November 5, 2010

Poetry Friday--A Poem a Day

Maria Horvath is an avid library user at the George Hail Free Library in Warren, Rhode Island. She also maintains the blog, A Poem a Day from the George Hail Library. The poems are accompanied by a work of art, which runs the gamut from sheet music covers to photos of installation art to paintings by the masters. Each day is different and unexpected.

For the entire month of October, Horvath featured poems written specifically about the individual works of art--ekphrastic poetry. I urge you to read through some of last month's entries.

This month A Poem a Day is celebrating
the "old drama" that takes place every November. At times, we will take note of specific dates on the calendar.

We begin with reminders of our membership in the community of those who have gone before us. Later, we honor the memory of those who died for our liberty and freedom, and we offer our thanksgiving for all we have received.
The poem "November" by Linda Pastan, provides the inspiration for the month:

NOVEMBER

It is an old drama
this disappearance of the leaves,
this seeming death

of the landscape.
In a later scene,
or earlier,
the trees like gnarled magicians
produce handkerchiefs
of leaves
out of empty branches.

And we watch.
We are like children
at this spectacle
of leaves,
as if one day we too
will open the wooden doors
of our coffins
and come out smiling
and bowing
all over again.

The Poetry Friday Round-Up is being held at Teaching Authors. See you there!

2 comments:

  1. I have Linda Pastan and another of her takes on November (and October) at my place this week, too! She has captured the season well!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love this! I am watching leaves fall and enjoying the poetry this time of year too. What a show!

    And what a great idea for a library blog. I am going to really enjoy that one!

    ReplyDelete