A Paradise of Poems

By Camellia Yang

Camellia reads classic and contemporary poems from all over the world every week.... more

FAQs about A Paradise of Poems:

How many episodes does A Paradise of Poems have?

The podcast currently has 247 episodes available.

A Paradise of Poems episodes:

January 18, 2022 For Solitude by John O'Donohue
May you recognize in your life the presence,
power and light of your soul.
May you realize that you are never alone, that your soul in its brightness and belonging
connects you intimately with the rhythm of the
universe.
May you have respect for your own individuality and
difference.
May you realize that the shape of your soul is
unique, that you have a special destiny here, that behind the facade of your life
there is something beautiful and eternal happening.
May you learn to see your self
with the same delight,
pride, and expectation
with which God sees you in every moment.
...more
4min
January 18, 2022 Paris In Spring Poem by Sara Teasdale

The city's all a-shining
Beneath a fickle sun,
A gay young wind's a-blowing,
The little shower is done.
But the rain-drops still are clinging
And falling one by one --
Oh it's Paris, it's Paris,
And spring-time has begun.

I know the Bois is twinkling
In a sort of hazy sheen,
And down the Champs the gray old arch
Stands cold and still between.
But the walk is flecked with sunlight
Where the great acacias lean,
Oh it's Paris, it's Paris,
And the leaves are growing green.

The sun's gone in, the sparkle's dead,
There falls a dash of rain,
But who would care when such an air
Comes blowing up the Seine?
And still Ninette sits sewing
Beside her window-pane,
When it's Paris, it's Paris,
And spring-time's come again.

Twitter：@camelliayang
Website: https://www.camelliayang.com/
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...more
3min
January 09, 2022 Envoi by Robert W. Chambers
IX.
And if the sun incarnadine
The clouds—green leaves shall be your screen;
And if the clouds with jealousy
Should weep—we'll beg of some kind tree
A moment's hospitality.
X.
Good cheer is here, if you incline;
Moss-hidden springs shall bubble wine
While squirrels chuckle, rank on rank,
And strawberries from every bank
Shall blush to see how deep we drank.
XI.
Winds of the West shall cool our eyes
While every woodland creature tries
His voice a little, so that he
May know his notes more perfectly
When crickets start the symphony.
XII.
Through hazel glade and scented dell
Where brooklets ring a tinkling bell,
The forest orchestra shall swell,
Until the sun-soaked grasses ring
With crickets strumming string on string.
XIII.
Then, with your white hand daintily
Scarce touching mine, we'll leave our tree
And ramble slowly toward the West
Where our high castle's flaming crest,
Towering behind the setting sun,
Flings out its banners, one by one,
Signals of fire, that day is done.
XIV.
Deep in that palace we shall find
How blind we are, how blind! how blind!
And how he'll laugh, who holds the key
To the great portal's mystery!
And how his joyous laugh will ring
When you and I shall bid him fling
The gates ajar for you and me!
XV.
Let shadows flee athwart the lea
When dark December strips the hedge
Along the icy river's edge;
Yet, if you will forgive me, lass,
The world shall bloom like spring to me,
Snow turn to dew upon the grass
And fagots blossom where you pass.
XVI.
Swallows shall sheer the frozen mere,
Dead reeds along the mill-pond's rims
Shall thrill with summer-thrushes' hymns,
While summer breezes blow apace,
If you will but forgive me, dear,
And let me find a moment's grace,
In your sweet eyes and your dear face.
...more
8min
January 09, 2022 The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers
Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink beneath the lake,
The shadows lengthen
     In Carcosa.

Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies
But stranger still is
     Lost Carcosa.

Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
Where flap the tatters of the King,
Must die unheard in
     Dim Carcosa.

Song of my soul, my voice is dead;
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
     Lost Carcosa.
...more
3min
January 03, 2022 Secret Love by John Clare
I hid my love when young while I
Couldn't bear the buzzing of a fly
I hid my love to my despite
Till I could not bear to look at light
I dare not gaze upon her face
But left her memory in each place
Where ere I saw a wild flower lie
I kissed and bade my love goodbye
I met her in the greenest dells
Where dew drops pearl the wood bluebells
The lost breeze kissed her bright blue eye
The bee kissed and went singing by
A sunbeam found a passage there
A gold chain round her neck so fair
As secret as the wild bee's song
She lay there all the summer long
I hid my love in field and town
Till e'en the breeze would knock me down
The bees seemed singing ballads l'er
The fly's buss turned a Lion's roar
And even silence found a tongue
To haunt me all the summer long
The riddle nature could not prove
Was nothing else but secret love
...more
4min
January 03, 2022 Drawing You From Memory by Billy Collins
I seem to have forgotten several features
crucial to the doing of this,
for instance, how your lower lip
meets your upper lip besides just being below it,
and what happens at the end of the nose,
how much does it shade the plane of your cheek,
and would even a bit of nostril be visible from this angle?
Chinese eyes, you call them
which could be the difficulty I have
in showing the flash of light in your iris,
and being so far away from you for so long,
I cannot remember what direction
it flows, the deep river of your hair.

