Poem of the Day

[margo49]

AHHH , Hafez

A liberal translation to say the least.

Yeah, the missing link between Islam and Zen.

Has anyone else noticed that Knot is reading a lot of poetry lately?

'nuff said...

[KnottedYet]

I've always read a lot of poetry. Turned it into a Bachelor's degree, too. Edited a poetry magazine briefly. Very briefly.

Not too bad at writing parodies (anybody remember "The Naming of Bikes"?) but otherwise can't write my way out of a wet paper bag.

I like reading poetry.
Novels are too long for my limited attention span.

[Bad JuJu]

The Red Bicycle (with apologies to William Carlos Williams)

So much depends
upon
a red
bicycle
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
panniers.

[KnottedYet]

An oldie, but a goodie...


WILD GEESE

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Mary Oliver, "Dream Work" 1986.

[Brandi]

I need moonscreen not
sunscreen it's the nights
the age me fastest it's
the neon girls girls girls
sighn and the light from
aol and yahoo I need some
screenscreen and a bottle of
porn block but they make that.

Exene Cervenka " a beer on every page" 2003

[Kitsune06]

Drumming fingers
waiting
for time to pass
wearing
hopes like old clothes
feeling
seconds like hours.

[Brandi]

Oh this is fun!

[Bad JuJu]

WILD GEESE

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Mary Oliver, "Dream Work" 1986.

My yoga teacher read this poem last Friday! She always reads a poem as we begin our practice, and she uses Mary Oliver's a lot. I love Oliver!

I esp. love that bit about letting "the soft animal of your body/ love what it loves"--ahhhhhhh...........

[Bad JuJu]

Sleep

The young dog would like to know
why we sit so long in one place
intent on a box that makes the same
noises and has no smell whatever.
Get out! Get out! we tell him
when he asks us by licking the back
of our hand, which has small hairs,
almost like his. Other times he finds us
motionless with papers in our lap,
or at a desk looking into a humming
square of light. Soon the dog understands
we are not looking, exactly, but sleeping
with our eyes open, then goes to sleep
himself. Is it us he cries out to,
moving his legs somewhere beyond
the rooms where we spend our lives?
We don't think to ask, upset
as we are in the end with the dog,
who has begun throwing the old,
shabby coat of himself down on every
floor or rug in the apartment, sleep,
we say, all that damn dog does is sleep.

Wesley McNair, 2002

[KnottedYet]

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song
A medley of extemporanea
And love is a thing that can never go wrong
And I am Marie of Roumania

--Dorothy Parker