I Wish I'd Written This

The Small Box

By Vasko Popa (1922 – 1991)

The small box gets its first teeth

And its small length
Its small width and small emptiness
And all that it has got

The small box is growing bigger
And now the cupboard is in it
That it was in before

And it grows bigger and bigger and bigger
And now has in it the room
And the house and the town and the land
And the world it was in before

The small box remembers its childhood
And by overgreat longing
It becomes a box again

Now in the small box
Is the whole world quite tiny
You can easily put it in a pocket
Easily steal it easily lose it

Take care of the small box

Vasko (aka Vasco) Popa was born in a part of Yugoslavia now known as Serbia. He studied Philosophy at the Universities of Belgrade, Bucharest and Vienna. During World War II he fought as a partisan, and was imprisoned in a German concentration camp. He went on to become an active and prominent figure in the literary life of his country.

You can find more of his poems here, and his books here. Wikipedia tells us: 'He created a unique poetic language, mostly elliptical, that combines a modern form, often expressed through colloquial speech and common idioms and phrases, with old, oral folk traditions of Serbia – epic and lyric poems, stories, myths, riddles, etc.'

Why would I like to have written this poem in particular? No rational reason — just that I fell in love with it when I first encountered it, decades ago, and have never fallen out of love. It appeals to that something in me that likes certain kinds of jokes or songs and not others, inexplicably. I am not alone; I believe it was his most popular piece. Something about it captures the imagination and I, for one, want to not merely take care of but cherish the small box.

However, if the poem is too mysterious for you, I can tell you that it has been analysed by his readers and students as being a metaphor for memories and the gradual growing up from childhood.

I have just discovered that he wrote a series of small box poems, and here they are. But I think none of them has the charm of the first, though the last one comes somewhere near.

Verse First ~ A Place in The Universe

Welcome to Verse First where simple notions prompt amazing poems. 

Today's Notion?

A Place in The Universe

"The universe is not really made up of atoms, it's made up of stories. It is through the sharing of our unique stories that we can arrive at a deeper connection with another person. I also may come to a deeper connection with myself, with my own truth -- by exploring that edge of authenticity."
       
          ~ Muriel Rukeyser 


Our writing has a voice whose characteristics and timbre are uniquely ours. We see the world in our own special way and perceive experiences differently than anyone else. Use YOUR unique voice. Share a poem about your place, role, mission, position in the world, in the universe. Explore the edge of your authenticity.



Post your work on your website, then use Mr. Linky to share it here. Leave a comment below if you like, and remember to support fellow poets by visiting and commenting on their work. No linking and slinking away!

I look forward to reading poems unique to each of you. ~ Kim

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Poem of the Week ~ Grace-Moments

Kids, this poem by Janet Martin, of Another Porch, just says it all about families, how fast our children grow up, how full, with laughter and tears, our hearts are, as we look back on all the fleeting years. Janet has a way of making us aware  of what she calls "the beautiful ordinaries", reminding us to cherish them as they come. She posted this wonderful collage to accompany the poem, and I simply must include it. Check it out on Janet's site, where you can see it more clearly. It is precious.

GRACE-MOMENTS

Don’t grieve that it’s gone, wonder that it was.
Laugh that you lived and dance that you dared.
Inhale that it happened — and it was grace.  
Ann Voskamp a Holy Experience

...and so, that is what we do
slipping new seasons over our shoulders
like the earth wears spring, then summer,
fall then winter, 
snow after the dew...
moments melded by God's grace
into laugh lines on our faces
and memories that the heart embraces
as thought re-traces 
where feet cannot go

...for the heart is a harbor from which dreams set sail
or come home to anchor in time's shifting swell 

and all we can do is live in the moment
because
soon it will simply be
what once was...

J~
My kids birthdays make me a little sentimental:)

                  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~                 

As it turns out, I scheduled this a few weeks back, not even making the connection that this poem would follow Mother's Day - but it is actually the perfect follow-up to yesterday's Pantry. Thank you, Janet, for such a heartwarming poem, and for the  look back at all those busy, happy years. Yours is this week's Poem of the Week!

