December 1, 2007

Day 1

Poetry

I, too, dislike it.
    Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one dis-
                                                                                                          covers in
it, after all, a place for the genuine.


by Marianne Moore

{Read the first (original, long) version here.}

5 comments:

Brooke said...

Here's mine:

Speaking of Genuine

Sometimes
when I am most genuine
I am a teenager again
with my idealism & periodic pimples,
disdain for conformity,
and my juvenile sneakers.
What often comes out as a gut response
is so egocentric
that I balk at myself.

And my Velcro
hightop Vans don’t really help
make me feel mature when they squeak
as I march my 3-year-old to his room for a break
when I know I’m the one that needs
some “time out.”

Deborah said...

I took some time this week to revise a poem I wrote a decade ago.

Writing Lessons

sad sad very very bad
black black I am mad
mad mad I pist off,
I miss him in the Light
it becomes dark slam
I will allwas remembr

--Colton, age 9

He stands blonde, 4’2
and tough like silly
putty and when he says he is
pissed off, twenty-eight eyes check me,
giggle carefully, blush.

The tilting of my hair asks how
did this come from this boy
who bounces all the wrong time,

and when I almost know I ask
“What is this place?”

He says, “My grandpa’s casket”
and waits for me
to say good job,
to say you can sit down now,
Next?

But I remember

(I was nine too, then, pissed and waiting praise)

and answer, “I will too, yes.”

jana said...

My poem for today is an erasure poem. I took the conclusion from Nate Oman's recent Dialogue article on authority and played with it a bit. It struck me, as a read it, as being somewhat poetic. So I started fiddling with it. I took nearly every word that's more than 5 letters long and created this poem out of them, adding a bit of punctuation (I know it's weird, but I'm just playing...):

Conclusion:
Church doctrine, the central and
Under-analyzed concept of Mormon discussion
Offering possible interpretations for
Mormon practices, history.

Accordingly, church doctrine
Is necessarily interpretive, contestable?
Neither a perfect reflection nor
Completely theological.

Nevertheless, church doctrine
Concludes covenants, divine involvement, & production
Participation justifying church doctrine and
Authority.

Furthermore, church doctrine is
What Mormons with obligations follow blindly:
They Believe claims
Latter-day Saints are absolute, limitless

Your arguments ignore church doctrine,
And contest continued allegiance
to Authority
However conceptual

Authority:
Seriously,
Accordingly,
Limited.

Bored in Vernal said...

So blind am I
To what others see,
I would the Healer
Succor me.

His spittle on my
Sinking soul--
To lift me high,
To make me whole.

No gift for me,
No easy path; will I
Endlessly lack
What others hath?

Zenaida said...

Seeking
answers

Finding
disillusionment,
disdain,
revulsion,
preaching,
pain,
guilt,
suffering,
stupidity,
ignorance,
innocence,
vulnerability,
empathy...