Featuring cherita!


August 31, 2012

Poetry Friday--Still More Poets on Poetry


Once you become aware of something, you start seeing it everywhere. Since first writing about poets on poems, I seem to find suitable references wherever I look! I'll round out what has turned into a series with these four poets:


Paul Blackburn
from Chantars No Pot Gaire Valer

It is worthless to write a line
if the song proceed not from the heart:
nor can the song come from the heart
if there is no love in it.

Nikki Giovanni
from Poetry is a Trestle

poetry is a trestle
spanning the distance between
what i feel
and what i say

from Poetry

poetry is motion graceful
as a fawn
gentle as a teardrop
strong like the eye
finding peace in a crowded room

William Carlos Williams
from The Desert Music

                       And I could not help thinking
                       of the wonders of the brain that
                       hears that music and of our
                       skill sometimes to record it.

And to finish up, a few lines from Dorothy Parker:
Fighting Words

Say my love is easy had,
Say I'm bitten raw with pride,
Say I am too often sad--
Still behold me at your side.

Say I'm neither brave nor young,
Say I woo and coddle care,
Say the devil touched my tongue--
Still you have my heart to wear.

But say my verses do not scan,
And I get me another man!

This week's Round-Up is being held at Poetry for Children. Have a lovely 3-day weekend!

Photo by Jonathan Cohen.

18 comments:

  1. I've saved poems about poetry for a while. These are great, Diane. I especially like William Carlos Williams' "of our skill sometimes to record it."
    Beautiful.

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  2. These are lovely...each one connecting to the heart of what poetry is and means to us. Thanks for sharing, Diane.

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  3. Great collection. My fav is the trestle one. Love the photo too!

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  4. Thank you, Ladies! The trestle isn't real, I think it is a photo of a train model. The complexity of the framework, and the background color, make it a winner!

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  5. This is my first foray into Poetry Friday--thanks for a great group of poems, Diane!

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    1. Hi Julie, and welcome! I found your comment in my "spam" folder, so I'm a little late in replying. Come back again--Tuesdays and Sundays are devoted to haiku.

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  6. Loved the Parker Poem. Hadn't seen it before.

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  7. Parker does have a way with words...

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  8. Thanks for using Nikki's poem (and the others.) It is special to me because I once hitched a ride on a freight train and rode over the world's second largest wooden trestle bridge. It is no longer there, it was replaced with cement and steel, on the Southern Pacific route between Yuma and San Diego.

    Thanks for a great post.

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  9. I like the Parker poem, too. Thank you for sharing these -- I love poems about poetry!

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  10. These are wonderful! Thank you!

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  11. WCW was one of my first poetic loves. Beautiful, the way you can feel how awed he is by poetry.

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  12. Joy, I can't imagine riding a train over a wooden trestle. I get woozy just thinking about it.

    Thanks everyone for stopping by. I'm glad you enjoyed the choices.

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  13. That's one of my favorite Dorothy Park poems :-) I liked all of your selections, Diane. Thanks.

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  14. Every one of these is perfect, and the range is great! Yesterday we had our first Poetry Friday and I did my schtick about how "the words will come out of my mouth and float towards you and if you're ready your ears will catch the poem and it will flow through your brain and then float down and land in your heart, which is where poems live."

    Afterwards, Karen, an earnest and sharp little thing with basic English said excitedly, "Yes! It float to my heart!" All this makes Paul Blackburn's lines my favorite today!

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  15. Love these! And I especially love Heidi's story! Poetry floats on!!

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  16. Yes, thanks, Heidi, for sharing Karen's recognition! It's great to see the light come on in a child's eyes. Have a great weekend everyone!

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  17. These are beautifully expressed! Thank you for sharing :)

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