Monday, January 28, 2008

"poem." free-for-all!

it's week #4 in our virtual poetry group cycle, and as week #4's will go, this one is tame. find a poem online that reminds you -- in any way -- of mary oliver's "cold poem." it could connect via imagery, meaning, style, etc. it can even be another one of your own. go to the comments and link up for us.

next week, we'll start this all over again, with february's week one introducing us to a new poem!

6 comments:

Linda Jacobs said...

This one popped into my head by Tess Gallagher. It actually says the opposite but is worth the read.

I'm not very computer savvy so don't know if this link will work. I'm still learning how to leave them and have figured out how to do it to my blog but not sure if this is how to do it to a different site. Anyway, I'll give it a go.


href="http://www.literary-arts.org/pim/poems/1997/12">here

Anonymous said...

hi, linda, poor linda! the html trolls got her good. she tried a couple more times but i deleted those attempts to clean up the page.

here's the link:

"i stop writing the poem" by tess gallagher

P.S. as a last resort, linda had typed the text of the poem here in the comments. we avoid that so we don't infringe on copyrights ... i'm off to find somewhere at "poem." where i can mention that ...

Anonymous said...

linda-- i just got a chance to read gallagher's poem and i see the connection also but i don't see the opposite -- i see a parallel: what HAS to be done. what is required. (the narrator has to stop writing a poem to do some household stuff).

i have a poem that i wrote about letting that other stuff slide and choosing to write the poem so maybe that's where i'll take us next:

"keeping house" by carolee (published in a local women's zine "womensynergy" summer 2006)

Linda Jacobs said...

Oh, Carolee, these poems are infused with the poetry of everyday longings. They are just wonderful and I could picture everything.

I copy and read a poem to my students everyday and would love to print these out and use them with your permission. I know the kids could relate. They are so busy with jobs, social lives, homework, etc.

Thanks for cleaning up my link mess! And I never thought about copyright issues. Sorry.

I was thinking the Oliver poem and the Gallagher poems were opposites because in one, the narrator has to ignore and hurt the people around her to write but in the other, she leaves the writing and does her chores as well as models domesticity for her daughter. I can see, however, how they could be parallels because they both do what they have to do.

Again, this is a cool concept for a site. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

hi, linda!

email me and tell me about your students ... i absolutely encourage you to share my poems with them, but i love love love to know about writing classes and students and teachers.

art [at] polkadotwitch [dot] com

jillypoet said...

Polkadotwitch says my newest poem is a cold poem, and that I should post it here. I always listen to witchy, so here it is! June Cleaver makes Much of Winter

The cold really is getting to me this year. And they say your life comes out in your poems...

And, Linda, that poem by Tess Gallagher is one of my all time favorite poems. Thanks for sharing it!