John Lee Hooker by Ann deLorge The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, I heard a Negro play. Down on Lenox Avenue the other night By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light He did a lazy sway …. He did a lazy sway …. To the tune o’ those Weary Blues. With his ebony hands on each ivory key He made that poor piano moan with melody. O Blues! … Continue reading →
I know I’ve been taking a break from Poetry Wednesday, but my son asked me to help him learn a poem for school that he would recite in front of the class. The poet’s name is Billy Collins, and the name of the poem he chose to recite is entitled, “On Turning Ten“. I was unfamiliar with this poet, and I was so moved by the poem, that I thought I would share it with all of you. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free … Continue reading →
Not So Far As The Forest by Edna St. Vincent Millay I That chill is in the air Which the wise know well, and even have learned to bear. This joy, I know, Will soon be under snow. The sun sets in a cloud And is not seen. Beauty, that spoke aloud, Addresses now only the remembering ear. The heart begins here To feed on what has been. Night falls fast. Today is in the past. Blown from the dark hill hither to my door … Continue reading →
How to Meditate By Jack Kerouac, 1961 From “Scattered Poems” -lights out- Fall, hands a-clasped, into instantaneous ecstasy like a shot of heroin or morphine, the gland inside of my brain discharging the good glad fluid (Holy Fluid) as i hap-down and hold all my body parts down to a deadstop trance-Healing all my sicknesses-erasing all-not even the shred of a “I-hope-you” or a Loony Balloon left in it, but the mind blank, serene, thoughtless. When a thought comes a-springing from afar with its held- … Continue reading →
Billie Holiday, 1915-1959 By Suzanne Cerny Jazz Chick by Bob Kaufman Music from her breast, vibrating Soundseared into burnished velvet. Silent hips deceiving fools. Rivulets of trickling ecstacy From the alabaster pools of Jazz Where music cools hot souls. Eyes more articulately silent Than Medusa’s thousand tongues. A bridge of eyes, consenting smiles reveal her presence singing Of cool remembrance, happy balls Wrapped in swinging Jazz Her music… Jazz Hello, and welcome back to Poetry Wednesday 10/21/09. You can sign in today and take the … Continue reading →
Portrait of Stephane Mallarme, 1876 By Édouard Manet Musee d’Orsay Oil on canvas Introduction: The Afternoon of a Faun is Stéphane Mallarmé’s most well-known poem. In slightly more than a hundred lines, it presents the dreamlike erotic reveries of a faun—a mythical creature of classical legend that, like the satyr, has a combination of animal features (such as horns and goatlike feet) and human features. The poem opens with the faun becoming excited by two nymphs; he is disoriented, however, having just awakened. Finding himself … Continue reading →
Mt. Chocorua, 1938 By E.E. Cummings Oil on canvas i thank you God for most this amazing day by E. E. Cummings i thank You God for most this amazing day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes (i who have died am alive again today, and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth day of life and love and wings:and of the gay great happening illimitably … Continue reading →
The Tree of Life Gustav Klimt Oil on canvas The Tree of Life Rabbi Isaac Luria, (1534 – 1572) Behold that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures were created, The Upper Simple Light had filled the whole existence. And there was no vacancy, such as an empty atmosphere, a hollow, or a pit, But all was filled with Simple, Boundless Light. And there was no such part as head, or end, But everything was Simple, smooth Light, balanced evenly and equally, And it … Continue reading →
The First Jasmines by Rabindranath Tagore . o remember the first day when I filled my hands with these jasmines, these white jasmines. I have loved the sunlight, the sky and the green earth; I have heard the liquid murmur of the river thorough the darkness of midnight; Autumn sunsets have come to me at the bend of a road in the lonely waste, like a bride raising her veil to accept her lover. Yet my memory is still sweet with the first white … Continue reading →
Time is the school in which we learn, Time is the fire in which we burn. Calmly We Walk Through This April’s Day by Delmore Schwartz Calmly we walk through this April’s day, Metropolitan poetry here and there, In the park sit pauper and rentier, The screaming children, the motor-car Fugitive about us, running away, Between the worker and the millionaire Number provides all distances, It is Nineteen Thirty-Seven now, Many great dears are taken away, What will become of you and me (This is … Continue reading →
