It's time for another Take a Poem, Leave a Poem segment on the blog. To show you how it works, my first Take a Poem, Leave a Poem post is below:
I've been inspired by the "take a penny, leave a penny" jar at the local deli.
Poems in the jar today:
"Arf" by Jack Myers
Naomi Shihab Nye reading her found poem "One Boy Told Me"
"Con el dolor de la mortal herida" or "Love Opened a Mortal Wound" by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, translated by Jaime Manrique and Joan Larkin
"In Praise of Noise" by James Arthur
"A Coin-Operated Railroad" by Mary Biddinger
Please take at least one, and please leave a story or a poem in it's place in the comments section.
Happy reading! Andrea
Thanks for these, Andrea!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this D. Nurkse poem I read earlier this morning.
The Simulacra
They were driving into the mountains, suddenly married,
sometimes touching each other’s cheek with a fingernail
gingerly: the radio played ecstatic static: certain roads
marked with blue enamel numbers led to cloud banks,
or basalt screes, or dim hotels with padlocked verandas.
Sometimes they quarreled, sometimes they grew old,
the wind was constant in their eyes, it was their own wind,
they made it. Small towns flew past, Rodez, Albi,
limestone quarries, pear orchards, children racing
after hoops, wobbling when their shadows wavered,
infants crying for fine rain, old women on stoops
darning gray veils—and who were we, watching?
Doubles, ghosts, the ones who would tell of the field
where they pulled over, bluish tinge of the elms, steepness
of the other’s eyes, glowworm hidden in its own glint,
how the rain was twilight and now is darkness.
Thanks for stopping in, Peter. This is a lovely poem you've left behind for us! Enjoy your weekend.
DeleteMary Biddinger is so awesome. Thanks for including her poem here...I enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteHere's a Rachel Loden poem that I love: "What the Gravedigger Needs." http://www.cstone.net/~poems/whattlod.htm
What the Gravedigger Needs
Teuva, Finland
overalls
rubber boots
leather gloves
iron spear to loosen up the frozen ground
lantern
spade
length of rope
board to prevent mourners falling in
bicycle to go from grave to grave
Rachel Loden
New American Writing
Number 24, 2006
Thanks for reading, Hannah, and for sharing this poem by Rachel Loden. This powerful little poem all seems to hinge upon the line "board to prevent mourners falling in."
DeleteI completely agree with you on this, Andee!
ReplyDelete