Poetry?

ralphinlaos · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 12:41 pm Post subject:

I knew I had a copy of that Lana Turner poem somewhere and I just found it. But my copy, from the Favorite Poems Project, is simply called "Poem," by Frank O'Hara. I like it very much, but am not familiar with O'Hara's works; does anyone else read him?

I think poetry must evoke an emotion in the reader in order for it to be pertinent (or interesting) to the reader. Which is why I like this one:

On A Quiet Night

I saw the moonlight before my couch.
And wondered if it were not frost on the ground.

I raised my head and looked out on the bright moon;

I bowed my head and thought of my far-off home.

by Li Po

(I wonder if this is the same Li Po who is the subject of the movie The Last Emperor)

And, for the same reasons, I like Frost's The Road Not Taken.

Ralph

Saffron · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 5:50 pm Post subject:

Ralph:

Penelope · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 12:38 pm Post subject:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately Pleasure-Dome Decree
Where Alph, the sacred river ran
Through caverns - measureless to man,
Down to a Sunless Sea.

I think this is wonderful....but....

I might be very, very wrong....but I think the poem goes downhill from here.

Saffron.....I don't know who wrote 'Daddy fell into the Pond'....I will continue trying to find out....my family loved it when they were little.

Does anyone else love Eliot's 'Prufrock'?

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening spreads itself across the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table.

Let us go through certain half-deserted streets
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
and sawdust restaurants with Oyster Shells......

Oh My....I am all awash with longing....not to visit the restaurants but imagine, to be able write such evocative words.....

I so love poetry.....but then, I have measured out my life in coffee-spoons.

Penelope · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 2:05 pm Post subject:

You've all got me going now:-

What about:

Under the wide and starry sky
Dig a grave and let me lie
Glad did I live, and gladly die
And I lay me down with a will.

by Robert Louis Stevenson

It is so life affirming....and death affirming....there are not many poems which are 'death' affirming. RLS was a wonderful man - the Mozart of the Poetry world imo.

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Penelope · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 2:14 pm Post subject:

This is what is great about poetry - it can say so much, so many profound and heart-rending things,so beautifully.....in so few words....

If only we could all communicate likewise.

It reminds me of the literature lesson....where we were 'doing' Hamlet's soliloquay.

....whether tis nobler in the mind, to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

...or to take arms against....and end it.

meaning....

I'm really fed up - I think I might top myself........ Laughing

DWill · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 8:34 pm Post subject:

I'll say something really in earnest here (which I usually try to avoid) and seemingly overboard: poetry is like scripture for me.
Right on, Penelope, with your "Kubla Khan" and "Prufrock." I think the ending of "Kubla" is still pretty strong, though: "Beware, beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair! Weave a circle round him thrice, and close your eyes with holy dread, for he on honey-dew hath fed, and drunk the milk of paradise." (Not sure of line breaks.)
"Prufrock" I like partly because I can understand what is going on so much better than in "The Wasteland!" But almost every line of "Prufrock" is memorable. Something funny is that on occasion, when I have felt humiliated or just completly unequal to the situation, I'll say to myself, "I should have been a pair of ragged claws/Scuttling across the floors of silent seas." This actually helps cheer me up!
Saffron, do you like Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verse", too? (Do I have the title right?) I like children's poetry or poems written from a child's point of view (as in some of William Blake's).
DWill

Saffron · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 8:40 pm Post subject:

DWill:

ralphinlaos · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:14 am Post subject:

Saffron, I know that DWill is in southern Virginia so he's probably alright, but I hope you are safe and warm and that the tornado didn't come anywhere near you.

Ralph

Saffron · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:36 am Post subject:

Saffron · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 7:29 am Post subject:

Penelope wrote:

Indigo · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:20 pm Post subject:

Indigo · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:27 pm Post subject:

Indigo · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:30 pm Post subject:

Indigo · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:37 pm Post subject:

Haha okay, one more post, since we're talking about "death-affirming" poems. I'm not sure if this fits the category exactly, but it's one of my favorite poems, and certainly my favorite about death.

suppose
Life is an old man carrying flowers on his head.

young death sits in a cafe
smiling, a piece of money held between
his thumb and first finger

(i say "will he buy flowers" to you
and "Death is young
life wears velour trousers
life totters, life has a beard" i

say to you who are silent.--"Do you see
Life? he is there and here,
or that, or this
or nothing or an old man 3 thirds
asleep, on his head
flowers, always crying
to nobody something about les
roses les bluets
yes,
will He buy?
Les belles bottes--oh hear
, pas cheres")

and my love slowly answered I think so. But
I think I see someone else

there is a lady, whose name is Afterwards
she is sitting beside young death, is slender;
likes flowers.

- e. e. cummings


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