Wednesday, March 12, 2014

thanks to Billy Collins

One of my favourite poems by my favourite poet.
 
Introduction to Poetry
By  Billy Collins  

I ask them to take a poem  
and hold it up to the light  
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.
 
I say drop a mouse into a poem  
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room  
and feel the walls for a light switch.
 
I want them to waterski  
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

 But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope  
and torture a confession out of it.

 They begin beating it with a hose  
to find out what it really means.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Poetry????

NaPoWriMo – a poem a day for the month of April. My online writers group suggested this and a couple of the members are participating.
I’m not a poet by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought it sounded like fun. I have no backlog of poetry to my credit. You can count my poems on your fingers and have digits left over but I’m glad I’ve committing to project nevertheless. It is mid-March so maybe I can write some offerings in advance in case I get bogged down.
One of the suggestions on the NaPoWriMo site is to register your blog and keep your poetry there so others can read it. I thought this blog might be a way to keep me going, to keep me inspired. Unless I am committed to something, even if it’s only a blog post a day, I tend to give up rather quickly.
There likely won’t be much poetry worth reading on my blog but I’ll do it anyway. We’ll see how it goes.
My other blog deals with more serious stuff – mostly rants – but I promise not to rant here, just sit quietly and see what passes through.

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.   ...Leonard Cohen