Topic: Favorite Poems

[efin]

Humor me?

Annabel Lee
     
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

~Edgar Allan Poe

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers.    Don't cry

[Cypress]

 We Are Seven

[Mooning Freddy]

"Givat Ha Tahmoshet"- "The Ammunition Hill"- One of the most famous Israeli military songs. It tells the story of the battle over the Ammunition Hill, a vital strategic point in the war of 1967.
Lame English translation by me.

The Ammunition Hill/ Yoram Tehar Lev and Yair Rozenblum

It was the morning of the second day of war in Jerusalem.
The horizon was shining in the East.
We were in the middle of the battle over the Ammunition Hill.
We were fighting for three hours, the battle was stubborn and deadly.
The Jordanians were fighting stubbornly. It was an unusually fortified site.
At some point of the battle, I was left with only four soldiers.
We headed upwards with the strength of two groups.
I did not know where the others are, because the connection with Dudik, the group commander was broken right from the battle's beginning.
At that moment I assumed they were all killed.

At two, two-thirty,
We went inside through the boulders
To the field of fire and mines
Of the Ammunition Hill.

In front of fortified bunkers
And 120 mortars
A hundred and some young men
On the Ammunition Hill.

The sun has not yet risen
And half the group lied in the blood
But we were already there
At the Ammunition Hill.

Between the fences and the mines
We left only the medics behind
And kept running, senseless,
To the Ammunition Hill. 

At that moment a grenade was thrown at us from the other side. It was a miracle that no one was hurt.
I was afraid that the Jordanians would throw additional grenades.
Somebody had to go up and watch out.
I had no time to ask for volunteers. I sent Eitan.
Eitan didn't even hesitate. He climbed up and started operating the machine-gun.
Sometimes he went too far and I had to shout at him to stay in my line. We passed around thirty meters like that.
Eitan was covering us from upstairs, while we were clearing the bunkers from within, until he was hit in the head and fell inside.

We went down into the canals
To the catacombs and the railways
And to the death in the tunnels
Of the Ammunition Hill.

And nobody would ask where
The one who was first has fallen
You needed lots of luck
On the Ammunition Hill.

The one who fell was dragged behind
So he won't make a trouble passing
Until the next one falls as well
On the Ammunition Hill.

Maybe we were lions
But the one who still wished to live
He shouldn't have been there
On the Ammunition Hill.

We decided to try and blow up their bunker with a bazooka.
The bazooka only scratched the concrete a bit.
We decided to try explosives. I was covering until the guy with the explosive charges arrived.
He would throw me the explosives in packs, and I would lay them one by one at their bunker.
They had a method: first they would toss a grenade, then they would shoot, and then rest.
So between the shooting and the grenade, I would come up to their doorway, and leave the explosive charges there.
I detonated the explosives and retreated as far as I could.
I had four meters to move, because there were legionairs behind me.
I don't know why I received a commendation. I just wanted to come home in peace.

In seven, seven twenty
Into the police school
They gathered everyone who remained
From the Ammunition Hill.

Smoke was rising from the hill
The sun in the East was high
We returned to the city only seven
From the Ammunition Hill.

To the city we returned only seven in number
From the hill, smoke was rising
The sun in the East was high
Over the Ammunition Hill.

Over fortified bunkers
And our brothers the brave men
That were forever left twenty-years-old
On the Ammunition Hill.