Comments on: This was a Poet — http://bloglily.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/ \"it must give pleasure\" -- Wallace Stevens Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:38:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: qazse http://bloglily.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-3108 Wed, 06 Dec 2006 05:29:56 +0000 http://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-3108 “It is easier only because a good poem reaches you more quickly than a novel. It is harder because I often can’t read more than a few poems at a time. Poetry is relentless in a way prose is not in much the same way that vodka kicks you in the gut a lot sooner than wine does.”

I love this observation and concur wholeheartedly.

I haven’t the time to answer the questions right now. I wish I had time to keep up with all my blogroll friends like I should. It is always pleasant when time allows. xo, Q

]]> By: slynne http://bloglily.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-3075 Tue, 05 Dec 2006 16:09:40 +0000 http://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-3075 Lovely, lovely thoughts, I love this post

]]> By: realruth http://bloglily.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2910 Sat, 02 Dec 2006 04:44:56 +0000 http://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2910 Over here on the other side of the world I was obliged to memorise the Gettysburg Address, by a relieving teacher of English who was American. I still occasionally astound my friends with a recitation. Despite the sexism, it’s stirring stuff! After “Hair”, my recitations tended to have extra bits added, e.g. “…conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the one I love.”

]]> By: bloglily http://bloglily.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2851 Thu, 30 Nov 2006 19:21:24 +0000 http://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2851 Hello Catherine — Of course you should — and I’d love to check it out (which I’ll do after I go get some lunch.)I’ve so enjoyed hearing these “how I came to poetry” biographical sketches.

Mary — No poems, no poems, no poems! I can’t do it. Only prose for me these days.

]]> By: catherinejames http://bloglily.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2838 Thu, 30 Nov 2006 08:04:34 +0000 http://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2838 I’m not on your blogroll, but I would like to steal this meme for my blogpost later today (11/30). Hope that’s all right. -catherine

]]> By: marymom http://bloglily.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2829 Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:38:56 +0000 http://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2829 OK, BL. It’s a pact. I will bring a poem! Maybe. And as soon as I logged off yesterday, I realized the landlord’s daughter was Bess, not Meg– but no one wrote to correct and ridicule, which is nice. Some years ago, a poet named Stephen Berg wrote a book of poems called “With Akhmatova at the Black Gates”, which had some poems so haunting and beautiful, I carried around a copy of one until it fell apart in my wallet and I threw it away. That was before Al Gore had discovered the internet. I will look for Lot’s Wife also– Thanks again for all the good thoughts-mary

]]> By: bloglily http://bloglily.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2823 Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:08:12 +0000 http://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2823 Hi Sue — !

Dear Cam — I will. I’m about to google it. That poem has your name all over it!

]]> By: Cam http://bloglily.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2799 Wed, 29 Nov 2006 04:57:32 +0000 http://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2799 BL: You must, must, must read Akhmatova’s poem “Lot’s Wife”. Google it — I’m sure it’s online somewhere, although I don’t know about the copywrite so I didn’t look up a link. (Guess you wouldn’t have guessed it’s one of my favorites, huh?)

]]> By: Sue Crocker http://bloglily.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2791 Tue, 28 Nov 2006 23:25:41 +0000 http://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2791 BL – Rod McKuen has a site these days. rodmckuen.com.

One of his random thoughts:

None of us is so wealthy or influential that we cannot be further enriched by love.

Sorrow isn’t sorrow when it’s shared, only when it’s done in the dark alone.

]]> By: Meme from Bloglily… « Relaxed Parents http://bloglily.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2787 Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:36:41 +0000 http://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2787 [...] …who picked it up from Cam. It’s late and I want to end the day with something a little positive and this is, well, a nice thing. (”Isn’t it nice that we live in such a thingy world?” Iris Murdoch, towards the end of her life). Thank you Cam and Bloglily… [...]

