poetry (Page 6)

From An Anthology of World Poetry, edited by Mark Van Doren, a French ballad. No poet is named. “The Bridge of Death” “The dance is on the Bridge of Death    And who will dance with me?” “There’s never a man of living men    Will dare to dance with thee.” Now Margaret’s gone within her bower,    Put ashes in her hair, And sackcloth on her bonny breast,    And on her shoulders bare. There came a knock to her bower door,    And blithe she let him in; It was her brother from the wars,    The dearestDown the rabbit hole….

Guess what? I wrote this and forgot to publish it, until Roger goosed me. Oops. Today ends National Poetry Month, and I considered writing some kind of summation, but I’ll just leave it at this: Read poetry. It isn’t hard and doesn’t have to make you feel like you’re back in English class. (Unless you liked English class, as I did, in which case, hey, it can totally feel like you’re back in English class!) Here is one of my favorite of Tennyson’s poems, whose concluding lines are often quoted in inspirational settings. It’s a wonderful paean to the eternalDown the rabbit hole….

If poetry is dead, as they say, why do so many people still write poetry? Why is there so much poetry in social media outlets like Tumblr and Instagram? I’m guessing it’s because poetry isn’t dead. Like many readers, I discovered the poetry of Lang Leav through Tumblr, where she posts her own work. She’s not just a Tumblr poet, but rather an artist who has been honing her craft for years, but it’s amazing how much of her audience — for poetry, one of the oldest art forms — comes from so recent a development as Tumblr. Poetry absolutelyDown the rabbit hole….

My favorite author, Guy Gavriel Kay, has a new novel coming out next month! One reason I love Kay’s writing is his luminous prose, which is greatly informed and shaped by his love of poetry and verse. Some years ago, Kay (or GGK as his fans call him) released a collection of his own poems, Beyond This Dark House, and below is a selection from that collection. Wow…Poetry Month is almost over…. And Diving by Guy Gavriel Kay Late night in a cold bed, far away. Yesterday I dreamed that you had died, arcing from a bridge to black water.Down the rabbit hole….

Are song lyrics also poetry? This isn’t quite as easy a question as it seems up front. Here’s an interesting article on the subject, and a key point is this: Words in a poem take place against the context of silence (or maybe an espresso maker, depending on the reading series), whereas, as musicians like Will Oldham and David Byrne have recently pointed out, lyrics take place in the context of a lot of deliberate musical information: melody, rhythm, instrumentation, the quality of the singer’’s voice, other qualities of the recording, etc. Without all that musical information, lyrics usually doDown the rabbit hole….

If love has a rival for the most frequent theme in poetry, I suppose it’s likely death. Poets have been grappling with the mystery of death for as long as they’ve been grappling with the mystery of love, and there are times when they meditate on both subjects in the same poem. Walt Whitman seems to think of death as the ultimate journey, and that only upon death can a soul enter its truest nature: Darest thou now O soul by Walt Whitman Darest thou now O soul, Walk out with me toward the unknown region, Where neither ground isDown the rabbit hole….