National Poetry Month: "Siren Song" by Margaret Atwood

[tardis_stowaway]

April is National Poetry Month!  I adore poetry, though I read less of it that I used to.  I think this month I'll make an effort to reverse that trend as I hunt up poems and post them here.   I'll aim for at least two a week throughout April, perhaps more if time allows and the inclination remains.

Today's poem is by Margaret Atwood.   It tells a complete story in deceptively simple language.  I like its unique take on a myth and the darkly humorous punch of the ending.

~ ~ ~ ~

Siren Song

This is the one song everyone
would like to learn: the song
that is irresistible:


the song that forces men
to leap overboard in squadrons
even though they see the beached skulls


the song nobody knows
because anyone who has heard it
is dead, and the others can't remember.


Shall I tell you the secret
and if I do, will you get me
out of this bird suit?


I don't enjoy it here
squatting on this island
looking picturesque and mythical


with these two feathery maniacs,
I don't enjoy singing
this trio, fatal and valuable.


I will tell the secret to you,
to you, only to you.
Come closer. This song


is a cry for help: Help me!
Only you, only you can,
you are unique


at last. Alas
it is a boring song
but it works every time.

~ ~ ~ ~
I'd love to see what poems you feel like sharing, friends.

Comments

[wander-realtai.livejournal.com]

Ooh, quite powerful!

Okay, a poem to share. This poem by Janos Pilinszky has always been very striking and viscerally potent to me.

Fable

Once upon a time
there was a lonely wolf
lonelier than the angels.
He happened to come to a village.
He fell in love with the first house he saw.
Already he loved its walls
the caresses of its bricklayers.
But the windows stopped him.
In the room sat people.
Apart from God nobody ever
found them so beautiful
as this child-like beast.
So at night he went into the house.
He stopped in the middle of the room
and never moved from there any more.
He stood all through the night, with wide eyes
and on into the morning when he was beaten to death.

[tardis-stowaway.livejournal.com]

That one definitely packs a punch! I like it. Thanks for sharing.