]]> By: bloglily http://bloglily.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2777 Tue, 28 Nov 2006 17:18:07 +0000 http://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2777 Litlove, One reason I like Wallace Stevens is that he was guided in his writing and in his enjoyment of other writers by what gave pleasure. And, he was a lawyer. Plus, he liked chocolate.
Hi Sue — I remember Rod McKuen. He was a very sixties/seventies poet, huh?
Dear Fencer, Quick is such a wonderful name for a frontier town. And as things to yell at one’s brother go, “unhand me, grey-beard loon” strikes me as a huge improvement over the things I hear around my house.
My dear Scott, I was aware of your considerable culinary talents, but now see I must add lyrical master to the list!
Dorothy — Your answers to these questions were wonderful and I was glad to see that I’m not the only person who can’t do more than a few poems at a time. I wonder if maybe that’s one reason people don’t like poetry: they take on too much at a time.
Thank you for asking those questions, Cam. It really got me thinking about reading and the differences between prose and poetry and why I like some things and not others.
Dear U-R Dad — I’ve only read one Akhmatova poem, the one about standing in line and not forgetting. (I wish I had a better memory.) I like your description of her as headspinning.
Oh Nancy Ruth, kind but true can be hard and they’re both important when reading and reacting to someone’s work. It would be interesting sometime to have someone write about common (I want to say mistakes, but that’s not quite right) ways people can go wrong in writing poetry.
Mary, Your mother sounds really amazing and wonderful. What a great thing to do for your children. And your story about the Owl and the Pussycat made my day absolutely complete — and it’s only 9:20 a.m. If you bring poetry on Thursday nights, I will too! How about that for a bargain? (I just wish everyone else who comments here could come along and drink tea (or vodka) and add to the fun of it.)

]]> By: marymom http://bloglily.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2776 Tue, 28 Nov 2006 17:17:32 +0000 http://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2776 Thanks for this wonderful post BL– My Mom casually encouraged an interest in poetry by buying second hand books of poems and leaving them around. She didn’t push it, and I don’t remember her reading them out loud to us, although I’m sure she did. When We are Six, A Child’s Garden of Verses, and a used high school text book which had The Highwayman, Annabel Lee, The Tree, the Purple Cow, and all sorts of other poems and short stories. I was probably 7 or 8 when I read The Highwayman, and I read it over and over, puzzling out how Meg (the landlord’s daughter, the landlord’s black-haired daughter)let the gunshot shatter her breast to warn her lover away. Why did she do it? Now that I think of it, that probably isn’t the best poem for young girls forming their first ideas of romance. Hmmm.
And I have always loved Emily Dickinson, but someone told me to try singing her poetry to the tune of Yellow Rose in Texas– and you can, every single poem. Try it– Because I would not stop for death– he kindly stopped for meeee!
I remember that I memorized The Highwayman in around the fourth or fifth grade- I had read it so much, I practically had it memorized already, but my teacher was deeply impressed. And I recited the Owl and the Pussycat in class in 8th grade– I did it in a high, funny voice, because I was nervous about saying pussy in front of everyone– I knew there were some kids waiting to make trouble over it, so I used a high, funny voice and cracked them all up from the very beginning. Kids were literally on the floor, laughing and crying and kicking their legs. I have read that poem to my two since they were babies, now, from a book with beautiful pictures. But I still remember that 8th grade experience, and how afraid I was to say pussy out loud, because of certain inscriptions on the bathroom walls.
Wallace Stevens, I loved in college, but have not read for years. You have inspired me to go back read him again. I also love T.S. Eliot and Sylvia Plath. And Elinor Kandel, if I have her name right, for some rollicking good porno poems. And the Thurday night group is inspiring me to try my hand at poetry again, although that’s a part of myself I have buried so deeply it may take an archaeologist to dig it out.

]]> By: Nancy Ruth http://bloglily.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2762 Tue, 28 Nov 2006 11:37:32 +0000 http://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2762 Every once in a while someone sends me poems by a friend of theirs, wanting to know what I think of them. They obviously want me to say that they are wonderful and worthy of publication, and invariably they are dreadful. This happened yesterday. The poems were by a person so special that she had just received an award for her community charity. What to say to her friend? This exercise of saying something kind but true does clarify for me what makes a good poem.

]]> By: (un)relaxeddad http://bloglily.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2758 Tue, 28 Nov 2006 10:17:04 +0000 http://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2758 That’s something I’m going to save for when I get home and blog properly. For now, there’s always a book of poetry by the side of the bed (or two, or three) and the current one is still the headspinning Anna Akhmatova.

]]> By: Cam http://bloglily.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2747 Tue, 28 Nov 2006 01:44:08 +0000 http://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/this-was-a-poet/#comment-2747 If poetry is like vodka, no wonder it is so difficult to read more than a few at a time — and why the feeling remains long after!

I too had to memorize the Prologue to Canturbury Tales. I had forgotten about that very long Thanksgiving weekend spent memorizing those few lines and realizing how easily impressed I had been a in high school that my Advanced Lit teacher could recite it. Wasn’t so difficult after all, but limited in ways in which I could use it to show off how smart I was. Good thing that I wasn’t too far into my 20′s before I realized that I didn’t need to show off & could just enjoy that I knew it.

I have never read much of Wallace Stevens. I should.

Thanks for doing the meme.

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