Quote:
Originally Posted by Mulezen
Poetry runs thru my sluggish brain as the snow thickly covers my Virginia farm. I’m no academic but I understand SOME poetry and when I don’t, but want to, I follow Shakespeare’s dictum “by indirection find direction out” and let a soft focus inform my consciousness. ‘On Poetry’ by Glyn Maxwell is helpful and a witty read besides.
My farm is posted with poetry rather than warning signs. Some are mine (published and unpublished) some my betters. Outside my window I can see the cardinals sitting in the snow clotted cedar dropping down to the bird feeders their red ornamental bodies streaking my posted poem ‘Cardinal in Cedar’ with guano. As I ride my tractor I pass by Ted Hughes’ ‘Hawk Roosting’ pinned to a large oak where the raptors observe the Mexican’s chicken pen next door. I rush by Frost’s ‘Stopping by the Woods’ desiring something darker. (Homage to Robert Frost...Brodsky, Heaney, Walcott a good read) and find in the coldest most secluded part of the farm my favorite poem...
The Snow Man
BY WALLACE STEVENS
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,
Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
It's one of my favorites as well. Over the past twenty-five years, I've had the chance to meet many of the finest poets in the country because of my colleague and friend, Randy Blasing. Randy has invited poets to read in our Galway Kinnell poetry series, and, almost without exception, US poets cite Stevens and Frost as primary influences.
Unfortunately, Randy has retired, so the poetry series probably ends with his retirement. Over the years, I have been fortunate to meet US poet laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, and even a Nobel winner. One of the more delightful poets, Steven Burt (who may also be going by Stephanie Burt), is well worth reading. His poetry criticism is well written and insightful.
PS. I also got to buy him lunch after the reading.
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