Poem in Your Pocket 2009

[Saffron]

Poem in Your Pocket will happen on April 30, 2009. It is part National Poetry Month. The idea is you select a poem to keep in your pocket to pull out and read to anyone who will hold still to listen. I have already made my selection and God help anyone who I happen to meet on April 30th -- just kidding, I'm actually a bit shy. I do promise to read my poem aloud to at least 2 people.

If you plan to participate, let us know what poem you choose and why.

[Saffron]

I still can't decide what poem I will carry on April 30th. I'm leaning toward XVII (I do not love you...) by Pablo Neruda.

[DWill]

A tough decision, yes. Leaning toward Robert Frost's "Come In." I suspect it has a lot to do with the beauty of the last stanza. But also, this poem for me is a more satisfying statement of the same theme in "Stopping By Woods."

Come In
As I came to the edge of the woods,
Thrush music -- hark!
Now if it was dusk outside,
Inside it was dark.

Too dark in the woods for a bird
By sleight of wing
To better its perch for the night,
Though it still could sing.

The last of the light of the sun
That had died in the west
Still lived for one song more
In a thrush's breast.

Far in the pillared dark
Thrush music went --
Almost like a call to come in
To the dark and lament.

But no, I was out for stars;
I would not come in.
I meant not even if asked;
And I hadn't been.

[Saffron]

"Come in" is one of my most favorite poems. It is very much akin to "Stopping By Woods."

[Saffron]

Happy National Poem in Your Pocket Day! I will be carrying
Pablo Neruda's Soneto XIV. It starts out --

Me falta tiempo para celebrar tus cabellos.
Uno por uno debo contarlos y alabarlos:
otros amantes quieren vivir con cierrtos ojos,
you solo quiero ser tu peluquero.


There are not enough years to celebrate your hair.
I need to count and praise each strand:
other lovers want to live with certain eyes,
whereas I wish simply to be your hairdresser.

[Suzanne]

The Merman

The ripples on your wall:
fake sea-lights the soft sunlight makes.

You sleep under water.
Learn to love the counterfeit

and in the mess of shalts and shoulds and musts
find what you want.

Dont't forget: I once stood loving
what was not here.

J.T. Barbarese

[Suzanne]

Oh why? Why? I love J.T. Barbarese, actually had the privelidge to have him as a book discusion leader at my local library.

The Merman, reminds me of my baby boy, now 13. Makes me sad, I still stand over my baby boy and love what is no longer here. Makes me hopeful that he will find what he wants, remember what was once, and to always remember I love him.

Thanks a lot, now I'm crying.

Suzanne

[Suzanne]

Drats, I have no tissues to dry my tears, my pocket has a poem in it.

Suzanne

[MaryLupin]

Well, not in my pocket exactly but in my backpack. I am taking Melissa Kwasney's The Archival Brids with me. After work I plan to camp out at the coffee shop for a couple of hours reading De Waal and Kwasney.

Also, in honour of the day I am going to buy her newest book (won a prize http://www.cstone.net/~poems/thistkwa.htm) called "Thistle." She also has a non-fiction book on poets which I am also considering.