Jess, who writes the blog Garish and Tweed and the most useful book reviews I know, issued a challenge the other day. She challenged her readers to check out her friend Kate's blog, red couch fever, (very funny) and try to write a poem in the style of William Carlos Williams' "This is just to say".
I tried my hand at it too - nothing as funny as Kate or Jess's addition to the repertoire, but it sort of summarizes the month I'm living through:
I’m sorry I yelped
When you urped down my shirt
I made your arms flail
And your sweet lips turn pale.
Forgive me -
I know it wasn’t malicious,
just quick
and cold.
Poetry seems to be in the air over here at Kolokolo. I ran out of books to read about a week ago (and when I'm feeding a baby, I need something to read), so I've been overhauling my poetry shelf, pulling out old favorites to see how they hold up to the rigors of a 2 am critic. Besides remembering just how much I like Marianne Moore, I've discovered something else cool too. All that pacing you put in walking a colicky baby? You might feel you'll never have your hands free again to eat a sandwich or fold the swarms of laundry surrounding you, but pacing is great for memorizing poetry. I roar out lines while the baby bellows, I whisper them while I bob him, nearly asleep, on my shoulder.
So far I've memorized one Marianne Moore poem, several William C Williams and e.e. cummings (so easy). Next up is some Donne and Shakespeare. Any suggestions on favorite poems you have memorized, I'd love to hear.
Casual question
1 week ago
4 comments:
I'm so glad you took up the challenge!
The Highwayman would make for something over-the-top (and with great rhythm) for late-night pacing. I've always had a fondness for Eliot and MacNeice, for something a bit less...gruesome.
Marge Piercy is a favorite and also May Swenson. Her poem Question is one I love and is particularly easy for memorization:
Yeats' Stolen Child! Not for any wishful thinking due to colicky babies, but the catchiness of the refrain makes it my favorite to mutter in times of stress.
"Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand."
Jess-- I memorized the Highwayman in middle school, which started my love of memorizing, I think.
I still like to brag about myself for memorizing Prufrock, which was I think my most challenging (long; doesn't rhyme). It really does come in handy in more situations than you would think.
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