The fourth stanza of William Butler Yeats' "Adam's Curse" is one of my favorite of all poetry. The poem is about love and work and the moon, of course. Here it is:
We sat grown quiet at the name of love;
We saw the last embers of daylight die,
And in the trembling blue-green of the sky
A moon, worn as if it had been a shell
Washed by time's waters as they rose and fell
About the stars and broke in days and years
No matter how many times I read it, recite it, hear it, I am stunned by the fluidity of the lines, the easy way they roll one into the other. It makes me think of writing, the labor of it and the inspiration. The relentlessness of life and its laborious beauty.
do you love how I am commenting all over your blog?
ReplyDeleteI feel like such a dumbn ass...the last poetry I read had something to do with "I would not, could not, in a boat"
OK, so I AM a dumb ass....look at how I spelled dumb ass wrong! Priceless.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to find the link to this post from your surfing piece today. "...writing, the labor of it..." the endless and thrilling search for each precise word and how it belongs with its neighbors. xo
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