{"id":220,"date":"2006-10-13T00:04:07","date_gmt":"2006-10-13T05:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=220"},"modified":"2007-01-29T14:25:55","modified_gmt":"2007-01-29T20:25:55","slug":"poetry-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=220","title":{"rendered":"Poetry Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

*{Note: Head on over to A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy for this week’s Poetry Friday round-up<\/a><\/strong>} . . .<\/em><\/p>\n

Hi there. Jules and<\/em> Eisha here again . . .<\/p>\n

There’s, apparently, this tradition in some parts of the world of blogging-about-books in which poetry is shared and celebrated every week on Friday. And in the world of blogging-about-children’s-books, in particular, this not only occurs but also<\/em> some of the authors of some of our favorite blogs — including Big A little a<\/a><\/strong> — do a nice round-up of the poetry selected for that week (we mention her, in particular, as a way to thank her as well for answering our questions about Poetry Friday). Eisha and I have always been big ‘ol poetry geeks. I mean, reeeally<\/em>. We used to leave random literature excerpts in one another’s campus mailboxes in college (back in The Day before this new-fangled thing we call electronic mail), calling it our Literature Exchange — favorite passages from our favorite novels, maybe even play excerpts, even kickin’ song lyrics, but most of the time, poetry. Not our original creations, mind you, but hand-copies of our favorites, left for one another to brighten a day or at least make it a bit more thought-provoking, a Dylan Thomas here and a Rilke there (I still have my handwritten poems from Eisha. Aw!). So, we have decided to join the Poetry Friday fun. This means: a poem, a review of a poetry anthology, and\/or some such poetry-related thing — each Friday (if we’re organized enough). Woo hoo! Share the news<\/a><\/strong> with your part of the world!<\/p>\n

Jules<\/em>: I have the honor (thanks to Eisha) of picking the poem for our first Poetry Friday entry . . . Tomorrow is the first birthday of one of my daughters; I can hardly believe a year has gone by. Anyway, this time last year when she was born, my mother, I believe it was, informed me that E.E. Cummings (just read that he did not approve of publishers spelling his name in lowercase — who knew?) was born on the same day (over a hundred years ago, of course). My heart did a little leap, ’cause I have always loved his poetry — so has Eisha. And I continually lament the fact that he is often written off as a poet for “just” teens, as if his poetry doesn’t quite meet the standard set for adults. I think his poetry is quite sophisticated, thanks very much, and<\/em> I think teens deserve sophisticated, illuminating poetry, too, so there . . . <\/p>\n

In honor of him, my daughter, and<\/em> the fact that the two of them share a birthday — which I think is so devastatingly cool — here is one of his poems, originally published in 1958’s 95 Poems<\/em>. Yes, it’s in its entirety, but quoting an excerpt would be too difficult, due to the length (or lack thereof). I hope no copywright police nab me:<\/p>\n

\n

your birthday comes to tell me this
\n–each luckiest of lucky days
\ni’ve loved,shall love,do love you,was<\/p>\n

and will be and my birthday is<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(Happy birthday, Wizzy — if you read this one day . . . )<\/p>\n

p.s. What a babe!<\/a><\/strong> Oh, and what a babe!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

eisha<\/em>: Thanks for a perfect selection, Jules! To continue the theme, I’d like to mention a lovely collection of E.E. Cummings’ (Really, Jules? He wanted the capitals? It just looks weird…) poetry that came out last year, in a volume specifically marketed for teens but that has plenty of adult appeal as well.<\/p>\n

\"Love: Love: Selected Poems; by E.E. Cummings, art by Christopher Myers.<\/strong><\/a> In this slim, picture-book sized volume, the always-excellent Mr. Myers has incorporated a combination of portrait photography, painting, and mixed-media collage to create vibrant, kinetic illustrations for 19 of Cummings’ love poems. In the most successful of the illustrations, Myers’ style is a fitting compliment to the text. The cover illustration, for example – of a young African American man holding a tiny wooden door over his heart, with cut-paper birds flying out across his shoulder – is paired with the lovely “may my heart always be open to little \/ birds who are the secrets of living…” poem. A couple of images are a little too static, though, and unfortunately the highly sexual poem “may i feel said he” has the most unsexy illustration of all. But the striking gorgeousness he achieves in the majority of the illustrations makes up for the less-than-perfect ones. If you haven’t seen this one yet, then I suggest you treat yourself to the dual charms of Messrs. Cummings and Myers posthaste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*{Note: Head on over to A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy for this week’s Poetry Friday round-up} . . . Hi there. Jules and Eisha here again . . . There’s, apparently, this tradition in some parts of the world of blogging-about-books in which poetry is shared and celebrated every week on Friday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220","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\/220","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}