Poetry?

[DWill]

Hey, I don't know where this fits, exactly. Under non-fiction might be the closest. I read Indigo's intro, noted that she likes poets, and then realized that is the first mention in the forum I've seen of poetry. Another thing I realized a while ago is the internet is a great resource for poetry. You don't have to own every anthology in the world, but instead can often find single poems just by searching. Anyone have favorite lines they want to share? That's one way to go about it. This may be a mark of oddness, I don't know, but as I walk along the backroads and trails this spring, I recite aloud the first 33 lines of The Canterbury Tales in Middle English, as enjoined on me by a Prof. Smith about 35 years ago. You know, "Whan that April with his showres soote/The droughte of March hath perced to the roote"... Great stuff! And NOT controversial! Poetry seems to be somehow the quintessential literature of spring as well.

But I offer these instead, from Robert Frost. (Indigo, I'm probably a wee bit more old-fashioned than you.) You can look up the full text of this plain-spoken yet rather strange poem on the 'net.

From "Directive"

"Back out of all this now too much for us,
Back in a time made simple by the loss
Of detail, burned, dissolved, and broken off
Like graveyard marble sculpture in the weather,
There is a house that is no more a house
Upon a farm that is no more a farm
And in a town that is no more a town.
The road there, if you'll let a guide direct you
Who only has at heart your getting lost,
May seem as if it should have been a quarry--
Great monolithic knees the former town
Long since gave up pretense of keeping covered."

I'll give away the ending, hoping you'll be curious about what comes in between:

"Here are your waters and your watering place.
Drink and be whole again beyond confusion."

[Saffron]

DWill:

Hey, I don't know where this fits, exactly. Under non-fiction might be the closest. I read Indigo's intro, noted that she likes poets, and then realized that is the first mention in the forum I've seen of poetry.

Pardon me, but does posting a John Donne poem count?

Current favorite lines are from Mary Oliver's Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.


My favorite to read out loud is The Tyger by William Blake

Tyger! tyger! burning bright
In the forest of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

DWill:

but as I walk along the backroads and trails this spring, I recite aloud the first 33 lines of The Canterbury Tales in Middle English,

I'd like to witness that!

[Saffron]

Oh, and I forgot about W.C.Williams -
This is Just to say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

(This poem makes me think of kisses. I think because eating a very ripe juicy piece of fruit always makes me think of kisses and I know this poem was written to his wife)

[President Camacho]

Ok D, I don't know any poetry but I didn't want to be left out.

So I started thinking and decided to try and make up my own poem. I went online and found the rules to make up poems are far more complicated than just making rhymes. These directions from ehow.com on how to write a haiku poem look the easiest!

Step 1: Think about a theme for your haiku and write down some of the words that come to mind on that theme.
Step2: Organize your thoughts roughly onto three lines. First, set the scene, then expand on that by expressing a feeling, making an observation or recording an action. Keep it simple.
Step3: Polish your haiku into three lines, the first with five syllables, the second line with seven syllables and the third line with five syllables. It may take some time and substitution of words to make it fit.


1. I have my theme

[ralphinlaos]

DWill -

Oh, I do enjoy poetry so much and, as you say, you can find just about anything on the internet. The Library of Congress has a great website for poetry.

My favorites? So many, but I do enjoy reading Rudyard Kipling, Emily Dickinson (have you ever seen Julie Harris in her one-woman show, The Belle of Amherst? It's on DVD and I think you'd enjoy it), Robert Frost, Whitman, Millay, and on and on . . .

Richard Cory is one of my very favorites; I've memorized it but it's not exactly the poem to recite while walking along your backroads and trails - then my thoughts go, unfortunately, to "there once was a lad from Nantucket."

And I've enjoyed all the poems cited by others in reply to your initial post - keep 'em coming.

And Invictus. And If. Have you ever heard of this one, Lana Turner Died Today?

Ralph

[Theomanic]

My favourite poet is Charles Bukowski, though by and large I don't read a lot of poetry. I really liked his "Septuagenarian Stew" collection.

Here is a pretty good little sample of his work:
"These Things"

these things that we support most well
have nothing to do with up,
and we do with them
out of boredom or fear or money
or cracked intelligence;
our circle and our candle of light
being small,
so small we cannot bear it,
we heave out with Idea
and lose the Center:
all wax without the wick,
and we see names that once meant
wisdom,
like signs into ghost towns,
and only the graves are real.

[Saffron]

'Separation'

Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.

-- W.S. Merwin

[Indigo]

But I offer these instead, from Robert Frost. (Indigo, I'm probably a wee bit more old-fashioned than you.) You can look up the full text of this plain-spoken yet rather strange poem on the 'net.

Actually, I'm quite the fan of the "modern poets," and I like Frost well enough although he's not my favorite. I like his poem "Mending Wall" (http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15719) a great deal--it's charmingly mischievous.

Also, thank you for starting a thread on poetry! I always love recommendations for good poets.

Here's a bit from "At Baia," by H.D.:

You never sent (in a dream)
the very form, the very scent,
not heavy, not sensuous,
but perilous--perilous--
of orchids, piled in a great sheath,
and folded underneath on a bright scroll,
some word:

[and the end]

"Lover to lover, no kiss,
no touch, but forever and ever this."

(for the rest: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15447)

Saffron: The lines from "Separation" are amazing--I'm going to have to read more by W.S. Merwin. [/url]

[Indigo]

One more, because I can't help myself, and because I can't believe I forgot to include Frank O'Hara on my favorite poets list before.

from "Why I Am Not a Painter," Frank O'Hara

But me? One day I am thinking of
a color: orange. I write a line
about orange. Pretty soon it is a
whole page of words, not lines.
Then another page. There should be
so much more, not of orange, of
words, of how terrible orange is
and life. Days go by. It is even in
prose, I am a real poet. My poem
is finished and I haven't mentioned
orange yet....

(the rest: http://plagiarist.com/poetry/?wid=850)

[Saffron]

Indigo:

One more, because I can't help myself, and because I can't believe I forgot to include Frank O'Hara on my favorite poets list before. Very Happy

from "Why I Am Not a Painter," Frank O'Hara

Oh thank you, Indigo! I love this poem and had forgotten all about it.
Saffron