BOOKS AND MOVIES » poetry

The Old Liberators by Robert Hedin

CarrieK — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 07:01:23 +0000

Of all the people in the mornings at the mall,
It’s the old liberators I like best,
Those veterans of the Bulge, Anzio, or Monte Cassino
I see lost in Automotive or back in Home Repair,
Bored among the paints and power tools,
Or the really old ones, the ones who are going fast,
Who keep dozing off in the little orchards
Of shade under the distant skylights.
All around, from one bright rack to another,
Their wives stride big as generals,
Their handbags bulging like ripe fruit.
They are almost all gone now,
And with them they are taking the flak
And fire storms, the names of the old bombing runs.
Each day a little more of their memory goes out,
Darkens the way a house darkens,
Its rooms quietly filling with evening,
Until nothing but the wind lifts the lace curtains,
The wind bearing through the empty rooms
The rich far off scent of gardens
Where just now, this morning,
Light is falling on the wild philodendrons.

~ from Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, selected and introduced by Billy Collins

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The Grammar Lesson by Steve Kowit

CarrieK — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:01:18 +0000

A noun’s a thing. A verb’s the thing it does.
An adjective is what describes the noun.
In “The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz”

of and with are prepositions. The‘s
an article, a can‘s a noun,
a noun’s a thing. A verb’s the thing it does.

A can can roll – or not. What isn’t was
or might be, might meaning not yet known.
“Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz”

is present tense. While words like our and us
are pronouns – i.e. it is moldy, they are icky brown.
A noun’s a thing; a verb’s the thing it does.

Is is a helping verb. It helps because
filled isn’t a full verb. Can‘s what our owns
in “Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz.”

See? There’s almost nothing to it. Just
memorize these rules…or write them down!
A noun’s a thing, a verb’s the thing it does.
The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz.

~ from Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, selected and introduced by Billy Collins

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Words for Worry by Li-Young Lee

CarrieK — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 07:01:21 +0000

Another word for father is worry.

Worry boils the water
for tea in the middle of the night.

Worry trimmed the child’s nails before
singing him to sleep.

Another word for son is delight,
another word, hidden.

And another is One-Who-Goes-Away.
Yet another, One-Who-Returns.

So many words for son:
He-Dreams-for-All-Our-Sakes.
His-Play-Vouchsafes-Our-Winter-Share.
His-Dispersal-Wins-the-Birds.

But only one word for father.
And sometimes a man is both.
Which is to say sometimes a man
manifests mysteries beyond
his own understanding.

~ from Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, selected and introduced by Billy Collins

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Sentimental Moment or Why Did the Baguette Cross the Road? by Robert Hershon

CarrieK — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:01:33 +0000

Don’t fill up on bread
I say absent-mindedly
The servings here are huge

My son, whose hair may be
receding a bit, says
Did you really just
say that to me?

What he doesn’t know
is that when we’re walking
together, when we get
to the curb
I sometimes start to reach
for his hand

~ from Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, selected and introduced by Billy Collins

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Bookish links for Saturday, August 7, 2010

CarrieK — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 07:01:25 +0000

Author links:

~ Shannon Hale: How to be a writer’s friend (or spouse)

~ Andi at Estella’s Revenge has an interview with Lucy Knisley, author of the graphic memoir French Milk.

~ Beth Kephart: How do you choose the books you are going to read?

Discussion starters:

~ Books Lists Life: The problem with series

~ My Friend Amy: Reflections on Peeta and reading

Reviews and blog posts that have me adding to my to-read list:

~ A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly, reviewed by Rhapsody in Books.

~ Poetry Speaks Who I Am edited by Elise Paschen and Dominique Raccah, reviewed by Vasilly.

~ Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta, reviewed by Pam.

~ The Murderer’s Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers, reviewed by Michelle.

~ Chasing Orion by Kathryn Lasky, reviewed by Amanda.

~ Troublemaker by Janet and Alex Evanovich and Joelle Jones, reviewed by Amy.

~ Room by Emma Donoghue, reviewed by Carrie.

~ A God Somewhere by John Arcudi & Peter Snejbjerg, reviewed by Swapna.

Book lists:

~ EW: Stephen King’s 6 Must-Read Books for Summer

Other bookish links:

~ Guardian: Eighty Years of Book Cover Design by Faber and Faber

And, lastly, I leave you with Jane Austen’s Fight Club:

Bookmark to:

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© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2010. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: author interviews, authors, book lists, jane austen, poetry, reading, TBR list

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The Investment by Robert Frost

CarrieK — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 07:20:10 +0000

Over back where they speak of life as staying
(“You couldn’t call it living, for it ain’t”),
There was an old, old house renewed with paint,
And in it a piano loudly playing.

Out in the plowed ground in the cold a digger,
Among unearthed potatoes standing still,
Was counting winter dinners, one a hill,
With half an ear to the piano’s vigor.

All that piano and new paint back there,
Was it some money suddenly come into?
Or some extravagance young love had been to?
Or old love on an impulse not to care -

Not to sink under being man and wife,
But get some color and music out of life?

~ from Good Poems: Selected and Introduced by Garrison Keillor

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Let Evening Come by Jane Kenyon

CarrieK — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:01:10 +0000

Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.

Let the crickets take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.

Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.

To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.

Let it come, as it will, and don’t
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.

~ from Good Poems: Selected and Introduced by Garrison Keillor

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Lending Out Books by Hal Sirowitz

CarrieK — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:07:35 +0000

You’re always giving, my therapist said.
You have to learn how to take. Whenever
you meet a woman, the first thing you do
is lend her your books. You think she’ll
have to see you again in order to return them.
But what happens is, she doesn’t have the time
to read them, & she’s afraid if she sees you again
you’ll expect her to talk about them, & will
want to lend her even more. So she
cancels the date. You end up losing
a lot of books. You should borrow hers.

~ from Good Poems: Selected and Introduced by Garrison Keillor

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He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W.B. Yeats

CarrieK — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 07:01:05 +0000

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

~ from Good Poems: Selected and Introduced by Garrison Keillor

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Morning Person by Vassar Miller

CarrieK — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 10:00:30 +0000

God, best at making in the morning, tossed
stars and planets, singing and dancing, rolled
Saturn’s rings spinning and humming, twirled the earth
so hard it coughed and spat the moon up, brilliant
bubble floating around it for good, stretched holy
hands till birds in nervous sparks flew forth from them
and beasts – lizards, big and little, apes
lions, elephants, dogs and cats cavorting,
tumbling over themselves, dizzy with joy when
God made us in the morning too, both man
and woman, leaving Adam no time for
sleep so nimbly was Eve bouncing out of
his side till as night came everything and
everybody, growing tired, declined, sat
down in one soft descended Hallelujah.

~ from Good Poems: Selected and Introduced by Garrison Keillor

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