everyone else's contribution today.

From:

I have always loved this Mari Evans poem. It reminds me of hundred little events in my own life. Loss and sadness and regrets... and I find myself chanting little bits of it to myself whenever things get bad. Looking at today's post, it occurred to me that this could all be spoken from Lee's POV as well. Enjoy! K

Where Have You Gone Mari Evans

Where have you gone

with your confident
walk with
your crooked smile

why did you leave
me
when you took your
laughter
and departed
are you aware that
with you
went the sun
all light
and what few stars
there were?

where have you gone
with your confident
walk your
crooked smile the
rent money
in one pocket and
my heart
in another . . .

Edited Date: 2010-06-19 07:45 pm (UTC)

From:

The Leeneid is AWESOME! LOL

From:

That was EPIC, btw. *hugs* K

P.S. I DO like your yellow hat.

From:

So often when I see pics of Fat!Lee, I think of this Charles Baudelaire poem fragment.

In french,
Ne cherchez plus mon coeur, les betes l'ont mange. (No french pronunciation marks - excusez moi)

In english,
Search no more for my heart, the wild animals have devoured it.

From:

I love my yellow hat too. Thanks bb &hearts

From:

Oh wow. How totally appropriate!

From:

ecstaticdance.livejournal.com

LOL! &hearts

From:

So good! (And although it's funny on one level, it's also desperately sad on another.)

From:

Well, Fat!Lee had eaten everything else!

From:

Not to liken Kara's betrayal to a pack of ravenous, wild animals feeding upon his loving feelings and leaving him bereft, but Lee's devastation was as if that was exactly what had happened.

From:

Bonjour tristesse (& pass the chips while you're up) !

From:

utenatai.livejournal.com

I picked up Stephen Dunn's Between Angels, which has been sitting on my shelf since undergrad, and for some reason this go 'round a couple of poems really struck me, probably because they feel so pilots-y to me.

Letting the Puma Go Stephen Dunn, from Between Angels

I'll make a perfect body, said God,
and invent ways to make it fail.
--lines removed from the poem

He liked to watch the big cats.
He liked their beautiful contept,
yet imagined how they might change
and love him
and stretch out near his geet
if he were to let them go.
And of course he wanted
to let them go
as he wanted to let himself go,
grateful for the iron bars, the lock.
He'd heard the tiger succeeds
only once in twenty hunts-
the fragile are that attunced
and that fast-
and was confused again about God,
the god who presided here.
He'd watch the tigers at feeding time,
then turn to the black panther,
its languid fierce pacing, and know
it was possible not to care
if the handsome get everything.
Except for the lions.
Hadn't the lions over the years
become their names, like the famous?
But he could spend half an afternoon
with those outfielders,
the pumas, cheetahs, leopards.
So this is excellence, he imagined:
movement toward the barely possible,
the puma's dream
of running down a hummingbird
on a grassy plain.
And then he'd let the puma go,
just before closing time
he'd wish-open its cage
and follow it into the suddenly
uncalm streets,
telling all the children it was his.

From:

utenatai.livejournal.com

Mon Semblable Stephen Dunn, from Between Angels

I like things my way
every chance I get.
A limit doesn't exist

when it comes to that.
But please, don't confuse
what I say with honesty.

Isn't honesty the open yawn
the unimaginative love
more than truth?

Anonymous among strangers
I look for those
with hidden wings,

and for scars
that those who once had wings
can't hide.

Though I know it's unfair,
I reveal myself
one mask at a time.

Does this appeal to you,
such slow disclosures,
a lifetime perhaps

of almost knowing one another?
I would hope you, too
would hold something back

and that you'd always want
whatever unequal share
you had style enough to get.

Altruism is for those
who can't endure their desires.
There's a world

as ambiguous as a moan,
a pleasure moan
our earnest neighbors

might think a crime.
It's where we could live.
I'll say I love you,

which will lead, of course,
to disappointment,
but those words unsaid

poison every next moment.
I will try to disappoint you
better than anyone ever has.

From:

Is there MORE to this Leeneid?!

I also really liked the Sarton piece. Thanks!

From:

That is very Lee's POV. I like this one a lot, but it's making me sad. :/ Poor Leland...

From:

The imagery in this one is great! Wanting to let the puma go to try to claim it as his... It does ring very pilot-y.

From:

This weekend has been busier than I wanted, but I thought I'd come back and write the poem I wanted to write yesterday. With talk of the poof, I've been thinking about whether or not Kara had any free will in poofing. She said she thought she was done there and she goes away off screen, so I wanted to explore what may have been going on with her while Lee geeked out about exploring.

I Know Now

I know now how real love feels
Unconditional, eternal
It doesn't scare me
Anymore

I know now what I wouldn't see before
The fire of love, there
In your eyes when you looked at me
Always

I know now why I can't stay
Not of this world, yet here, now
Full of love, undeserved
Complete

From:

Me too, but damn I love that poem.

From:

rachelindeed.livejournal.com

Hello! Well, I've been out of town for a few days, so I missed this lovely topic. But I love poetry too much to hold back just because everyone else has moved on :) So I'd like to share this Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem, the 22nd of her Sonnets from the Portuguese. It gives a beautiful Lee POV for the end of the series ~ I actually think it is the perfect poetic accompaniment to wisteria's masterful post-finale AU "The Reality and Immortality of Things."

Sonnet 22:

When our two souls stand up erect and strong,
Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,
Until the lengthening wings break into fire
At either curvèd point,--what bitter wrong
Can the earth do to us, that we should not long
Be here contented? Think.

In mounting higher,
The angels would press on us and aspire
To drop some golden orb of perfect song
Into our deep, dear silence.

Let us stay
Rather on earth, Belovèd,--where the unfit
Contrarious moods of men recoil away
And isolate pure spirits, and permit
A place to stand and love in for a day,
With darkness and the death-hour rounding it.

~~~
~~~

I also love this one, which again offers a lovely Lee POV for the final season, and combines themes of fate and free will, destiny and choice, in interesting ways. Plus it ties in the idea of Kara as the woman fated to save humanity with a mystical song :)

What I really love about this poem is the idea that maybe Kara could decide Lee's destiny far more freely than she could shape her own.

(These are excerpts from Sonnet 17 of the same series):

My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes
God set between His After and Before,
And strike up and strike off the general roar
Of the rushing worlds a melody that floats
In a serene air purely.

God's will devotes
Thine to such ends, and mine to wait on thine.

How, Dearest, wilt thou have me for most use?
A hope, to sing by gladly? or a fine
Sad memory, with thy songs to interfuse?
A shade, in which to sing--of palm or pine?
A grave, on which to rest from singing? Choose.

~~

From:

rachelindeed.livejournal.com

This was really lovely. Thank you!

From: