It seems today is a special day, one where we're all supposed to carry a poem around in our pockets. The assumption is that we are all carrying around a PDA anyway, so we can easily download a favorite poem and keep it in our pocket all day.
Now I have to admit that I don't have a PDA. Nope. I love my laptop, but I have no desire to carry it around with me while I do my errands or work. And I don't like being that accessible by phone, either, so I have a prepaid cell phone and only use it when I need to (in other words, it's OFF when I'm not specifically using it). I've had it over a year, and at the end of the first year, I'd used less than 100 minutes of it (thank goodness they roll over when I add time to it).
But you know what I discovered? This radical old medium... paper. So I'm taking my poem with me anyway, in celebration of the day. Only I'm just writing it on a Post-it note and sticking it into my pocket. It's a pretty short poem:
|
| | I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
William Carlos Williams
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|
If you like it, feel free to check out the website PoemHunter.com and find your own favorite. I like this one (despite its lack of rhyme or strict form) because it shows me how simple poetry can be. It has always felt like a Post-it note stuck on a fridge... so when it comes out of my pocket today, that is exactly where I'm putting it.
What poem would you choose?
My favorite poems are all long (and not currently accessible).
ReplyDeleteI suppose, for short poems, one of my favourites would be "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. Or there's this one, by Emily Dickenson:
ReplyDeleteWild Nights – Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile – the Winds –
To a Heart in port –
Done with the Compass –
Done with the Chart!
Rowing in Eden –
Ah, the Sea!
Might I but moor – Tonight –
In Thee!
(Now let's see if I need to delete because all my coding showed.)
Too bad, Stephanie! I like some pretty short poems... but I know you like the longer ones. A language professor once quoted the Odyssey in Greek, and it was absolutely thrilling... even though I didn't understand a word of it.
ReplyDeleteAnd Phyl, what a great poem! I was unfamiliar with this one... and I love Frost's poem, too. I don't see any coding, either... so I guess it worked just fine...