Thursday, December 2, 2010

the constant wonder of poetry



Sorrows

who would believe them winged
who would believe they could be

beautiful   who would believe
they could fall so in love with mortals

that they would attach themselves
rattling their skulls    clicking

their bony fingers
they have heard me beseeching

as I whispered into my own
cupped hands   enough   not me again

but who can distinguish
one human voice

amid such choruses
of desire

-- Lucille Clifton


Thank you, dear Denise, for sending me this poem.


11 comments:

  1. Attaching themselves ... Yes it's true

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  2. Beautiful.

    Dinner .... my kind of dinner.


    A nasty comment on the video?What is seriously wrong with people?

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  3. Zoey's mom -- Yes -- the same troll visited again and left a ridiculous message. It's weird because he appears to be a "Christian" but is so filled with contempt and hate that it's a little scary.

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  4. I love the poem too. And wow - catching up on your posts for the past two weeks that I was gone - let me add another mind-blown Holy Shit about the MRI and just let you know that you are in my thoughts as you navigate what that entails for Sophie, and for you. Also, I am absolutely floored by Oliver's poem - I love the whole thing but that first line is going to stay with me a long time - "A dream isn't just anything" - that just speaks to my soul. xo

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  5. Do you know the difference between a "troll" and a "troller"? A troll is someone "who defaces internet tribute sites with the aim of causing grief to families." And a troller is one who carries within so much self-hatred that it needs to deposit it anywhere as being a troll wasn't enough.

    One of my favorite poems btw. After the first time I read it I got into the habit of whispering inside the hollow of my hands whenever I felt like the air around me was getting too hard to breath.

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  6. Wonder, indeed...I love this, and the photo of your beautiful, luminous girl..

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  7. Wow. How can words be collected together like that? Your daughter is glowing in this photo.

    And yes, Aretha Franklin's voice gets me every time.

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  8. I woke up thinking about this poem... about, as you say, the wonder of poetry, of words so strung together that they somehow express what cannot be expressed. About the comfort of that. I woke up thinking about Sophie's face in this photo, too, and praying...

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