{"id":1040,"date":"2007-11-30T00:52:51","date_gmt":"2007-11-30T06:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1040"},"modified":"2007-11-30T00:53:12","modified_gmt":"2007-11-30T06:53:12","slug":"poetry-friday-zbigniew-herbert-knows-just-what-to-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1040","title":{"rendered":"Poetry Friday: Zbigniew Herbert knows just what to say"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cUncover\u201d by Nicole Dextras - click on photo to see her website<\/a>I may<\/em> have mentioned it before, but I’m on the Young Adult Fiction Nominating Committee for this year’s Cybils. And let me tell you, with 123 nominated books<\/strong><\/a>, it’s becoming quite the challenge trying cram as much reading into my day as possible. As I tear through novel after novel, I’m starting to notice how often the same metaphors and imagery get used over and over. It makes me that much more appreciative when I come across a truly original turn of phrase – a unique combination of words that really captures the emotion or aesthetic that the author is trying to convey. So I sympathize with Zbigniew Herbert<\/strong><\/a> in his quest for the perfect word. <\/p>\n

Here’s a bit of his poem, “I Would Like to Describe:”<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

I would like to describe the simplest emotion
\njoy or sadness
\nbut not as others do
\nreaching for shafts of rain or sun <\/p>\n

I would like to describe a light
\nwhich is being born in me
\nbut I know it does not resemble
\nany star
\nfor it is not so bright
\nnot so pure
\nand is uncertain <\/p>\n

I would like to describe courage
\nwithout dragging behind me a dusty lion
\nand also anxiety
\nwithout shaking a glass full of water <\/p>\n

to put it another way
\nI would give all metaphors
\nin return for one word
\ndrawn out of my breast like a rib
\nfor one word
\ncontained within the boundaries
\nof my skin <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click here<\/strong><\/a> to read the rest. Maybe he didn’t find that one perfect inimitable word, but see if you don’t think ol’ Zbigniew did a pretty good job of putting thought to paper, after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I may have mentioned it before, but I’m on the Young Adult Fiction Nominating Committee for this year’s Cybils. And let me tell you, with 123 nominated books, it’s becoming quite the challenge trying cram as much reading into my day as possible. As I tear through novel after novel, I’m starting to notice how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-friday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}