Friday, November 28, 2014

Upons

If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.
~Charles Darwin



photo by bookchen

Upon Being Asked What I Believe In
by Christine Rhein
after Dean Young

I say, for starters, the word in,
the way it dumps quicksand before
love and trouble, or after belief
and jump right! I say the days I'm sunk
in up to my waist, improvising
with ingredients at hand. I say the sizzle
of bacon, onions, the wooden spoon
meandering through thick lentil soup
with basil. I say all the herbs in my garden,
pushing roots into earth. I say the Zen
of weeding, aches that follow. And how,
in Japan, they seat a guest facing away
from the most beautiful part of the room,
remember the person later as what's missing
from the art.

Read the rest here

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What to Say Upon Being Asked to Be Friends
By Julian Talamantez Brolaski

Why speak of hate, when I do bleed for love?
Not hate, my love, but Love doth bite my tongue
Till I taste stuff that makes my rhyming rough
So flatter I my fever for the one
For whom I inly mourn, though seem to shun.
A rose is arrows is eros, so what
If I confuse the shade that I’ve become
With winedark substance in a lover’s cup?

Read the rest here

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Poetry Friday round-up is at Carol's Corner.

7 comments:

Mary Lee said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE Rhein's list.

Irene Latham said...

Every so often I will write a "Creed" poem... love this one, esp. "the weight of twilight." Lovely. Thank you. xo

Carol said...

Like Mary Lee and Irene, I love Rhein's poem. Somehow it seems especially relevant, given that I have spent a week with my college age son, who is currently enamored with some weird guru guy and feels compelled to tell me, on a fairly regular basis that I might understand, but he overstands, and that he is on a different plain and simply can't talk to me.

Michelle Heidenrich Barnes said...

I hope one day I can sit down and write a poem like Christine Rhein's. This, by itself, just blows me away: "And how,/in Japan, they seat a guest facing away/from the most beautiful part of the room,/remember the person later as what's missing
from the art."

Ruth said...

I just love the first one. You find the most wonderful poems!

Robyn Hood Black said...

Yes you do, Tabatha. And Irene always steals my favorite lines....

Bridget Magee said...

Gorgeous poems, Tabatha! I love visiting your blog and reading poems that change me. Thank you. =)