Poetry Pantry for (and about) Mothers Around the World

coolfreeimages.net

Hi kids! We have a surprise for you today. Given it is Mother's Day, we thought it might be fun to request poems by, to, for, or about mothers: our mothers, our being mothers, our bond with our children, mothers of the world: anything that comes from your heart, as we contemplate the importance of mothers on this special day.

 northerncancerstrategy.com

retronaut.com 

2006 John W. Galbreath

There are so many ways to mother.

We look forward to hearing you

"count the ways".

nature.com

impatientoptimists.org

I suspect there will be some very heartfelt and moving offerings 

in the Pantry this week.

livingcivil.org

I can't wait to hear about all of the mothers, whether we mother through giving birth, adoption, or through simply loving the children the universe sends our way. At my house, they keep on coming, the little ones, small wayfarers from rocky paths, and they fill my life with joy. I always need a kid or two around, otherwise I'd have to rent some!

commonswikimedia.org

I hope each of you is having a lovely Mother's Day, from coffee in bed (I know: "On what Planet?" hee hee), to looking at the faces of your children around the breakfast table, to phone calls from far and wide as grownup "kids" check in with their Moms. 

  

 dhs.state.or.us

Happy Mother's Day!!

And now...here is the procedure:  Each Sunday we start a new post with a New Mr. Linky for you. This is so that you can post a link to a poem in your blog. The link will close Monday at 6:00 p.m. (CDT). [We are leaving it up a little longer, this week,  to give everyone time to enjoy the goodies]. Even after it closes,  you can still visit the links of those who have posted them.

Enjoy!

I Wish I'd Written This

Brother Alvin
By Audre Lord (1934-1992)

In the seat that we shared in the second grade
there was always a space between us
left for our guardian angels.
We had made it out of the brownies together
because you knew your numbers
and could find the right pages
while I could read all the words.
You were absent a lot between Halloween
and Thanksgiving
and just before Christmas vacation
you disappeared
along with the tinsel
and paper turkeys
and never returned.

My guardian angel and I had the seat to ourselves
for a little while only
until I was demoted back to the brownies
because I could never find the correct page.

You were not my first death
but your going was not solaced by the usual
rituals of separation
the dark lugubrious murmurs
and invitations by threat
to the dignified grownups' view
of a child's inelegant pain
so even now
all these years of death later
I search through the index
of each new book
on magic
hoping to find some new spelling
of your name.

(from The Black Unicorn)


It must have been about 1987 when I admired Audre Lorde from afar at a women writers' conference in Melbourne, Australia, where she was one of the visiting stars. I remember her as a warm, handsome, rich-voiced woman, very much like this photograph which is obviously from the same era of her life. And the poetry was awesome in its directness and uncompromising power. It was a shock to me, as I gathered material for this article, to discover she died in 1992. (It was the year I was separating from my second husband, going bankrupt, and moving house. And it was before the internet. Even so, I'm surprised I missed that news.)

I like this particular poem for its evocation of the world of childhood, in an unsentimental but very real way which made me feel I was one of those children in that classroom. She's absolutely 'got' the way children mix magickal and mundane thinking as parts of the same reality.

In my writers' group today we were talking about adjectives. Is it really necessary to leave them all out in order to write well? We came to the conclusion that some are necessary, but not piling them on makes the ones you do use more effective. I can't help noticing Lorde's striking use of adjectives here — all four of them: 'dark lugubrious murmurs', 'dignified grownups', 'inelegant pain'.

As a black, lesbian, feminist poet, Lorde considered herself an outsider on all counts. Yet her poetry seems to me to speak to our common humanity, even when she is chronicling women of very different cultures.

She was a prolific writer who also produced essays and memoir.  You can get her books from Amazon here, and her Collected Poems here.

There are more of her poems at the very useful Poem Hunter website.

You can hear readings of her work on Youtube (by other people, but done well) and you can read her views here on poetry not being a luxury.

Verse First ~ Poetry Heals

Welcome to Verse First, where simple notions prompt amazing poems.

Today's notion?

Poetry Heals

"Poetry is natural medicine, it is like a homeopathic tincture derived from the stuff of life itself--your experience. Poems distill experience into the essentials. Our personal experiences touch the common ground we share with others."

          ~ Excerpted from Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making

Your task for this week's Verse First is to write succinctly and boldly about a personal experience. As you do so, rest assured that your readers will share some common ground. Be aware that the writing heals you and the reading heals others.

