Comments on: More poetry

By: blogdog

blogdog — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 20:14:26 +0000

Ah yes, Longfellow. Maybe it’s because I live here, but you can’t go anywhere in Portland without bumping into him, in the form of a memorial, or something named after him, or someplace he’d been. I hope schoolchildren still get to read him — at least here in Maine — but I don’t hold out much hope. I still mostly remember “Paul Revere,” even after all these years.

By: violetismycolor

violetismycolor — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 02:57:11 +0000

Oh all you poetry people…I feel so jealous that I am such a heathen.

By: Reenie

Reenie — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 15:25:53 +0000

There once was a man from Sudanâ€¦

Oh, fergetaboutit. I enjoy reading poetry, but have no talent with its composition.

Thanks for the links to Beverly’s place. The art et al is marvelous.

By: Tonya

Tonya — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 05:52:30 +0000

Oh, I love poetry. Actually I should say SOME poetry. To read it, it needs to be clear and concise — don’t like the rambling-epic kind. And I have loved writing it over the years. Even had some publishing success with it in small presses. I’ve taken several workshops and they have been very inspiring, really got the juices flowing. I ought take another one. Seems like when my life is sad, poetry comes easily. When I’m content, it’s elusive.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:08:48 +0000

I couldn’t write poetry if my life depended on it. I always get hung up in a dumb rhythm and equally inane rhymes. But I love to read it. More specifically, I love to recite poetry. It has always been easy for me to remember the poems I love and they remain instantly accessible wherever I am. I can remember sitting in a hut in India, dim in the gloom of the monsoon day, with a candle or two to remind me it was daytime, reciting some of my favorite poems from memory, softly to myself.

The Indians I shared the compound with understood perfectly, because the poet tradition of verbally recited memorized poems handed down from generation to generation is very much a hallmark of the Hindu culture. Its greatest epics are in the oral tradition and only in the past 150 years or so committed to paper. So they would sit around me as I spoke our poems, evoking Longfellow and Mansfield and Donne and Shakespeare, not understanding the words, but grasping the spirit and fellowship of the meaning and the experience.

Thanks for reminding me of that time.

By: Beverly Jackson

Beverly Jackson — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 16:04:19 +0000

Many thanks, Barbara for the link and nice words. I’m working on the next
book of essays (Stephen Dobyns) and will be posting it sometime soon (?? I’m
so pokey) but it’s heartening to know someone is reading! And it really, really excites me to see people get involved in poetry as it can only make
your life richer, and your prose sing! Now I’m off to read the poem above.