Maybe it didn't change your life, but do you have a favourite poem? Thx.
I like a lot of poems, but there's something about this poem by William Carlos Williams that gives me this profound feeling of... I don't know. I guess I'd say almost a Zen like feeling, like a deep inner connection with all things in the universe and an understanding of the interconnectedness of all things. In any case, here it is: The Red Wheelbarrow, 1923 a red wheel
barrow glazed with rain
water beside the white
chickens. Another poem I really like is "Away", by Walter De La Mare, 1938 Brood not too closely
On love or duty;
Friends long forgotten
May wait you where
Life with death
Brings all to an issue;
None will long mourn for you,
Pray for you, miss you,
Your place left vacant,
You not there.so much depends
upon
There is no sorrow
Time heals never;
No loss, betrayal,
Beyond repair.
Balm for the soul, then,
Though grave shall sever
Lover from loved
And all they share;
See, the sweet sun shines,
The shower is over,
Flowers preen their beauty,
The day how fair!
Not a poem, but a couple of lines from As You Like It: I think about mortality more than I'd like, and this verse always stays with me. I suppose that it has a similar message to the The Swimmer's Moment, at least that's why I remember it.And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot;
And thereby hangs a tale.
Haha! That line from As You Like It is fantastic. I was about to ask who it was by and then Googled it instead: Shakespeare. Some knack for words that guy : ) I also think about mortality a lot, but don't really carry it with distaste. I enjoy the weight. Most of the poets I'm really into also carry that weight. Current poet of interest: Bill Holm. He also wrote the first poem I ever memorized; something I did simply because the poem was so good, I just wanted to carry it around as long as I could. It also spoke of music, which I love to play, but am especially into when described through words. Using words to describe sounds, a tough space for language to fill... Here's the poem: Bach in Brimnes Stebbi brings his cello into Brimnes.
He is a big thick fellow with ham fists,
Who looks like a seaman or a deck hand
More used to tubs of fish than cello bows.
No scores here, so he plays what he knows:
Bach! Let's have some Bach! Play a saraband!
The cello seems too big for this small room
But when he starts the Saraband in G,
The whole house grows too tiny for the tune,
As if the walls demanded to expand
Another fifty meters toward the sea
To make a proper space for all this sound,
If any human space at all could house
The planets whirling around inside this suite.
People have been looking for this poem (I can tell by the record of web searches) - so I just want to put it up in lines. Bach in Brimnes
Stebbi brings his cello into Brimnes.
He is a big thick fellow with ham fists,
Who looks like a seaman or a deck hand
More used to tubs of fish than cello bows.
No scores here, so he plays what he knows:
Bach! Let's have some Bach! Play a saraband!
The cello seems too big for this small room
But when he starts the Saraband in G,
The whole house grows too tiny for the tune,
As if the walls demanded to expand
Another fifty meters toward the sea
To make a proper space for all this sound,
If any human space at all could house
The planets whirling around inside this suite.
I don't even know how to answer my own question. There are so many poems. Poetry books falling out of my shelves - each one full of associations. In fact for some reason wrenauld texted me the other day asking me to recommend a poet. I couldn't (except of course like mk - the Bard - but many many favourite poems. One that has haunted me for a long time is "I Wake to Sleep" by Theodore Roethke, especially the line "I feel my being dance from ear to ear." -- This line reminds me that we are in a relationship with ourselves, outside from any role or relationship with others. I don't think a poem ever made me change direction though, at least not yet.
That is a very nice line. Our internal perspective is pretty absurd when you think about it. Sometimes you feel keenly aware that you are sitting in a cockpit, and sometimes you can completely forget about it, and your mind moves into the moment of experience. It's funny that the other Shakespeare I can recite is Hamlet's To Be or Not to Be soliloquy. I feel compelled to recite it if I am ever holding a skull, or if I am drunk. I suppose I think about death more than I should. :)"I feel my being dance from ear to ear."
While I was a school boy, I idolized charge of the light brigade. I was a new student at a military school, life was tough, and I remembered this poem when ever I felt I couldn't take it any more. Especially the stanzas Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred. were my favorites. In my twenties, I read about the original charge that motivated the poem, and the stupidity of that assault, and I could no longer identify with the poem any more. Now, though, I see that the stupidity of the officers and the pointlessness of the assault in no way detracts from the courage and bravery of the soldiers, for war itself is stupid in most senses.
I would be a very different person had it not been for Shel Silverstein. I loved his books as a child and his poems were some of the first things I could read on my own. I love rhyming, writing, poetry and song and I credit this largely to him. So "yes", a poem and a poet has definitely changed my life.
Through the magic of hubski, b_b's thoughtful Tennyson, led me to thenewgreen's poem by Larkin, reminding me that I memorized Larkin's This Be the Verse - a good one to memorize -- frequently useful to recite.
That Larkin poem is great lil. Would have made a nice contribution to the post earlier in the week 'Are Parents Ever Not Strange"