Posted by Adam on July 23, 2001, at 20:52:57
In reply to favorite poets?, posted by paula on July 20, 2001, at 13:31:52
I almost have to catch myself when I say this, but it's true: My favorite poet is myself. Not because I'm deep, or talented, or for any other reason, except that I know what my poems mean. I don't often get the sense I understand the poetry of others. Once in a while I "experience" a poem, if you will, and it moves me greatly. Mostly this is done off the written page. I should read more poetry. I might learn to understand better with time.Since, for the time being, I am my own favorite, I will share another of mine, something forgotten I had dug up recently in a time of self-doubt, I guess to review the emotions I had had back then, and reconnect with them in some way. I thought it might be informative.
Secret
You can't see or hear or
Touch the truth
To know its gravity
And its solid contours
With just your suspicions
That the wideness of my eyes
Or the overlong pauses
Mean anything more than I am
Pondering a stain on my shirt
Or a missed payment
Or any of a million things
I could conjure in a moment
Of mundane subterfuge
How could you know
You feel the doubt
The once supple embrace
Rather stiffens
So slightly as to be just
The spasm of a draft
Through the bedroom window
Or a spider on the sheetsA query direct is mindlessly repeated
To fill a brief span
That is needed to replace
The erstwhile validity
Of my mere expressions and replies
Repeated with deft irritation
For you no more than a blank reflection
To see
You can't quite smell or taste
The cancer, the thing so terrible
Decency demands it never see
The stark light of your honest eyes
And your admiration
The sun that warmed me
Now burns me whenever you draw near
Withers the heart it touches
With disgraceYou and I, together
We are of two minds
Two thoughts, two futures
And a third way, to bear, unaided
The undone, the unspoken
The unrequitted
The real
> Hi All,
>
> Who are your favorite current poets? I've spent most of my time lately reading medieval and renaissance poetry, so I'm curious about some more, uh, modern folks. Off the top of my head, I'd nominate Amy Lowell and James Agee. Admittedly, neither even comes close to being "current." I love the visual quality of Lowell's work. I've only read Agee's _A Death in the Family_. Composer Samuel Barber used parts of the Preface--which is prosodic poetry, really--as the text for his work "Knoxville: Summer of 1915." (Just to connect this back up with depression, "Knoxville" is a richly, beautifully nostalgic piece, but the end has always had a certain resonance for me on the existential front. Anyone know this work?)
>
> Anna Laura, I'm especially curious about current Italian poets. Any favorites? I need to expand my repetoire beyond the '500. :)
>
>
> Procrastinating constructively....
> Paula
poster:Adam
thread:7677
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010717/msgs/7849.html