But all of this will come together
the minute I see you again at the station,
my notebook and pens packed away,
your face smiling as I cup it in my hands,
or frowning later when we are home
and you are berating me in the kitchen
waving the pages in my face
demanding to know the name of this latest little whore.
...more
3min
December 30, 2021 To Whom It May Concern by Camellia Yang (English & Chinese)
I love strolling on an empty street at five o’clock in the morning.
I love discussing the absurdity of the world with wanderers.
I enjoy watching the sunrise, slowly waking up the sleeping world.
I enjoy having random philosophical conversations with strangers.

I make mistakes.
I mess things up.
I invite chaos to my life,
And then self-sabotage with cries.
I’m on a journey to accept my weaknesses,
Forgive others and myself at the same time.

Sometimes I don’t care what people say about my works.
It’s a record of how I see the world.
Sometimes, I long for someone to see through my art.
I only want to mean something to a special person's heart.

I laugh a lot, and prank even more.
I cherish tiny happiness in the world.
Like the hot air on a cup of coffee on a rainy day;
Or couples hug and kiss at the airport.

I have a pessimistic mind but an optimistic heart.
I love and hate humans at the same time.
Their motives and behaviours confused me a lot.
They can’t understand my intuition either.
Sometimes, I'd rather stay away from the crowd
And keep people out.

I moved from China to New Zealand in my 20s.
Then left Auckland to London now to Lisbon at 30s.
I’ve travelled to four continents.
But there is no place I could call home.
I’m always being a Christmas orphan,
But never thought my loneliness is a misfortune.
Through content creation,
I found my roots and built relations.

I am still on the road.
I don’t know life's next episode.
I want to turn my existence into a poem.
I want my life to become an exquisite art.
Though the path is destined to be hard,
Through authenticity, I could find my truth.

08/09/2021
Lisbon
https://www.camelliayang.com/blog/cy
@camelliayang
...more
11min
December 29, 2021 Air and Light and Time and Space by Charles Bukowski
”– you know, I’ve either had a family, a job,
something has always been in the
way
but now
I’ve sold my house, I’ve found this
place, a large studio, you should see the space and
the light.
for the first time in my life I’m going to have
a place and the time to
create.”
no baby, if you’re going to create
you’re going to create whether you work
16 hours a day in a coal mine
or
you’re going to create in a small room with 3 children
while you’re on
welfare,
you’re going to create with part of your mind and your body blown
away,
you’re going to create blind
crippled
demented,
you’re going to create with a cat crawling up your
back while
the whole city trembles in earthquake, bombardment,
flood and fire.
baby, air and light and time and space
have nothing to do with it
and don’t create anything
except maybe a longer life to find
new excuses
for.
...more
3min
December 29, 2021 How to Meditate by Jack Kerouac
— lights out —fall, hands a-clasped, into instantaneous
ecstasy like a shot of heroin or morphine,
the gland inside of my brain discharging
the good glad fluid (Holy Fluid) as
I hap-down and hold all my body parts
down to a deadstop trance — Healing
all my sicknesses — erasing all — not
even the shred of a “I-hope-you” or a
Loony Balloon left in it, but the mind
blank, serene, thoughtless. When a thought
comes a-springing from afar with its held-
forth figure of image, you spoof it out,
you spuff it out, you fake it, and
it fades, and thought never comes — and
with joy you realize for the first time
“Thinking’s just like not thinking —
So I don’t have to think
any
more”
...more
3min
December 27, 2021 Paths that lead nowhere by Rosa Alice Branco
There are specialists in love. A man beeps without stopping,
stuck in the line of traffic.
...more
3min

FAQs about A Paradise of Poems:

How many episodes does A Paradise of Poems have?

The podcast currently has 247 episodes available.

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On Being with Krista Tippett

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A Paradise of Poems

FAQs about A Paradise of Poems:

How many episodes does A Paradise of Poems have?

A Paradise of Poems episodes:

FAQs about A Paradise of Poems:

How many episodes does A Paradise of Poems have?

More shows like A Paradise of Poems

On Being with Krista Tippett