The only rule: No more than 100 words. Succinct. Bold. GO!

Post your work on your website, then use Mr. Linky to share it here. Feel free to leave a comment below, and please support our fellow poets by visiting and commenting.

I look forward to reading poems unique to each of you. ~ Kim

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Life of a Poet - Robyn Greenhouse

Kids, I know you have come across  Robyn Greenhouse at Adventures in Laughter on your travels through the 'sphere. Robyn participates faithfully at Poets United, and her posts are rich with the humor of daily living in an animated, lively family. We're zipping over to the eastern seaboard for this interview, kids, and looking down from above, we can see the glorious spring blossoms lavishly decorating the landscape. As we pull up out front, I can hear laughter.....so this must be the place!

P.U.: Robyn, it's so nice to be visiting with you at last! Would you like to tell us where you live and who you share your life with?

Poetry Pantry #149

Tawny Owl (Hanstedt, Germany)

 

Greetings, Poets!  

 



I do hope that each one of you had a poetic week, and I hope that you will share one of your poems (old or new) here.. I enjoyed the bird picture I shared last week so much that I looked for another bird photo for this week.  It comes from Wikimedia Commons, my usual public domain source.  Bird photos always make me yearn to take my binoculars out into the woods, find a place to sit, and just wait and hope for interesting birds to pass.  My granddaughter has become quite interested in birds, so perhaps someday this spring we will do that. 

This is one of my favorite spaces to post during the poetic week.   I hope you look forward to it too.  Link your ONE poem.   Then visit other poets.  And I will too.  We ALL like comments, so if you link please DO spend time visiting others.  That is part of the fun as well.  We really like it if you link back to Poets United too, so we spread the Poetry Pantry word in the blogosphere.

Come back a few times on Sunday and Monday to see what's new.  Visit some strangers, and they will become new friends!  Making new friends and reading new poetry, what more could one want?

Also, don't forget to visit Poets United other days of the week.  For example, every Wednesday Kim posts a new "Verse First" prompt.  Hope you will join us there as well!  Sherry Blue Sky does a feature (it varies) on Monday, and Rosemary Nissen-Wade does "I Wish I'd Written This" every Friday!

If you are on Facebook, look for us there as well. Join our site.  It is one more way to stay in touch!

And now...here is the procedure, for those who are new here:  Each Sunday we start a new post with a New Mr. Linky for you. This is so that you can post a link to a poem in your blog. The link will close Monday at 12:00 p.m. (CDT), but you can still visit the links of those who have posted them.

Enjoy!

I Wish I'd Written This

24. Small Stone 28.4.13

By Daman Dharmachari

Sit in the Cafe.
Hear the Jazz (Probably John Coltrane).
Drink the black coffee.
Eat the haloumi panini.
Think the thoughts.

Mind one, “Shit, what is happening to me?”
Mind two, “What! What does that mean?”
Mind one, “Well, I’m not functioning”

Mind two, “Drink the black coffee,
Listen to the jazz,
Eat the Panini,
Write the words.
This is functioning”

Mind one, “It’s not riding a bike,
It’s not jive dancing,
It’s not abseiling,
It’s not making love with the beloved”

Mind two, “You are too old for these things.
Be content with an active mind.
Think the thoughts”

A few years ago a writer called Fiona Robyn (now Satya Robyn) and her husband, Buddhist priest Kaspalita Thompson, invited people all over the world to participate in writing 'small stones'. A small stone, they explained, is 'a moment of paying proper attention'. The idea is to look outside oneself at the world and find something special, then write about it — as if you were going for a walk, picking up a small stone, then taking it home and polishing it. There is now a facebook group where people post them.

Daman Dharmachari, another Buddhist, is one who posts there. He tells me he has been using it as a sort of 'winter therapy'. 

He works at the Bristol Buddhist Centre in England, as part of the Triratna Buddhist Community. He doesn't regard himself as a writer and there is nowhere on the web where I may refer you to anything else he has written. I gather that this is because there are no writings. But this piece delighted me when I came across it at the facebook group. 

I am not Buddhist, but from what little I know I think this poem expresses a very Buddhist attitude. 'Small stones' are supposed to focus on the world outside oneself, but in this case he is perceiving his own mind as another thing in the world, which one may observe. Even 'Mind two' is not the self.

