A Few of My Favorite Poems
School is back in session and I am in full junior year mode. I have already gotten into the groove of setting up my planner and cracking out to-do lists. But before I let things get too overwhelming, I’m going back to the basics: poetry.
Here are a few poems I have been loving recently:
“A world’s too little for thy tent, a grave too big for me” by Connie Voisine
There aren’t enough doves
in North America to fill
the gondola of you.
Onions are fallible, only
pretending to be infinite,
and the Great Plains—
well, they’re not that great.
You might fit a thousand of me
in your purse; the distance
between my nose and lip is mere
centimeters. I know I am only a pat
of butter, a blueberry, an aspirin,
a quivering cell about to dissolve,
to you.
Haven’t you noticed that even
the sphinx is growing smaller
each day? What can that fawn,
retreating, legs a pile of cutlery,
expect from the approaching dog?
What good is my will when your voice
is what I mistake the freight trains
that shake my windows for?
When I close my eyes, I return
to the tomb of night. I return
to you, or the idea of you, and
I walk down corridors dragging
my fingers along the wall,
looking for that café, warm
and brightly lit, where I stopped
asking so many questions.
I ate a sandwich and was called
something dear by a stranger.
“as freedom is a breakfastfood” by e.e cummings
as freedom is a breakfastfood
or truth can live with right and wrong
or molehills are from mountains made
-long enough and just so long
will being pay the rent of seem
and genius please the talentgang
and water most encourage flame
as hatracks into peach trees grow
or hopes dance best on bald men’s hair
and every finger is a toe
and any courage is a fear
-long enough and just so long
will the impure think all things pure
and hornets wail by children stung
or as the seeing are the blind
and robins never welcome spring
nor flatfolk prove their world is round
nor dingsters die at break of dong
and common’s rare and millstones float
-long enough and just so long
tomorrow will not be too late
worms are the words but joy’s the voice
down shall go which and up come who
breasts will be breasts and thighs will be thighs
deeds cannot dream what dreams can do
-time is a tree (this life one leaf)
but love is the sky and i am for you
just so long and long enough
“dive for dreams” by e.e cummings
dive for dreams
or a slogan may topple you
(trees are their roots
and wind is wind)
trust your heart
if the seas catch fire
(and live by love
though the stars walk backward)
honour the past
but welcome the future
(and dance your death
away at this wedding)
never mind a world
with its villains or heroes
(for god likes girls
and tomorrow and the earth)
happy reading!
cover photo belongs to me from an exhibition at the Bechtler