Poetry and its Meme

[stoney321]

smashsc had this on her journal, so I am yoinking it over to mine. You put a poem (or lines from a poem) in your journal. Comment, or take the idea.

First off, poetry is a tricky one with me. Most moden poetry comes off contrived IMO. After the early 70s, haven't been many poets I've gotten, outside of the music world. My two favorite modern poets are Langston Hughes and Gary Snyder. Simple, evocative, and they speak to something in me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Langston Hughes
I, Too

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
WHen company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at teh table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed.

I, too, am America.


Advice (my most favorite thing to quote, BTW)
Folks, I'm telling you,
birthing is hard
and dying is mean-
so get yourself
a little loving
in between.

Last one... Gary Snyder
Looking at Pictures to Be Put Away

Who was this girl
In her white night gown
Clutching a pair of jeans

On a foggy redwood deck.
She looks up at me tender,
Calm, surprised,

What will we remember
Bodies thick with food and lovers
After twenty years.

(i just have to, because I flipped through a notebook and found it:
There's a stake in your fat black heart
And the villagers never liked you.
They are dancing and stamping on you.
They always knew it was you.
Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through.

/lj-cut>Spam me with your faves!