86º ~ conditions near the same, cloud cover breaking up in the south
Earlier this week, some friends and I agreed to each make a packet containing approx. 10 poems that we love. These are friends with whom I’ve talked of poetry casually, but they are not writers of poetry and so I do not know their aesthetic.
Of course I had a terrible time creating my list, mostly in narrowing. Eventually, I gave up and just went with the poems that floated most quickly to the top of my head. I am sure there are others equally deserving.
Here’s my list (in no particular order) and an excerpt for each poem.
Traci Brimhall ~ “Aubade with a Broken Neck”
The first night you don’t come home
summer rains shake the clematis.
I bury the dead moth I found in our bed,
scratch up a rutabaga and eat it rough
James Wright ~ “A Blessing”
to Rochester, Minnesota,
softly forth on the grass.
those two Indian ponies
kindness.
Li-Young Lee ~ “Persimmons”
understanding
one night
a ghost.
Elizabeth Bishop ~ “One Art”
day. Accept the fluster
the hour badly spent.
isn’t hard to master.
Mary Oliver ~ “In Blackwater Woods”
Every year
everything
I have ever learned
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side
is salvation,
Pablo Neruda ~ “Sonnet XVII” ~ trans. Stephen Mitchell
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.
Quan Barry ~ “Child of the Enemy”
from “IX. Napalm”
Charles Wright ~ “1975”
Anne Sexton ~ “For My Lover, Returning to His Wife”
She is, in fact, exquisite.
Fireworks in the dull middle of February
and as real as a cast-iron pot.
Maurice Manning ~ “Seven Chimeras”
an orchid:
with nine fencerow
together and hang
half-light.
Lucie Brock-Broido ~ “Also, None of Us Has Seen God”
Old as a prehistoric furrow horse abed in awe & sediment,
Curled on his runic side, in the shape of an O broken.
Well, there you go, I went to 11.
Great list, and fun idea. Makes me consider my own favorites.
Nothing could be more poetic than closing with a This Is Spinal Tap reference!
Thanks, Drew. The fun thing is that this list would surely change were I to do it again next week, next month, next year, as other poems floated to the surface.
Shawnte, EXACTLY!
It's like making a mix cd for your friends, only with poetry. I love it!
A wonderful list — many of my old favorites, as well, and a few new poems for me to find and read. It would be interesting to make this list every year and in several years see what your own personal "anthology" would look like.
Justin, ah, now to take it to the level of mix tape, I'll have to think more carefully about the order of the poems. Great metaphor.
Molly, cool idea!