I wish I was the moon tonight.
(Source: youtube.com)
On the brown sedge in the hazy meadows,
Where the deer tracks were black in the morning."
—
Kenneth Rexroth
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/241358
Even though fall is just now on it’s way out, it’s surprising that the weather here on the East Coast is more similar to that of the Pacific Northwest at this time of year. Still, however, (and despite the poem’s title) I like the spirit of this poem, it’s rythym, the overall misty, quiet tone. The poem has the same feel as this strange transition from fall to winter we’re having right now— soft rain, piles of fallen, brown leaves, and a New Year’s Day morning sort of stillness.
“On the day that I turned 23, I was curled up underneath the dogwood tree.”
that the maples have shed their leaves, too."
—
David Baker, “Neighbors in October”
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171089
Poem of the day. Reminds me of my father and fall in the midwest.
You’ve taught him his full name, address and number, to say Brooklyn
correctly which he tries in his mouth again and again.
Mommy, he says, it’s BARUCH, BARUCH-lyn, finding the Hebrew word Baruch
meaning Blessed in the old Dutch town of Brooklyn, which you remind me
also means a broken land."
—
Melissa Beattie-Moss, “After We Make Love”
I picked up an anthology of poetry yesterday at the library called “Broken Land: Poems of Brooklyn.” This poem by Melissa Beattie-Moss is the last poem in the collection and also the poem from which the anthology draws its name. Here I’ve included the last stanza, which really resonates with me partly in a geographic kind of way (it is where I find myself living currently) and partly in a fundamentally human kind of way.
1. Like Brooklyn, this poem is understated and, I think, poignant, which is why I like it.
2. And, too, Beattie-Moss’s connection to death, grief, family, and love in the poem and the way she ties those things into its landscape is moving.
3. The writing itself, the word choice, with phrases like “here he comes, pitching his/ beautiful slack tent of skin and bones right at our doorstep,” and “to say Brooklyn / correctly which he tries in his mouth again and again,” is also spot on.
I miss Ohio. So here’s my homage to Ohio for today.
