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Saffron 
Senior
Joined: 01 Apr 2008
Posts: 370
Gender: 
Location: Northern Virginia
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 Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 8:47 pm Post subject:
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Ok, one more for me. I just found this poem in City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology ed. Lawrence Ferlinghetti. A book my daughter had secretly whisked off to school and has only just come back to me.
Kenneth Patchen
The Sea is Awash With Roses
The sea is awash with roses O they blow
Upon the land
The still hills fill with their scent
O the hills flow on their sweetness
As on God's hand
O love, it is so little we know of pleasure
Pleasure that lasts as the snow
But the sea is awash with roses O they blow
Upon the land |
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Saffron
Senior
Joined: 01 Apr 2008
Posts: 370
Gender:
Location: Northern Virginia
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:00 pm Post subject:
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| I see this thread is still getting lots of views. Anybody want more poetry or more discussion about poetry? |
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BabyBlues
I can enter The Chamber
Joined: 29 Jun 2008
Posts: 57
Gender: 
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:14 am Post subject: Deflowering Anyone?
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This is the poem that first made me love cummings.
she being Brand
she being Brand
-new;and you
know consequently a
little stiff i was
careful of her and(having
thoroughly oiled the universal
joint tested my gas felt of
her radiator made sure her springs were O.
K.)i went right to it flooded-the-carburetor cranked her
up,slipped the
clutch(and then somehow got into reverse she
kicked what
the hell)next
minute i was back in neutral tried and
again slo-wly;bare,ly nudg. ing(my
lev-er Right-
oh and her gears being in
A 1 shape passed
from low through
second-in-to-high like
greasedlightning)just as we turned the corner of Divinity
avenue i touched the accelerator and give
her the juice,good
(it
was the first ride and believe i we was
happy to see how nice she acted right up to
the last minute coming back down by the Public
Gardens i slammed on
the
internalexpanding
&
externalcontracting
brakes Bothatonce and
brought allofher tremB
-ling
to a:dead.
stand-
;Still)
Saffron, I love that you posted the Sharon Olds poem! A college professor who I'd really admired was a huge Olds fan and introduced us to her. The imagery and cleverness of Topography always stuck with me.  |
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Saffron
Senior
Joined: 01 Apr 2008
Posts: 370
Gender:
Location: Northern Virginia
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:37 am Post subject:
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Babyblues wrote:
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| Saffron, I love that you posted the Sharon Olds poem! ... The imagery and cleverness of Topography always stuck with me. |
Thanks! Me too! Am I remembering correctly that you are from NJ? I am too.
Saffron |
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DWill
Senior
Joined: 31 Jan 2008
Posts: 383
Gender: 
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:18 am Post subject:
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Thanks to Saffron for her faithfulness to this forum. I get a little worn down sometimes and unfortunately lose the poetic spirit. Recently, a good friend gave me a beautiful blank book in which I will copy many memorable passages, especially from poems. (I believe this was called a commonplace book in the old days.)
Babyblues reminded me of the e.e. cummings poem that first got me interested in him. It was in high school, when I was probably dozing through English class. It shook me from my lethargy with a wallop.
pity this busy monster, manunkind
pity this busy monster, manunkind,
not. Progress is a comfortable disease:
your victim (death and life safely beyond)
plays with the bigness of his littleness
--- electrons deify one razorblade
into a mountainrange; lenses extend
unwish through curving wherewhen till unwish
returns on its unself.
A world of made
is not a world of born --- pity poor flesh
and trees, poor stars and stones, but never this
fine specimen of hypermagical
ultraomnipotence. We doctors know
a hopeless case if --- listen: there's a hell
of a good universe next door; let's go
-- E. E. Cummings
This poem was one of the first that I recall getting excited about. When the teacher wondered what "electrons deify one razorblade into a mountainrange" could mean, I flashed on the old Gillette commercial where a Brand X razorblade, magnified thousands of times, is shown after one use looking just like a jagged mountainrange. The poem is also a great anthem for the dawning age of protest.
DWill |
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Saffron
Senior
Joined: 01 Apr 2008
Posts: 370
Gender:
Location: Northern Virginia
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:35 am Post subject: Commonplace book
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After reading DWill's post, I got curious, as is my usual habit and went looking for information on Commonplace books. Here is what I found.
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Commonplace books (or commonplaces) emerged in the 15th century with the availability of cheap paper for writing, mainly in England. They were a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They were essentially scrapbooks filled with items of every kind: medical recipes, quotes, letters, poems, tables of weights and measures, proverbs, prayers, legal formulas. Commonplaces were used by readers, writers, students, and humanists as an aid for remembering useful concepts or facts they had learned. Each commonplace book was unique to its creator's particular interests.
By the 1600s, commonplacing had become a recognized practice that was formally taught to college students in such institutions as Oxford. The commonplace tradition in which Bacon and Milton were educated had its roots in the pedagogy of classical rhetoric, and “commonplacing” persisted as a popular study technique until the early twentieth century. Both Emerson and Thoreau were taught to keep commonplace books at Harvard (their commonplace books survive in published form). Commonplacing was particularly attractive to authors. Some, such as Coleridge and Mark Twain, kept messy reading notes that were intermixed with other quite various material; |
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Saffron
Senior
Joined: 01 Apr 2008
Posts: 370
Gender:
Location: Northern Virginia
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:39 am Post subject: May Swenson
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One more post for me today. I've just added a new poet to my list of favorites. May Swenson. Try this.
Question
by May Swenson
Body my house
my horse my hound
what will I do
when you are fallen
Where will I sleep
How will I ride
What will I hunt
Where can I go
without my mount
all eager and quick
How will I know
in thicket ahead
is danger or treasure
when Body my good
bright dog is dead
How will it be
to lie in the sky
without roof or door
and wind for an eye
With cloud for shift
how will I hide? |
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DWill
Senior
Joined: 31 Jan 2008
Posts: 383
Gender:
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 8:26 pm Post subject:
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Saffron, you're always great for filling in sketchy information. Commonplace books sound a little web-y, don't they--kind of the advanced means of information synthesizing and storage of the day. Not sure I have that grand a scheme for mine!
DWill |
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Saffron
Senior
Joined: 01 Apr 2008
Posts: 370
Gender:
Location: Northern Virginia
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 8:44 pm Post subject:
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If you liked the last May Swenson poem check out the rest of Blue.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15672
Blue
by May Swenson
Blue, but you are Rose, too,
and buttermilk, but with blood
dots showing through.
A little salty your white
nape boy-wide. |
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BabyBlues
I can enter The Chamber
Joined: 29 Jun 2008
Posts: 57
Gender:
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| Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 2:06 pm Post subject: Poetry abounds...
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I think we semed to really run with this forum.
Perhaps we should start a few poetry threads... different themes? different poets? I am not sure what way is the best, but a lot of members seem very interested in poetry.
Saffron, yes I am from New Jersey. I am near the shore... you? |
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