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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Love Poem





Love Poem -- Robert Bly

When we are in love, we love the grass,
and the barns and the lightpoles,
and the small main streets abandoned
all night.



Monday, August 29, 2011

Ambition


Watering the Horse

How strange to think of giving up all ambition!
Suddenly I see with such clear eyes
The white flake of snow
That has just fallen in the horse’s mane!


--Robert Bly


Thursday, August 4, 2011

Reading Terrance Hayes' Lighthead in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness


And what a good choice it was to bring that incredible book into the wilderness! I sat on the side of a glistening lake reading poems such as "The Avocado" (definitely one to use in my Eng 101 Poetry Presentation Food Poem Assignment), and others (like "A Plate of Bones") that I love, love, love. How refreshing to read his wild and whimsical rhyming couplets. I am so excited to continue reading this book as I take off the month of August into the outback wilds to revitalize my inner being, heeding Ram Dass's advice to Be Here Now.

A quick tour around the web will get you started, but you should really pony up and buy Lighthead if you have a few dollars to spare:

Terrance Hayes reading on You Tube

Several Terrance Hayes poems, including audio at poets.org.

Snappy review at Verse Wisconsin. I concur that "The Golden Shovel" (where he pays homage to Gwendolyn Brooks and her poem "We Real Cool") and "Last Train to Africa" (Elizabeth Alexander-inspired) are two of my fav in the book (though I am only about 1/4 of the way through; I found myself re-reading each poem 10 or more times before moving on to the next).

Hayes is definitely in the tradition of being a poet who is part of the great conversation of poetry. He also has a refined sensibility for musicality and slant rhyme.

His poems rock.

And ....

he has a beautiful reading voice.

And...

he is tres, tres gorgeous (never a bad thing).

And, big, big and:

he is going to be reading for Seattle Arts & Lectures on December 8, 2011. How lucky can we Seattle-ites get?!?!