Meme from thieving_gypsy

[labellementeuse]

One of my favourite memes ever: When you see this, post a bit of poetry in your blog.

The Tides Run Up the Wairau

The tides run up the Wairau
That fights against their flow.
My heart and it together
Are running salt and snow.

For though I cannot love you,
Yet, heavy, deep, and far,
Your tide of love come swinging,
Too swift for me to bar.

Some thought of you must linger,
A salt of pain in me,
For oh what running river
Can stand against the sea?

-- Eileen Duggan

AND

The Active Voice

It's true you can't live here by chance,
you have to do and be, not simply watch
or even describe. This is the city of action,
the world headquarters of the verb -

look at the sea, frantic with masts and sails,
the land galloping down to it, gorse flowers
flying, wind in its mane of flax; and then,
there it is, crags with their feet in

the water getting breath for the next
round. Swimmers here swim, they don't loll
about, wind surfers likewise skim, plunge,
the very gulls are wilder than most, they

hardly land; or if they do that too is a kind
of flight, the arm of the wind coming up
and ruffling their frills - the wind, yes indeed,
incorrigible voyeur that never goes home.

- Lauris Edmond

AND, because I just saw it on greatpoets and I love it:

since feeling is first

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a far better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
--the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laughleaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

-- e e cummings

Comments

[skadi.livejournal.com]

e e cummings is such a strange poet. I really like his work, but most of it leaves me with a "...huh" expression on my face.


(See, I'm being clever with this icon - it's my poetry-oriented icon. While the picture if from 'The Fifth Element,' the line reads, "it will take all your breath," which is a line from Adrienne Rich).

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I really love the way he uses punctuation and words and things- then I try to explain to people why e e cummings not using apostrophes or whatever is okay, but it's NOT okay if they do it, and sort of fall down a little. ;)

(Very cunning. This is my poetry icon. it is from Archy and Mehitabel, which is an awesome poetry series and very, very funny. "human wandering through the zoo/what do you cousins think of you?" It's a series of poems written by Archy the cockroach about the adventures of he and Mehitabel, a cat, have living in the newspaper office. It is teh awesome.)

[skadi.livejournal.com]

*giggle attack*

Ahaha! I was called "cunning."

...that pleases me.

I need to check out that Archy and Mehitabel stuff. It sounds really interesting. I love poetry. I can't write it worth crap, but I really enjoy reading it.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

*raises eyebrows* It's a good word. :)

It is! It's great. It's by Don Marquis and the first collection is archy and mehitabel, but I'd start with archy's life of mehitabel which I prefer. There's a bit of history here (http://www.donmarquis.com/archy/), plus several of the poems, and here are some cool ones (http://www.livejournal.com/community/greatpoets/tag/don+marquis) too. :D

[blademistress.livejournal.com]

We looked at that poem by e.e. cummings in one of my English classes last simester. At first he's all blah to me, but after they started explaining things I could actually see it and now I'm quite fond of that poem. I really love "who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;"

I should go post The Square Dance in my journal. Excellent poem. One of the few times I enjoyed studying poetry.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Poetry's one of those things that you really enjoy more after studying, I think. Some stuff- film especially- I find I get really sick of after studying unless I desperately loved it before we started, but poetry it just fuels my joy. ;)

*prods* That's what the meme says you should do... ;)