Thursday, November 2, 2006

Poetry Thursday-Favorite Lines

Wild nights-Wild nights!
Were I with thee
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
~emily dickinson
Dying
is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.
I do itso it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say, I've a call.
~sylvia plath
I first started reading poetry when I was a teenager -
well, who didn't? These lines were among my favorites, and pretty well
exemplify the roller-coaster ride that was my emotional life in those days.
No, I really wasn't bi-polar, although if there had been a barometer on my feelings, it
might have appeared as if I were.
For years, I didn't read poetry at all.
And then, thanks to Poetry Thursday (thank you, thank you, thank you!)
I found these lines:
Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less
kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle
in the haystack
of light.
It is what I was born for -
to look, to listen,
to lose myself
inside this soft world -
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy,
and acclamation.
from "Mindful", by Mary Oliver
Not coincidentally did I place these words in the center of the page. These are the words that restore balance to my life, overfilled as it sometimes is with minituae and busyness.
These are the words and set me on the right course, when I seem to be veering off into some dark distance. These are the words that remind me "what I was born for."
I'm now long years away from being a teenager, and, no, my nights are not "wild" by any stretch of the imagination. But, neither do I dwell in thoughts of the "art of dying." I'm happiest when I can "lose myself in this soft world," and "instruct myself in joy and acclamation."

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4 Comments:

Blogger Deb R said...

That's a beautiful post. I love the contrast in feeling between the three very different poems.

11/02/2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sylvia could be quite depressing I hear?! LOL.
Thanks for sharing these poems. I really loved them.

11/03/2006  
Blogger Julie said...

Wow, what a change you've made over the years ;-)

You've found just the right way to express the role of poetry in your life. I think if poetry once speaks to your soul, there is an emptiness without it.

11/03/2006  
Blogger paris parfait said...

Beautiful post - thank you for the reminder of the Mary Oliver poem. I was never a Sylvia Plath fan, but I was a fan of poetry. And like you, it's only in the past year that I've really started to read - and write - poetry again. And what a wonderful awakening it is! xo

11/04/2006  

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