April poetry is a luxurious feast of perfectly ripened and juicy words. I haven’t taken the time to write or read poems for a long while, but after opening my dusty volumes and setting the poets’ music free again, I can’t imagine why I waited.
Here’s one that I read aloud and then memorized because it is exactly right for those nights when I’m fortunate enough to look up and find the moon shimmery in the night. It’s the pacing of the piece– punctuation’s job, but also the colorful imagery and the tangible nature of that dot perfectly placed. That’s what I want to capture in my prose–the pacing and the fresh imagery.
There was, in the dusky night,
On the yellowed steeple
The moon,
Like the dot of an i
Alfred de Musset
This is one of my favorite William Butler Yeats’ poems, He and She. Just part of it, the part I like best.
I love to read this one, especially the second line. It has a special cadence that is perfect to my ear.
She sings as the moon sings:
‘I am I, am I;
The greater grows my light
The further I fly.’
All creation shivers
With that sweet cry.
So after reading all of this masterful poetry, I had to read some of my compressed thoughts that I’d fitted into this demanding, tight form. I found this in one of my journals. Now how crazy is it for me to post my poems along with Yeats and Musset? A lot crazy, but it’s my blog, so I guess I can do what I want. Is there a blog reviewer out there that will complain? Let’s see.
I wrote this a few years ago when I was in England. You know you can’t walk the countryside of England without coming to an ancient cemetery. So there I was with my pad and paper sitting by a gravestone something like this, marking the beginning and the end of someone’s life. This is what I wrote. I was younger then, so cut me some slack when you critique this.
I so enjoy these posts
Loved it!! I haven't written one in a while either. Maybe I will this week. 😀 Thanks for the inspiration.
Thank you all for your comments. I'm so happy to find people who share the love of words well crafted and touching.
Thanks for sharing the poetry and the images, really beautiful creative work. Love it 🙂
Take care
Marinela
Short Poems
I really enjoyed your post and Keats, most pleasurable to read.
Thank you for your lovely comment much appreciated , although I have lived in Ireland for a while I am English.
Yvonne.
Thanks for sharing the poetry and the photos. Your poem was beautiful, C.Lee. Duly impressed.
I re-discovered my love of poetry last year. This year I've been "reading" the poetry foundation's app.
It's a difficult medium to write in and I think you did a fantastic job! I know I couldn't do it!
Also, I love your new blog background!
Lovely poem! All of them, the ones you shared and the one you wrote.
I'm doing April Poem-A-Day with some of my writer friends, so I understand what you mean about wondering why you waited to read or write poetry. I forgot how lovely it was TO write poetry!
I like this very much! The repetition in the first and fourth lines works well, and the imagery is mysterious and absorbing. I love "Your name was long and full of sounds."
I have also copied down the verse from the Yeats poem. The third and fourth lines especially sing to me. Thanks for sharing.
Ah Yeats….
I LIKE your poem!
Here's one about the moon by Vachel Lindsay
The moon? It is a griffin's egg,
Hatching to-morrow night.
And how the little boys will watch
With shouting and delight
To see him break the shell and stretch
And creep across the sky.
The boys will laugh. The little girls,
I fear, may hide and cry.
Yet gentle will the griffin be,
Most decorous and fat,
And walk up to the milky way
And lap it like a cat.