Anyway, one of the items on my list is to read an entire book of poetry; a second item is to memorize a poem. I've never really been much into poetry, to be honest. But I think some of that had to do with my youthful need for things to be black and white - for it all to make sense and mean something clear cut and understandable. Prose is better for that. Poetry can be frustratingly vague and I-don't-know... snobby. (There. I said it.)
Recently I've also come to suspect that I've been reading the wrong poetry - wrong for me, anyway. We can't all be fans of Leaves of Grass. (I've tried, people! Honestly, I have.)
So. I'm currently in search of poetry that I find beautiful. Poetry that doesn't make me want to smack my head on the wall over and over with boredom or in the frustrating throes of whatdoesitmean, whatdoesitmean, whatdoesitMEAN! I posted one quite awhile back that I love very much. And then, a few days ago, a friend posted the following poem as her facebook status. And I fell in love again.
Isn't poetry supposed to be the food of love?
Lodged
The rain to the wind said,
You push and I'll pelt.
They so smote the garden bed
That the flowers actually knelt,
And lay lodged--though not dead.
I know how the flowers felt.
Robert Frost
West-Running Brook
1928
4 comments:
Do we not have babies one week apart? When in the name of all that is good do you have time to read poetry?
Nikki - so true! Apparently, only when it is posted as a friend's facebook status. It also helps when it is just a few lines long. :)
Poetry, like prose (fiction or nonfiction) and music and movies and so much else, is so uniquely personal in taste and how it speaks to you (or whether it speaks at all) that I hesitate to say this, but I'll go ahead and suggest that you try a little Billy Collins? I adore his poem "Marginalia" (it would appeal to most folks who like old second-hand books as artifacts as much as for their printed content) and several others. Mr. Collins is, in fact, the only poet whose poetry I could stand to read by the whole book. Elsewise, I like a few Ogden Nash verses(because they are morbidly funny, and 4 short lines long) and some others here and there. I enjoy the poetry in prose much more than the poetry in poetry, if that makes any sense to anyone but me.
Peter really likes Billy Collins and owns one of his books. He has read a few of his poems to me, and I've enjoyed them, so maybe I should give reading that book a try... thank you for the suggestion! And I think I would also say that I enjoy the poetry in prose much more than the poetry in poetry.
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