poetry meme

[tardis_stowaway]

Meme borrowed from isiscaughey :

Post your favorite poem, and pass it on.
Great idea, though I had an insanely hard time picking. I have a whole lot of poems that are important to me for different reasons. In the end, I decided to cheat and post two.

i thank You God for most this amazing by e.e. cummings

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

 

The Day Millicent Found the World by William Stafford

Every morning Millicent ventured farther
into the woods. At first she stayed
near light, the edge where bushes grew, where
her way back appeared in glimpses among
dark trunks behind her. Then by farther paths
or openings where giant pines had fallen
she explored ever deeper into
the interior, till one day she stood under a great
dome among columns, the heart of the forest, and knew:
Lost. She had achieved a mysterious world
where any direction would yield only surprise.
And now not only the giant trees were strange
but the ground at her feet had a velvet nearness;
intricate lines on bark wove messages all
around her. Long strokes of golden sunlight
shifted over her feet and hands. She felt
caught up and breathing in a great powerful embrace.
A birdcall wandered forth at leisurely intervals
from an opening on her right: “Come away, Come away.”
Never before had she let herself realize
that she was part of the world and that it would follow
Wherever she went. She was part of its breath.
Aunt Dolbee called her back that time, a high
voice tapering faintly among the farthest trees,
Milli-cent! Milli-cent! And that time she returned,
but slowly, her dress fluttering along pressing
back branches, her feet stirring up the dark smell
of moss, and her face floating forward, a stranger’s
face now, with a new depth in it, into the light.

Comments

[fishface44.livejournal.com]

I love this meme! I hope you don't mind but I am going to borrow it from you! Great choices on your poems!

[tardis-stowaway.livejournal.com]

Borrow away! That's what memes are for. :)

[fishface44.livejournal.com]

Thanks! After several silly attempts (I don't post much yet & I am wildly bad with the cuts!) I sort of succeeded. :)

[mysticalchild_isis]

I love e.e. cummings so very much. His ability to write vivid, gorgeous imagery blows my mind.

I'd never read the Stafford poem before, and thought it was fantastic- so thanks for introducing me.

[tardis-stowaway.livejournal.com]

e.e. cummings is truly extraordinary!

The Stafford poem is one I read for a minor assignment in high school and loved so much that I kept the handout. I love the imagery and the sense of magic.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Hiya! ihasatardis mod here. I just emergency deleted your Sarah Palin posting - your cut didn't work so there were spoilers hanging out. :) Pls repost!

[tardis-stowaway.livejournal.com]

Very, very, very sorry! I thought I had the cut right, but apparently my LJ skills are full of fail. I had just seen the problem and was in the process of editing, but you deleted faster than I could edit.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

*sheepish grin*

[tardis-stowaway.livejournal.com]

No sheepishness necessary. Protecting others from spoilers is important! You were just surprisingly, nearly superhumanly speedy at it.