So, every year, I promise myself that this blog is going to go crazy with poetry come April, and every year, I flake out and forget and don't do anything, but I decided that I must at least nod at the occasion.
My workplace celebrates Poetry Month, but this year I did not really feel like partaking. I did do my part by typing up poems to post. This is my way of contributing to the committee without having to actually be on one more committee. It's quite the nice alternative. (Plus, I love the chair. She's fantastic and a very gifted poet herself.)
I celebrated by actually touching my poems again. I haven't done poetry in awhile. I looked back at my stuff and decided that the large majority of it was crap. I blame Skittles. Not because they're responsible, but because eveyone knows that somebody must be blamed, and who better to blame than Skittles? (I am probably blaming them because I am running a fever and am stuck at work and it seems funny to me even though it probably isn't, too.)
So, basically, I cut a poem in half. I decided that part of my problem in poetry is the same as my problem in everyday life, which is that I talk too much. It might be better now. I can't tell. But I decided that I don't care about spirituality in my poems right now. I was trying for awhile to make everything about the big contradiction between religion and true spirituality (as I saw it), but it all came out with mixed messages. I'm scrapping that. And I've got enough distance on it to feel like I can scrap it, so that's a good thing. It's just become less important to me. I only have one job when I'm writing these days: Have fun. I'm not concerned about theme or presentation or poise or pacing or anything other than playing with the words. That's not to say that I'm writing much because I'm not, but when I do write, it's better than it used to be. (Excluding, of course, this website where I merely spew random thoughts into the big empty black hole that is the internet.)
My favorite poet is Edna St. Vincent Millay, and there's a new biography out about her that I want to read. I enjoy her because she makes me laugh ("Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand/come and see my shining palace built upon the sand.") I also enjoy Sylvia Plath with "Lady Lazarus," and lately I am a fan of Robert Frost, particularly "Birches" although there was a time when I didn't like his stuff very much. I think maybe you have to be older to appreciate Robert Frost fully. I also found a lot of stuff I hadn't read before this month.
So, here's my favorite poem from Poetry Month. I hope you all celebrate by reading a poem/discussing your favorite poem/posting a poem to share in the comments.
Dream Song
Sometimes
I go about pitying myself
While I am carried by the wind
Across the sky
~Chippewa poem translated by Frances Densmore
The Exstasie
~by William Empson
Walking together in the muddy lane
The shallow pauses in her conversation
Were deep, like puddles, as the blue sky;
So thin a film separated our firmaments.
We who are strong stand on our own feet.
You misunderstand me. We stand on the reflections of our feet.
Unsupported, we do not know whether to fall upwards or downwards,
Nor when the water will come through our shoes.
oh both those poems are really good, excellent choices!
Lo, don't worry about not going crazy with poetry. My goal this month was to memorize another poem in celebration. I used to memorize poems, mainly poems about love and death. Shakespeare's 116 'let me not to the marriage of true minds', Byron's 'she walks in beauty like the night, of cloudless climes and starry nights', Bryon's 'when we two parted in silence and tears', Donne's 'death be not proud, might and dreadful though some have called thee', and even though I have distance and cannot recite those poems completely from memory, I have attempted it on another poem, which is (of course) about walking through life alone. Ella Wilcox Wheeler is the author and here is the first verse (which may have some typos because it is not fully memorized)...
Laugh and the world laughs with you,
Weep and you weep alone.
for the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth
but has trouble enough of it's own.
sing and the hills will answer
sigh, it is lost on the air
the echos bound to a joyful sound
but shrink from voicing care.
have a wonderful day!
I apologize for the grammatical error of the apostraphes, they just jumped in there...
Posted by: 10lees at April 27, 2006 11:18 AMHere is my poem of the day....
ODE TO ALL THINGS GOOD
Skittles, sun, and chocolate chips
Beer, popsicles, Tostitos with dip
All these things are yummy and good
I enjoy them at my house in da hood
I know, i know. I floor you with my mad poetry skills. :)
Mel, that was amazing! I am going to come to your house in da hood and join you in enjoying those things when I am feeling better.
10, very impressive memorization. I've heard that poem, but I enjoy the version that goes "Laugh and the world laughs with you; snore and you sleep alone."
JK, I like a lot. My favorite poems are always the ones that say something that I've always wanted to say but never knew exactly how to say it. The puddle thing, for instance. Very nice.
Posted by: Lo at April 27, 2006 03:01 PM