E. Hirsch: You’ve said that you average about six poems per year. Why so few?
W. Meredith: I wait until the poems seem to be addressed not to “Occupant” but to “William Meredith.”
Happy Poetry Friday! Our family is doing something different for St Patrick's Day this year...adding a bit of Irish poet W.B. Yeats celebration to it. (BTW, Yeats and Yeatts are not the same, but they do have the same pronunciation.) One of our extended family members is wonderful at reciting poems and has made some videos for us to enjoy. I've planned a tea with scones and truffles and wee sandwiches. Maybe I will share a video next week if I can get permission.
Today's poem is by Pulitzer prizewinner William Meredith, who wrote "The Illiterate" which I shared in 2008 and still think of often. "Accidents of Birth" is one I know I'll also be returning to.
Accidents of Birth
by William Meredith
Je vois les effroyables espaces de l’Univers qui m’enferment, et je me trouve attaché à un coin de cette vaste étendue, sans savoir pourquoi je suis plutôt en ce lieu qu’en un autre, ni pourquoi ce peu de temps qui m’est donné à vivre m’est assigné à ce point plutôt qu'à un autre de toute l’éternité qui m’a précédé, et de toute qui me suit.
—Pascal, Pensées sur la religion
The approach of a man’s life out of the past is history, and the approach of time out of the future is mystery. Their meeting is the present, and it is consciousness, the only time life is alive. The endless wonder of this meeting is what causes the mind, in its inward liberty of a frozen morning, to turn back and question and remember. The world is full of places. Why is it that I am here?
—Wendell Berry, The Long-Legged House
Spared by a car or airplane crash or
cured of malignancy, people look
around with new eyes at a newly
praiseworthy world, blinking eyes like these.
For I’ve been brought back again from the...
read the rest here
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{fiction, instead of lies} has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Tanita!
13 comments:
Tabatha, thank you for sharing. Enjoy that fun-sounding St. Patricks' tea. I enjoyed reading William Meredith's poem a couple of times. So stark and scientific
"But it’s not this random
life only, throwing its sensual
astonishments upside down on
the bloody membranes behind my eyeballs,"
and then he gets into the "but you" and being together and "to see it with you" - Really a lovely love poem.
I love the idea of a St. Patrick's Day tea! And, thank you for sharing William Meredith-- I'm always happy to discover a new poet. :)
I love the beginning of the Berry poem, the past history and future mystery coming together in the present, while we’re alive. Enjoy your holiday. You have fabulous plans and perhaps I’ll make some scones!
WOW. This poem is one I'm definitely going to need to come back to -- that whole first stanza and those final lines just really ricochet through the brain. I think this one is one to read aloud, just for the language. "Newly praiseworthy eyes." May I always have them. Thank you so much for sharing this.
Have fun on St. Patrick's Day, Tabatha! This is such a lovely all-encompassing love poem, at least in my eyes, taking in the world and bringing the thrust of it back to "in the same little eon". You often bring me new looks at poets. I don't know William Meredith. I still read a little French & also enjoyed seeing how close I was to translating. I did okay, not perfect! : )
Ah, the mystery that surrounds our being, our Being. I especially enjoyed Wendell Berry's musing. He's so full of gratitude!
Thanks for sharing another new-to-me poet. Profound and so thought provoking!! Looking forward to hearing more (and seeing pics) of your St. Paddy's Day tea!
I'm in love with those "uncomprehending, impudent thanks."
Have fun with your St. Patty's celebration!
A St. Patrick's Day Tea sounds perfect. Enjoy, and thanks for sharing these lovely poems.
"the mud where our atoms lie/for long naps" Such delicious words. This is a poem that will stay with me a while this morning at least. This is why I love to read your posts very early in the morning. You always bring something that gets all the way in with me.
Oh, have a fabulous Yeats tea party. That sounds absolutely lovely!
I don't know William Meredith — thank you for this, Tabatha!
And I hope your Yeats day was a smashing success! ❤️
Fascinating poem/read , thanks for sharing Tabatha! I went on to read about Meredith, he was an intriguing writer and individual I like the life-mix he brings into his work, and will look for more to read of his. Your tea ☕️ sounds delightful!
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