A Sample from National Poetry Month


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National Poetry Month

by Elaine Equi
When a poem
speaks by itself,
it has a spark

and can be considered
part of a divine
conversation.

Sometimes the poem weaves
like a basket around
two loaves of yellow bread.

"Break off a piece
of this April with its
raisin nipples," it says. 

"And chew them slowly
under your pillow.
You belong in bed with me."

On the other hand,
when a poem speaks
in the voice of a celebrity

it is called television
or a movie.
"There is nothing to see,"

say Robert De Niro,
though his poem bleeds
all along the edges

like a puddle 
crudely outlined
with yellow tape

at the crime scene
of spring.
"It is an old poem," he adds."And besides,
I was very young
when I made it."

21 Comments

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21 responses to “A Sample from National Poetry Month

  1. I love that poem…still in the spring mode.

    Say, for whatever reason I was thinking about Emily D. last night, wondering how she happened to be the one to revolutionize American poetry. Marveling, I guess.

    • lucewriter

      It’s such a cool poem!
      Hey, what about Whitman?! Not that I’m not a big Emily D fan, but Whitman . . . !

      • Okay, Whitman’s poetry is a huge, beautiful tapestry. Dickinson’s, a series of gems, says as much and more in far fewer words with startling freshness. Perhaps she is the greatest innovator.

        Yesterday, I was also looking at poetry by Milton, who was not so much an innovator as a master within certain constraints. He wrote in a vast outpouring of wonderful words and images.

        • lucewriter

          Hmm, I think of them as the parents of contemporary American poetry. I can’t imagine it today without both of them. I’m not unwilling to play favorites here although you might remember I keep an Emily Dickinson doll by my computer. But we needed both of them, like sperm and egg.

  2. Oh I love this poem! 🙂

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  4. Beautiful! Lovely poem

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  6. Love, it….Luanne….I’m hopeless with poetry…..

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  8. I am so hungry now for razor clams!!! How did you prepare them? Any pasta?

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