Monday, November 28, 2011

In lieu of words of my own,



I opened up Garrison Keillor's collection of poetry titled Good Poems for Hard Times.

I randomly opened to this poem, on page 88 by Anonymous:

Carnation Milk

Carnation Milk is the best in the land.
Here I sit with a can in my hand --
No tits to pull, no hay to pitch,
You just punch a hole in the son of a bitch.

I have to say that random poetry is perfect. Try it and let me know what you come up with.

14 comments:

  1. That was awesome . . .

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  2. The best of men
    That e'er wore earth about him, was a sufferer,
    A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit,
    The first true gentleman that ever breathed.

    Thomas Dekker

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  3. Certain poems pack such a mighty punch that it's hard not to read them twice or three times. Thanks for that.

    Greetings from London.

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  4. Thanks for the smile...and the photo!

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  5. I think that is Hank's favorite poem.

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  6. ouch! it hurts to smile (skin cancer biopsy on my lip today has given me a fat lip. i look like a failed lip collagen treament.) but here's my try:

    The Broken Ground, by Wendell Berry

    The opening out and out,
    body yielding body:
    the breaking
    through which the new
    comes, perching
    above its shadow
    on the piling up
    darkened broken old
    husks of itself:
    bud opening to flower
    opening to fruit opening
    to the sweet marrow
    of the seed-taken
    from what was, from
    what could have been.
    What is left
    is what is.

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  7. If you ever visit me in snohomish, I'll take you up the road a piece to Carnation Washington. It's a fragrant drive :)

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  8. Well, I've got nothing but I do have this poem by Garrison on my blog.

    I try and read it daily. As a reminder of sorts.

    "Some luck lies in not getting
    what you thought you wanted
    but getting what you have,
    which once you have got it
    you may be smart enough to see
    it is what you would have wanted
    had you known....
    ~ Garrison Keillor

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  9. Karen Fish my Freshman writing teacher said one of my stories was "close to professional". Changed my life. I still cherish those words like a poem. She is a great poet and introduced me to others that I probably appreciated more than her...sorry bout that.
    http://www.loyola.edu/academics/writing/faculty/fish.html

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  10. Love it!! Yours gave me a good giggle.

    I'll share one that I included on a conception mandala I made (yes I did, as flaky as that may sound) before Daniel was conceived.

    Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
    The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
    Hath had elsewhere its setting,
    And cometh from afar:
    Not in entire forgetfulness,
    And not in utter nakedness,
    But trailing clouds of glory do we come
    From God, who is our home:
    Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
    ~William Wordsworth

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  11. Love it!! Yours gave me a good giggle.

    I'll share one that I included on a conception mandala I made (yes I did, as flaky as that may sound) before Daniel was conceived.

    Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
    The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
    Hath had elsewhere its setting,
    And cometh from afar:
    Not in entire forgetfulness,
    And not in utter nakedness,
    But trailing clouds of glory do we come
    From God, who is our home:
    Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
    ~William Wordsworth

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  12. I think one of my Wyoming relatives wrote this? It's perfect for the paternal side of my fam.

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  13. Oh, yeah...that's what I'm talking about!

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  14. I have a stack of books next to my treatment area. The stack changes and grows, but that anthology is always there. I like to open it up and see what I fall into.

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