A Boat in Harbor Contemplates the Sea
This following poem is from Edgar Lee Masters: I HAVE STUDIED many times The marble which was chiseled for me— A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor. In truth it pictures not my destination But my life. For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment; Sorrow knocked at...
Vanilla Twilight
Just when you think it’s safe to listen to the radio, a sappy love song hits you right in the nose. I present Owl City, “Vanilla Twilight,” for your consideration and listening pleasure. The song is just openly romantic. It makes me pause, a bit, and reflect on the power of well chosen words. Yeah,...
The Winds of Change
I was struck by this Pablo Neruda poem, the resolve in it, the level of self-knowledge its narrator shows. Poetry often allows for the distillation of human experience, and this one is no exception. I particularly like the use of the beach imagery, as I also like to use it in my poetry. I’ve used...
The Power of Memory
Long before Adele sang “Don’t You Remember?” there was Sarah McLachlan’s “I Will Remember You.” Both songs speak to the incredible power of memory, both songs are so sad, and both rank as poetry. I offer the lyrics and videos for both here as an homage to the devastatingly strong hold our memories can have...
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
“Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil So in the aftermath of the Hill I’ll Die On manifesto I just wrote, I decided to crawl up out of my uni-bomber bunker and watch a movie. I can only watch so much of...
Poetry as opposed to bitterness
So when confronted with the choice between bitterness and other less self-destructive methods of coping with hurt, bitterness is always the easy go-to choice, but poetry is a better path. In poetry you can express the shades of hurt without slamming the source of the bitterness full in the face with angry rhetoric. Case in...
The Luckiest
Running on my current theme of songs that move me, I offer this one from Ben Folds. This guy is one of the best song writers around, and this song is just so beautiful and moody; it hits spot on the feelings that are still very, very raw for me. In this time when so...
And so it goes…
I absolutely love Billy Joel… In every heart there is a room A sanctuary safe and strong To heal the wounds from lovers past Until a new one comes along I spoke to you in cautious tones You answered me with no pretense And still I feel I said too much My silence is my...
Jimmy Stewart and Poetry
There are no words, I suppose, to accompany this poem, written and recited by acting legend Jimmy Stewart on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show in 1981. Maybe it’s my state of mind lately…
No Reply At All
Nostalgia trips are fun to take. The fall really inspires this, it seems. Back to school, as teachers will tell you, is often no different now for adults as it is for our charges: stomach churning, exciting (sometimes), and nerve wracking. Maybe it’s because my 25th high school reunion is rapidly approaching. Perhaps it’s because...
Sarah Kay and the Spoken Word
Here is a video from spoken poet Sarah Kay from the TED 2011 Conference. Some really nice stuff here. I especially like her first poem “B,” but “Hiroshima,” at the end, is pretty cool, too. Enjoy!
A Ghra Mo Chroi
Bid me to live, and I will live Thy Protestant to be; Or bid me love, and I will give A loving heart to thee. A heart as soft, a heart as kind, A heart as sound and free As in the whole world thou canst find, That heart I’ll give to thee. Bid that...