Be that as it may, I enjoy the conversation between Mind one and Mind two, and particularly the last verse. I love the whole tone, and I like it that the two minds have distinct voices. I think it is a very funny piece. Also, of course, it's deeply serious. 

In fact Mind two's injunctions provide a perfect illustration of what small stones are all about — being here now, in the moment, and paying proper attention.

Verse First ~ An Authentic Life

Welcome to Verse First where simple notions lead to amazing poems. 

Today's Notion?

An Authentic Life

What do Polonius, from Shakespeare's Hamlet and modern-day author, teacher and spiritual leader Roger Housden have in common?

Perspective. And wisdom.

One is a fictional character, the other is a living, breathing human being; yet each encourages audiences to live an authentic life, being truthful to purpose and self.

Hamlet said:

"This above all:
To thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."

Housden said:

"A journey [toward the true heart of your own life]... goes against the prevailing current. It requires you to step out of line, to break with polite society. Other people will feel the ripples, and they won't like it. Any authentic movement usually requires a break with the past -- not because it is bad, but because it is so difficult for a deeper truth to make itself known among the accretions of habit and conformity."

So, poet friends, I invite you to step out of line. Let us feel your ripples. To thine own self be true. Write a poem about an authentic life, living your passion, following your bliss. Fact or fiction, tell a tale in poetry. Make a deeper truth known.

One caveat: Do it in fewer than 13 lines.

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Life of a Poet ~ Mario Cerroni

Kids, this week we are enjoying a visit to an intrepid photographer who shares both photographic art and his poetry on his site, PhotoDiction, Photography and Writings by Mario Cerroni.  We are invited to browse through his gallery, to enjoy his view of the world, and I promise, you are going to love looking at eastern Canada through this artist-poet's eyes.

P.U.: Mario, your photographs are often of sights you encounter in the Ottawa area, Canada’s capital city. Is that the place you call home?

Poetry Pantry - # 148

Mallard Duck with Ducklings - UK

Greetings, Poets! Hope you all have had a good week.



At last the weather is more spring-like in my part of the world.  If you are in the northern hemisphere, I hope it is for you too.  And in the southern, you are heading onward into autumn.  I liked the picture above that I found in the public domain.  Spring is the season for birth and also of rebirth.  I hope it is also the season in which lots of wonderful poems are born!

This is one of my favorite spaces to post during the poetic week.   I hope you look forward to it too.  Link your ONE poem.   If you are involved with NaPoWriMo, feel free to share one of your poems here. Then visit other poets.  If you never visit other poets, eventually people will pass by your blog as well.  And I will too.  We ALL like comments, so if you link please DO spend time visiting others.  That is part of the fun as well.  We really like it if you link back to Poets United too, so we spread the Poetry Pantry word in the blogosphere.

Come back a few times on Sunday and Monday to see what's new.  Visit some strangers, and they will become new friends!  Making new friends and reading new poetry, what more could one want?

Also, don't forget to visit Poets United other days of the week.  For example, every Wednesday Kim posts a new "Verse First" prompt.  Hope you will join us there as well!  Sherry Blue Sky does a feature (it varies) on Monday, and Rosemary Nissen-Wade does "I Wish I'd Written This" every Friday!

If you are on Facebook, look for us there as well. Join our site.  It is one more way to stay in touch!

And now...here is the procedure, for those who are new here:  Each Sunday we start a new post with a New Mr. Linky for you. This is so that you can post a link to a poem in your blog. The link will close Monday at 12:00 p.m. (CDT), but you can still visit the links of those who have posted them.

I Wish I'd Written This

Tir na Blog

By RJ Clarken

The computer world
has its own tiny wee folk:
they're called the Pixels.

The Pixels' powers
are determined by magic
and pantone colors.

You can find Pixels
if a Vector Inspector
gives you a bitmap.

But please be careful.
Pixels are shy, and hide if
closely monitored.

                                 

Like me, RJ Clarken is participating in this year's April Poem A Day Challenge at Poetic Asides (which is part of Writer's Digest). I fell in love with this recent piece, written for the Challenge, and couldn't wait to share it with you. It appeals to both my sense of humour and my love of the magickal. (And oh yes, I do believe Pixels are real!)

