{"id":1345,"date":"2008-07-11T00:03:12","date_gmt":"2008-07-11T06:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1345"},"modified":"2008-07-11T00:04:22","modified_gmt":"2008-07-11T06:04:22","slug":"poetry-friday-another-leda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1345","title":{"rendered":"Poetry Friday: Another Leda"},"content":{"rendered":"

black swanOnce again, The Poets Upstairs have come through for me in my time of need. I was just thinking how I felt like I was in a Poetry Friday rut, just lazily digging up old favorites instead of seeking out new stuff. And *poof* – without me even saying anything, Dana lent me a book of poetry by one of her professors, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon<\/strong><\/a>. The book, Black Swan<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, opens with an amazing piece, “Leda,” that simply begged to be shared with you all. From that headspin of a first line to the sharp irony of the last, it charges the old myth with a fierce energy. The taut, vivid imagery puts you there<\/em> in that swampy Florida heat. You know<\/em> this girl. And you could just about cry for her.<\/p>\n

By the way, I can’t help but notice that I was also reminded of Leda by Dana’s poem “Nesting,” featured<\/strong><\/a> back in April. Does this mean something? Do I have a Leda problem? Do I need to start watching out for swans? And while we’re on the subject… seriously, how was that supposed to even work<\/em>? Is their… equipment… you know, compatible<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Sorry, that was random. And gross. Back to Poetry Friday now. Here’s the opening of “Leda:”<\/p>\n

Imagine Leda black–
\nskinny legs—–<\/font>peach-switch
\nscarred—–<\/font>vaselined to gleaming
\nlike magnolia leaves—–<\/font>Imagine
\na teenager—–<\/font>hips asway like moss
\nswitchin’ down a dirt road
\nFlorida orange blossom
\nwater behind her ears
\nher tight sheath-skirt
\nazalea pink<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Please read the rest of the poem here<\/strong><\/a>. Even though they left out the cool line-spacing that’s used in the book. And there are a couple of typos, which saddens me more than I can express. It’s still awesome.<\/p>\n

* * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

Lisa Schellman is keeping a vigilant eye on this week’s Poetry Friday roundup<\/strong><\/a>. Thanks, Lisa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once again, The Poets Upstairs have come through for me in my time of need. I was just thinking how I felt like I was in a Poetry Friday rut, just lazily digging up old favorites instead of seeking out new stuff. And *poof* – without me even saying anything, Dana lent me a book […]<\/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-1345","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\/1345","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=1345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}