Friday Is For Poetry

It's Friday.
It's been another very long week.
And it's snowing again here.

Let's have some poetry!

(But first . . . a sunset from my front porch, earlier in the week.)

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Antidotes To Fear of Death
by Rebecca Elson

Sometimes as an antidote
To fear of death,
I eat the stars.

Those nights, lying on my back,
I suck them from the quenching dark
Til they are all, all inside me,
Pepper hot and sharp.

Sometimes, instead, I stir myself
Into a universe still young,
Still warm as blood:

No outer space, just space,
The light of all the not yet stars
Drifting like a bright mist,
And all of us, and everything
Already there
But unconstrained by form.

And sometimes it's enough
To lie down here on earth
Beside our long ancestral bones:

To walk across the cobble fields
Of our discarded skulls,
Each like a treasure, like a chrysalis,
Thinking: whatever left these husks
Flew off on bright wings.

=

April is National Poetry Month, and each year, in April, I celebrate poetry here on my blog -- hoping to win over some converts to the beauty and peace and accessibility of poetry.  Sharing something that brings me joy.

Today's poem was published in A Responsibility of Awe, 2018, Carcanet Classics.  Information about the author can be found here.

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My best wishes to all of you . . . for a weekend filled with peace and solace.

 

Comments

[Kat]

Lovely! Oh my! How would we survive without poetry?

[Bonny]

Poetry has been a lifeline and I thank you for this one.

[Geri]

I thought of you today when my yoga teacher read from Mary Oliver as part of our practice streaming on their website. I’m not well versed in poetry but I’m learning here. Thank you!

[Carolyn Seymour Thomas]

So I just sat down to send a poem to a friend via snail mail. So glad I read this first--THIS is the one I'm copying down now to send her! The youngest of four, she lost her two oldest siblings within the past year and a half. She happens to be a sculptor--but I always tell her she's a poet, too. In everything she says, does, makes, writes--all of it, poetry. This one will speak volumes to her. Thank you.

[Vera]

When I reda that poem Kym, the first word in my head was AWE. How appropriate that it would be included in "A Responsibility of Awe." Thank you.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and may you find some awe somewhere (it's there...).

[Patty]

Excellent read for me today. Wishing you a peaceful and quiet weekend too. xo

[Jane]

Very beautiful. Thank you.

[Carole]

I love the image the poet creates about eating the stars, pepper hot and sharp. I'm ready to leave the husks of this time behind.

[Gale Zucker]

Thank you. That was beautiful.

[Sarah]

For some reason I always thought of stars as being cool, but they are burning gas, so the image of them as peppery and hot is spot on! Thank goodness we have poets to help us view the world around us in such beautiful ways.

[Mary]

Lovely, Kym - new poem/poet for me. I am loving all the poetry these days and think we should probably declare May another Poetry Month. Hope y'all are enjoying a good weekend. or at least, a weekend!

[margene]

I hope the snow has moved away and warmer temps are with you. I've been printing the poems you share as they truly fit this time so well and they are beautiful, memorable poems.