"Cut me open, so I can find the poetry again."

I've been finding a lot of really good poetry lately. I haven't traditionally found much contemporary stuff that truly delves into the deepest abysses of feeling to me, but maybe we are at the dawn of a new age. I hope so. I just thought I would make a place for the random poems and lines I find that make me truly feel.

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Ouch

This one just hurts as well...

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What a sad poem, Jordan Holland.

Mad Girl's Love Song
(Sylvia Plath)

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)


What a beautiful mind. I so wish I could have met her. I had had the idea to write a response to this for a long time, and this year I met someone who inspired me to follow through. I can not hope to match her poetic prowess, and I'm not sure I'm fond of the restrictiveness of the villanelle, but at least I finally did it.



Mad Boy's Love Song

I could have loved you; this I know.
You died too young, before my time.
Could you have also loved me so?

The mind only takes so heavy a blow.
Could yours have been stronger braced with mine?
I could have loved you; this I know.

The years pass by; where do they go?
Can time transcend us as divine?
Could you have also loved me so?

If only I could have hoped to show
A ray of happiness, and you showed me thine,
I could have loved you; this I know.

Or at least with you together laid low
My hand in yours, and yours in mine.
Could you have also loved me so?

Two minds in time separated though
Twain alike we both repine.
I could have loved you; this I know.
Could you have also loved me so?

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That last one inspired this line in my mind:

"I want to be star-crossed lovers with a love so strong it can move the stars."

Or:

"I want to be star-crossed lovers with a love so strong it can reshape the heavens."

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From "what if a much of a wish of a wind" by E.E. Cummings:



"...what if a dawn of a doom of a dream
bites this universe in two,
peels forever out of his grave
and sprinkles nowhere with me and you?
Blow soon to never and never to twice
(blow life to isn't: blow death to was)
—all nothing's only our hugest home;
the most who die, the more we live"

Call Not to Me by Ruth Pitter

Call not to me when summer shines,
Death, for in summer I will not go;
When the tall grass falls in whispering lines,
Call not loud from the shades below;
While under the willow the waters flow,
While willow waxes and waters wane,
When wind is slumbrous and water slow
And woodbine waves in the wandering lane.
Call me not, for you call in vain,
Vain in the time when flowers blow.

But I will hear you when all is bare;
Call and welcome when leaves lie low;
When the dry bents hiss in the raving air
And shepherds from eastward smell the snow;
When the mead is left for the wind to mow
And the storm is woodman to all the sere,
When hail is the seed the heavens sow,
When all is deadly and naught is dear-
Call and welcome, for I shall hear,
I shall be ready to rise and go.

We found this poem among my mother-in-law's papers after she died and I read it at her funeral - held in the church she had helped to decorate only a few days earlier, ready for Christmas

What a difference one letter can make.