The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Sun 9/10/06)

[RetroLounge]

Days We Would Rather Know

There are days we would rather know
than these, as there is always, later,
a wife we would rather have married
than whom we did, in that severe nowness
time pushed, imperfectly, to then. Whether,
standing in the museum before Rembrandt's "Juno,"
we stand before beauty, or only before a consensus
about beauty, is a question that makes all beauty
suspect ... and all marriages. Last night,
leaves circled the base of the ginkgo as if
the sun had shattered during the night
into a million gold coins no one had the sense
to claim. And now, there are days we would
rather know than these, days when to stand
before beauty and before "Juno" are, convincingly,
the same, days when the shattered sunlight
seeps through the trees and the women we marry
stay interesting and beautiful both at once,
and their men. And though there are days
we would rather know than now, I am,
at heart, a scared and simple man. So I tighten
my arms around the woman I love, now
and imperfectly, stand before "Juno" whispering
beautiful beautiful until I believe it, and—
when I come home at night—I run out
into the day's pale dusk with my broom
and my dustpan, sweeping the coins from the base
of the ginkgo, something to keep for a better tomorrow:
days we would rather know that never come.

Michael Blumenthal

*******************

RL

If you have a request for a certain Poet, post their name in the thread and I will find a poem by them and post it...

if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[miss_american_pie]

1. I love this poem

in that severe nowness
time pushed, imperfectly, to then.

Thanks. :hi:

[RetroLounge]

4. ...

And though there are days
we would rather know than now, I am,
at heart, a scared and simple man.

:hi:

RL

[idgiehkt]

2. it's kind of sad

"Last night,
leaves circled the base of the ginkgo as if
the sun had shattered during the night
into a million gold coins no one had the sense
to claim."

wow.

I think there is a sense of sadness in it though... it really is a beautiful poem, thanks..


Here is one for me just because I'm sick today and kind of sad and I have to go to work in a minute, a little more poetry to carry me through...

Rain - Joy Harjo

Bobby flew out of his body
on Nine Mile Hill
You could say it was a Navaho semi
careening down the earth
or his wife, pregnant and drunk
who caused his lick of death

But what captured him was a light in the river
folding open and open
blood, heart and stones
shimmering like the Milky Way

And then it rained
And what went down sucked the current,
took hold.

Now southern California falls into the ocean
Now Phoenix struggles under water.

Something has been let loose in rain;
it is teaching us to love.

[wildhorses]

3. what a beautiful way of saying

that the grass is always greener. very nice, thanks:hi: