RSS Feed
Poetry is sort of a curious object for me. I enjoy reading poems. I love spoken word poetry, though I know it’s not for everyone. I love how poetry is about the joy of language, the purity of expression, etc. But I have an utter inability to write it. And often when I’m reading a poem I feel like I’m being confronted with some cryptogram that needs to be decoded, which is fun, sometimes, and then again sometimes not. It can begin to feel more like a math problem than a poem. And feeding my complex still: rarely do I feel so inspired to write fiction as when I am reading a poem.
Am I the only one that feels that way? That is: confused?
Anyway, in light of these thoughts, I thought I’d share some of my favorite poems.
“My Father’s Family” by Adam Falkner
I added this as a Featured Story way early on. One of my favorite parts during the video is towards the end, when you can hear an audience member say “My God,” like Adam Falkner is some indomitable force of nature.
ee cummings
It’s a poem. A classy, respected poem. About anal sex. And plus it does some cool things with language and breaking down words. There’s an interesting analysis about this poem over on HTMLGIANT.
“Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll
Isn’t this technically a kid’s poem? Whatever. I actually first read the poem in college, when a friend from a creative writing class who was amused by my surrealist fiction walked into the classroom and handed me a print-out of the poem, saying, “I think you would really enjoy this.” And you know what, I did. It’s so whimsical and bizarre, and also completely insane.
William Shatner reads Palin’s Twitter Poetry
Is this cheating? Because since Palin didn’t mean to write poetry, it’s not really poetry? I don’t care. It’s such a good example of poetry inadvertently emerging in everyday life, and being able to find the beauty in everyday language.
What are your favorite poems?
[Image credit: toothpastefordinner.com]
I really like some detroit poets. My favorite poem must be “I wake my friend I” by Faye Kicknosway. Jim Gustafson is amazing too.
I like this, and it relates to LITDRIFT!!!!!! (the spacing isnt right)
“Because You Asked about the Line between
Prose and Poetry”
by Howard Nemerov
Sparrows were feeding in a freezing drizzle
that while you watched turned into pieces of snow
riding a gradient invisible
from silver aslant to random, white, and slow.
There came a moment that you couldn’t tell.
And then they clearly flew instead of fell.
I don’t like 99.9% of poems because they are mostly bad, like whoever wrote them thought they were being oh so cerebral, but in reality, they suck.
A quote from my sister: “the only poetry i like is about bitchez and hoez, and most call it rap.”
Cracked me up…
“The Red Wheelbarrow” got me out of a lot of trouble because I memorized it and used it for various last minute, in-class essay tests… so I like it for that. And I have come to appreciate the poem over time. Can’t call it a favorite for content purposes but seriously… it has bailed me out so many times.
There is a Mandarin poem about a guy chasing a sunset by running up the stairs of his apartment building to catch it on each floor and though I’ve never found an English translation, the imagery from it really stuck with me… maybe that’s my favorite. I don’t know… I know there are a lot of poems that really get to me and that I love but I can’t think of any off the top of my head.
Do your single line short stories count as poetry? I almost feel like it does sometimes…
For the only literary anthology my high school ever put together, one of my friends submitted the following:
“I wrote a really short story once.”
That was it. And years later I still remember it. It totally counts as poetry.
This poetry tour called “Elephant Engine High Dive Revival” came through NYU last thursday, and there were six amazing slam/performance poets there. But the one who utterly and completely blew me away was Buddy Wakefield. His flow, energy, and soft blue eyes were spellbinding. Here’s a link to my favorite poem by him. Strap on your head protectors, because this will blow your mind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIr4pL9P0SA
I own (purchased for two dollars at Savers) a fluorescent orange shirt with the ‘bad poetry o noetry’ guy. And I’m proud.
Favorite poem: “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Yes! I approve of shirt purchase.
Elizabeth Bishop reportedly worked fifteen years to complete “One Art.” See http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15212.
Audre Lorde. Anything by Audre Lorde. Especially “Stations.” And “Coping.” And…well, anything by Audre Lorde.
I used to carry around in my wallet the end of “Stations” (not spaced correctly):
some women wait for something to change
and nothing does change
so they change
themselves.
(Have loved that poem for more than a dozen years, and still can’t decide if that changing of themselves is good or bad. That’s the mark of brilliance.)
And I also love “Haiku II” by Ruth Forman (which was turned into a song by a band, but I can’t remember which one):
memories come down
and me once again
caught without an umbrella
Is that Spearhead? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syGsv9_zA6o
Should have clarified: Spearhead covering the “Haiku II” poem.
Clarification on my comment above: her brilliance, not mine.
I like many poems but four of my favorite poems are “There Was a Child Went Forth” by Walt Whitman, “The Lesson of the Moth” by Don Marquis, What Happens to a Dream Deferred, by Langston Hughes, and My Daddy’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke
Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes–yes yes yes. Love them.