Loose Leaf Notes

I love yours and my little things and my friend Leslie . Emily Dickinson and anything that triggers my soul that day- llove Eric 1313 and Singleton on my blog roll.. sk

There are times poetry can make me feel intellectually inferior in a serious way. It took me years to fully get the genius that is Walt Whitman, for example, and I often wonder: if I have to have its meaning so thoroughly explained, examined and prescribed to me in order to comprehend it, what does that say? About the poetry? About me?

Then, though, there are some poets who speak my language and make me believe its one of the most beautiful uses of language available to mankind.

I don't know about poetry...I try to understand it...but, sometimes I don't do so well. Poetry has never "spoken" to me!

I love poetry, especially the cynical and witty kind. My absolute favorite poet is Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde. My favorite Wilde quote is: "Women are made to be loved, not understood."

Sara, that's one reason I like Billy Collins so much. His poetry is accessible ... but not predictable. Another of my favorite writers is homeschooling pioneer, John Holt. He debunked the sense we have in this culture that the harder something is to understand the more important it is and said that a writer's first duty is to be understood.

Nathan, I love that quote. I'll have to look at some of Wilde's poetry. He definately has that same Irish wit that Collins (who is Irish American) has.

Funny, I feel that way about fiction, literary or otherwise. Sometimes, words slow down comprehension (even if they are artistically visual and picturesque). I prefer clear content over style most of the time. I love a good description, but don't make me stop mid-sentence and try to picture so many contrasting images at once.

Might be a bit cliche...but a favorite writer's quote of mine is by Richard Bach: "A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit."

~S :)

P.S. I'm a huge Wilde fan as well... he was brilliantly witty.
~S

I love that quote by Bach! Here's another I relate to lately as well: “Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life.” ~ Lawrence Kasdan

Cattywompus is one of my favorite words ....

"I grew up in this town, my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests."
Pablo Neruda

Whether it is the images, the sounds, or the words... I love poetry that helps us capture a sense of a person or a place.

i love the poetry of donald hall, may sarton, jane kenyon, pablo neruda, hafiz, mary oliver, denise levertov, and ann sexton to name a few. i think part of the joy of poetry is that interpretaion is fully ours, the gift of the poet. i want to share a favorite may sarton poem here:

Now I Become Myself

Now I become myself. It's taken
Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people's faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
"Hurry, you will be dead before--"
(What? Before you reach the morning?
Or the end of the poem is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!
The black shadow on the paper
Is my hand; the shadow of a word
As thought shapes the shaper
Falls heavy on the page, is heard.
All fuses now, falls into place
From wish to action, word to silence,
My work, my love, my time, my face
Gathered into one intense
Gesture of growing like a plant.
As slowly as the ripening fruit
Fertile, detached, and always spent,
Falls but does not exhaust the root,
So all the poem is, can give,
Grows in me to become the song,
Made so and rooted by love.
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move.
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!

May Sarton

LOL, LOL...Well, I DID wonder about the Headless Chicken, my dear....It didn't seem like "you"....I have seen that video before and was just filled with wonder at this unlikely friendship...This Is Sooooo Incredibly Dear.....! (Thanks for giving me a Heads Up)