Poetry

[orange_fell]

There's a meme going around that says, "If you see this, post some poetry in your journal." I'm changing it around--if you see this, post some poetry in my journal.

Just call me the meme shepherd.

Comments

[pimpmytardis]

The Skunk

Up, black, striped and damasked like the chasuble
At a funeral mass, the skunk's tail
Paraded the skunk. Night after night
I expected her like a visitor.

The refrigerator whinnied into silence.
My desk light softened beyond the verandah.
Small oranges loomed in the orange tree.
I began to be tense as a voyeur.

After eleven years I was composing
Love-letters again, broaching the word 'wife'
Like a stored cask, as if its slender vowel
Had mutated into the night earth and air

Of California. The beautiful, useless
Tang of eucalyptus spelt your absence.
The aftermath of a mouthful of wine
Was like inhaling you off a cold pillow.

And there she was, the intent and glamorous,
Ordinary, mysterious skunk,
Mythologized, demythologized,
Snuffing the boards five feet beyond me.

It all came back to me last night, stirred
By the sootfall of your things at bedtime,
Your head-down, tail-up hunt in a bottom drawer
For the black plunge-line nightdress.

--Seamus Heaney

On Feb 13, 2006, I read this poem aloud from my Norton

[orange_fell]

I agree with that estimation!

[orange_fell]

Thank you for sharing it.

[anonymous]

XXXIII

Then to the rolling Heav'n itself I cried,
Asking, "what Lamp had Destiny to Guide
Her little children stumbling in the Dark?"
And - "A blind understanding!" Heaven'n replied.

--Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

[_lime_]

whoops that was me!

[orange_fell]

Interesting to think of something blind being a lamp to guide someone.

[orange_fell]

Thank you for sharing it.

[red_toupee]

The Bagel

I stopped to pick up the bagel
rolling away in the wind,
annoyed with myself
for having dropped it
as if it were a portent.
Faster and faster it rolled,
with me running after it
bent low, gritting my teeth,
and I found myself doubled over
and rolling down the street
head over heels, one complete summersault
after another like a bagel
and strangely happy with myself.

--David Ignatow

Have you read this one before? I was going to post a different one, a creepy-ish one, but I couldn't find it....

[orange_fell]

Round and round and round and round . . .

[pimpmytardis]

I have never read that one but it made me laugh! (And crave bagels.)

[orange_fell]

Thank you for sharing it.

[astaraelweeper]

I've been meaning to do this for a few days. My current favorite from Mary Oliver:

"The Lily"

Night after night
darkness
enters the face
of the lily

which, lightly,
closes its five walls
around itself,
and its purse

of honey,
and its fragrance,
and is content
to stand there

in the garden,
not quite sleeping,
and, maybe,
saying in lily language

some small words
we can’t hear
even when there is no wind
anywhere,

its lips
are so secret,
its tongue
is so hidden -

or, maybe,
it says nothing at all
but just stands there
with the patience

of vegetables
and saints
until the whole earth has turned around
and the silver moon

becomes the golden sun -
as the lily absolutely knew it would,
which is itself, isn’t it,
the perfect prayer?

[orange_fell]

This is a week of Mary Oliver for me, with poems offered by you and Rachel. Thanks for sharing it!