A writer, photographer and graphic artist — as a poet she specialises in light verse. In fact she has a blog of that name; and a book of 'odd, off-beat and really quirky poetry' called Mugging for the Camera, which is available through Amazon. She has also been published in a number of journals. 

Penny Wishes, her children's book published by a small press a few years ago, is now out of print; but as she owns the rights, she says she might re-publish it herself — if she ever finds the time. In addition to all her artistic activities, she is a busy wife and mother.

A couple of years ago she was interviewed at Poetic Bloomings. Some of her poems are included, and she talks about the process of seeking — and finding — publication, which she went about in a very business-like way. You can also find her on facebook and twitter.

I have known her as an online friend and colleague for several years now, and can tell you that she is very supportive of other poets.

Verse First ~ Voices

Welcome to Verse First, where simple notions prompt amazing poems.

Today's notion?

VOICES

Mary Oliver begins her poem, The Journey, with these lines:

                                                               One day you finally knew

                                                               what you had to do, and began,

                                                               though the voices around you

                                                               kept shouting

                                                               their bad advice~

In The Sun Watches the Sun, Serbian poet Dejan Stojanovic says:

                                                              We hear only our own voices,

                                                               still echoes returning to our emptiness

Rainer Maria Rilke said:

"Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night."

And of course, 'Til Tuesday gained fame with the lyrics, 

                                                               "Hush, hush

                                                                keep it down now

                                                                voices carry." 

Voices.

What do they say to you? What do you want to say about them? What influence do you want those voices to have in the world? 

Write a poem about voices. Post your work on your website, then use Mr. Linky to share it with us. Feel free to leave a comment below; and please support others in the  community by reading their work and sharing your comments.

Looking forward to some amazing poems! ~ Kim

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Blog of the Week ~ Magical Mystical Teacher

Kids, this week we're featuring Magical Mystical Teacher, a regular participant at Poets United. This poet writes sets of wonderful haiku, normally offering several per post. Beautiful landscape photos accompany many of the offerings, so the blog is also a visual feast.

This blog might also be named Magical Mystery Teacher, because the About page says the poet "is a teacher living in the USA". Now, I have a "nose for news" from my newspaper days, so I pored through the site trying to determine whether this is a man or woman poet. I  happened upon some haiku talking about an Old Poet putting down her pen, so I might venture a guess in that direction. Perhaps the Mystery Poet will let us know? Or perhaps the mystery is enjoyable for all concerned and should be maintained?

Poetry Pantry - # 147

Baseball Players Practicing - Thomas Eakins, 1875 (public domain)

Greetings, Poets!   Hope you all have had a good week.

 



In the United States baseball season has gotten off to a good start.  Every year I try to be a baseball fan like I was when I was a child, but every year I seem to fail.  But I do certainly appreciate that baseball is many people's favorite spectator sport.  Perhaps in your comment today you could tell us what your favorite spectator sport is.

This is one of my favorite spaces to post during the poetic week.   I hope you look forward to it too.  Link your ONE poem.   If you are involved with NaPoWriMo, feel free to share one of your poems here. Then visit other poets.  If you never visit other poets, eventually people will pass by your blog as well.  And I will too.  We ALL like comments, so if you link please DO spend time visiting others.  That is part of the fun as well.  We really like it if you link back to Poets United too, so we spread the Poetry Pantry word in the blogosphere.

Come back a few times on Sunday and Monday to see what's new.  Visit some strangers, and they will become new friends!  Making new friends and reading new poetry, what more could one want?

Also, don't forget to visit Poets United other days of the week.  For example, every Wednesday Kim posts a new "Verse First" prompt.  Hope you will join us there as well!  Sherry Blue Sky does a feature (it varies) on Monday, and Rosemary Nissen-Wade does "I Wish I'd Written This" every Friday!

If you are on Facebook, look for us there as well. Join our site.  It is one more way to stay in touch!

And now...here is the procedure, for those who are new here:  Each Sunday we start a new post with a New Mr. Linky for you. This is so that you can post a link to a poem in your blog. The link will close Monday at 12:00 p.m. (CDT), but you can still visit the links of those who have posted them.