The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Wed 2/4/2009)

[RetroLounge]

Japan

Today I pass the time reading
a favorite haiku,
saying the few words over and over.

It feels like eating
the same small, perfect grape
again and again.

I walk through the house reciting it
and leave its letters falling
through the air of every room.

I stand by the big silence of the piano and say it.
I say it in front of a painting of the sea.
I tap out its rhythm on an empty shelf.

I listen to myself saying it,
then I say it without listening,
then I hear it without saying it.

And when the dog looks up at me,
I kneel down on the floor
and whisper it into each of his long white ears.

It's the one about the one-ton temple bell
with the moth sleeping on its surface,

and every time I say it, I feel the excruciating
pressure of the moth
on the surface of the iron bell.

When I say it at the window,
the bell is the world
and I am the moth resting there.

When I say it at the mirror,
I am the heavy bell
and the moth is life with its papery wings.

And later, when I say it to you in the dark,
you are the bell,
and I am the tongue of the bell, ringing you,

and the moth has flown
from its line
and moves like a hinge in the air above our bed.

Billy Collins

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

:hi:

RL

[blueraven95]

1. ...

I've always liked Billy Collins. I got to meet him several years ago at a poetry conference, it was an interesting experience.


:hi:

[RetroLounge]

4. ...

:hi:

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear Retro!

Well, this one went where I did NOT expect!

Wow!

That is wonderful!

Thank you...

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

5. ...

:hi:

RL

[Chorophyll]

3. Can't not like Billy Collins.

He knows how to put words together. Whew. :hi:

[RetroLounge]

6. ...

:hi:

RL