Saturday, April 29, 2006

Sarah's Poetry Corner

At 15 I had a thing for sonnets. Memorized a number of them. The usual...
Let me not to the marriage of true minds.....
When in disgrace with fortune and mens eyes...
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day.....

In case you are wondering, yes, I can still say them all.
I can also still say "Marco Comes Late" by Dr. Seuss, which I memorized in 6th grade for a competition.

I can say it with feeling.

Now- my taste runs to Old Poetry. Christina Rossetti, William Blake, the Bard, George MacDonald, Keats, Byron, you know the type. I would browse through Barnes and Noble (as we called it in the Pre-Children days, now it's Barnes and NoBooks. Thank you Emma.) and just be stumped. I'd read them all, and there were no new old poets being discovered. So I kinda let it fall by the wayside. Bearing children can have that effect.

But then.

Bill and I were in Somewhere, Georgia (there's a big mall there, oh Duluth) for our anniversary, and found this book.

Good Poems
selected and introduced by Garrison Keillor.

I am a GK fan. He has some killer short stories. Like snort-anything-you-have-just-consumed-out-of-your-nose funny. I recommend "Zeus the Lutheran."
This book so accurately titled-- (as you can see from my short story rec. the man has quite a title-choosing knack.)
We read it through dinner.
We read it in the jaccuzzi. (loudly)
We read it in the morning, and on the way home.
We laughed, we cried.
I discovered some things.
(a) I still like poetry. (b) There are some fantastic modern authors who actually punctuate and capitalize things. (c) Bill's a good reader. I point, and he reads. (d) I have to memorize something in order to get it right.

Here's the one I memorized- my favorite poem:

The Orange
by Wendy Cope

At lunchtime I bought a huge orange-
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave-
They got quarters and I had a half.

And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It's new.

The rest of my day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I'm glad I exist.

15 comments:

Michelle W. said...

Sarah, I'm snapping my fingers! lol. Love it! You are so deep... yet you are still my sayfiddy...

Missy said...

my extent of memorized poetry is shel silverstein's "I'm being eaten by a boa constrictor"... and that was for a 3rd grade competition :)

you are just the coolest :)

Anonymous said...

I love that poem - I think you should scrap it.

I memorized The Lady of Shallot in 8th grade because Anne Shirley read it. And I wanted to be like Anne. I still know parts of it.

caroline said...

i love it

Goody said...

That does a mama's heart good. I wholeheartedly agree. Neena would be proud! I am happy the you continue to memorize dearie!

Goody said...

That, not the!

Jocelyn said...

sarah
i love you and i'm glad you exist

kellymccaleb said...

you have no idea how much that poem just inspired me. I'm a reader but have never been much for poetry..and just the other day I checked out a poetry book from the library for a new thing for my senses. This post just totally inspired me to really jump in with both feet. wow this was a long comment! Kelly

Jada's Gigi said...

you memorized sonnets?!?! Wow, I'm impressed...of course you married a literature kinda guy...so he could read to you..lol
Were you in Duluth recently?
I only memorize songs...its gotta sing..:)

staceykingman said...

well, just cool. :)

Sarah said...

The anniversary mentioned was many moons ago when we lived in GA!
Sorry about that!!!
I've had the book for a long time, and still love it!

Anja, I have actually scrapped the poem!!! :)

Chares Square Co-op said...

i agree w/ missy.
you are COOL.
i'm glad you found this book and shared.
*almost* inspires me to dig for my lit books from whence i first fell in love w/ poetry.
but they're in my storage locker.
tortured by sarah.
hmph.
she's still cool tho.

e said...

yeah.
you are cool.
xe

Anonymous said...

Sarah!!
i wuv you

Helen Louise said...

Wow, I adore that poem. I like your blog too :) Thanks for commenting on my G&S parody, clearly you have good taste :)