Poetry Friday
March 25, 2011
The world of Other Responsibilities called this morning in the form of my freelance proofreading work (though, please, never expect my posts to be error-free!). The group I freelance with is wonderful, so no complaint there. Just feeling a bit like Schroeder over the keyboard at the moment, so will take a break and come back later to enjoy the Poetry Friday conversation.
Before I go, here’s a poem by Steve Kowit that feels appropriate, given the past several hours spent on patrol for typos, dangling modifiers, and (gasp!) stylistic inconsistencies and flagrant disregard for subject-verb agreement.
THE GRAMMAR LESSON by Steve Kowit
A noun’s a thing. A verb’s the thing it does.
An adjective is what describes the noun.
In “The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz”
of and with are prepositions. The’s
an article, a can’s a noun,
a noun’s a thing. A verb’s the thing it does.
Read the rest of the poem, included in the Poetry 180 project, here.
And a belated thanks to Sara Lewis Holmes, who posted from Poetry 180 one Friday a while back, which encouraged me to sign up to receive these wonderful poems. Not only are the poems inspiring, but how great it is to see mail from “Library of Congress” in my inbox.
This week’s Poetry Friday roundup is hosted by Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading. Go on over and check it out!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
February 14, 2011
For those who like stories of love at first sight, and with female characters who are no shrinking violets, you might enjoy this poem, which arrived in my mailbox the other day from the Library of Congress’s Poetry 180: A Poem a Day for American High Schools (selected by Billy Collins).
THE EXCHANGE
Ron Rash
Between Wytheville, Virginia
and the North Carolina line,
he meets a wagon headed
where he’s been, seated beside
her parents a dark-eyed girl
who grips the reins in her fist,
no more than sixteen, he’s guess
as they come closer and she
doesn’t look away or blush
but allows his eyes to hold
hers that moment their lives pass.
Read the rest here.
From that same link, you can subscribe to receive a poem a day in your mailbox, too. Now that’s love.
Enjoy your Valentine’s Day, everyone! And happy birthday to a special someone in our house!
