Official Web Site of Laura Treacy Bentley
Author of Lake Effect
Open Mic Blog
Most Memorable Line?
| Posted on April 5, 2010 at 10:50 AM |
To celebrate National Poetry Month 2010 post the best line or phrase from a contemporary poem that you think will be remembered a hundred years from now. The poet may be published or unpublished, young or old.
* Update *
Listen to Maria Shriver, journalist and First Lady of California, read her favorite poem by Mary Oliver. Others have contributed clips of their favorites, too.
Maria invites everyone to share a virtual reading on this site. I did. :)How about you?
http://www.womensconference.org/celebrate-national-poetry-month/
Categories: None
Post a Comment
Oops!
The words you entered did not match the given text. Please try again.
17 Comments
Thanks so much, Ian! It's funny how it all seemed to come together.
I'll look for that Fargo speech on youtube.
I'll look for that Fargo speech on youtube.
Man, Laura and Jennifer's video looks and sounds amazing. You guys did a great job. That is one smooth production.
I read this film critic once who described the concluding speech to the Coen brothers' Fargo as poetry.
I'm having trouble posting the link, but if you google "fargo beautiful day youtube," it's the first video link that pops up.
I read this film critic once who described the concluding speech to the Coen brothers' Fargo as poetry.
I'm having trouble posting the link, but if you google "fargo beautiful day youtube," it's the first video link that pops up.
I've added an update to this topic (scroll to the original posting) about Maria Shriver's appeal for people to read their favorite poem online. She shares her favorite by Mary Oliver. The link is provided.
My good friend Jennifer Sias talked me into sharing my favorite poem, too, and I'm glad that I did--it's my youtube debut
Thanks for all your work filming and editing this, Jennifer!
My good friend Jennifer Sias talked me into sharing my favorite poem, too, and I'm glad that I did--it's my youtube debut
Thanks for all your work filming and editing this, Jennifer!
Reply
Phyllis Wilson Moore
09:40 PM on April 22, 2010
"All men say 'What' to me, but I thought it a fashion-"
Emily Dickinson made this comment in a letter and it is so true for many of us.
Emily Dickinson made this comment in a letter and it is so true for many of us.
The way we are living,
Timorous or bold
will have been our life.
- Seamus Heaney, Elegy
Timorous or bold
will have been our life.
- Seamus Heaney, Elegy
Reply
Eddy
09:13 AM on April 08, 2010
from Maggie Anderson's poem, "Long Story"
I'll say it as the children spoke it,
in the flat voice of my people:
down in Boone County, they sealed up
forty miners in a fire. The men who had come
to help tried and tried to get down to them
but it was a big fire and there was danger,
so they had to turn around
and shovel them back in. All night long
they stood outside with useless picks and axes
in their hands, just staring at the drift mouth.
Here's the thing: what the sound must have been,
all those fire trucks and ambulances, and the sirens,
and the women screaming out
the names of their buried ones, who must have
called back up to them from deep inside
the burning mountain, right up to the end.
I'll say it as the children spoke it,
in the flat voice of my people:
down in Boone County, they sealed up
forty miners in a fire. The men who had come
to help tried and tried to get down to them
but it was a big fire and there was danger,
so they had to turn around
and shovel them back in. All night long
they stood outside with useless picks and axes
in their hands, just staring at the drift mouth.
Here's the thing: what the sound must have been,
all those fire trucks and ambulances, and the sirens,
and the women screaming out
the names of their buried ones, who must have
called back up to them from deep inside
the burning mountain, right up to the end.
Reply
Robert West
10:35 PM on April 07, 2010
And there's this:
"I believe in my / Abandonment, since it is what I have." -- Geoffrey Hill, the end of part 6 of "Funeral Music," from _King Log_ (1968). Does 1968 still count as contemporary? Hmm.
"I believe in my / Abandonment, since it is what I have." -- Geoffrey Hill, the end of part 6 of "Funeral Music," from _King Log_ (1968). Does 1968 still count as contemporary? Hmm.
Reply
Stendhal
09:12 AM on April 06, 2010
Have you ever read any Okot p'Bitek? He is a Ugandan poet who has some great lines about white women looking like sickly birds when compared to the beauty of his native women? I can't recall any lines in particular...
So many great lines!
Another poet who captures my imagination is Naomi Shihab Nye in the opening line of "The Rider."
A boy told me
if he roller-skated fast enough
his loneliness couldn't catch up to him,
the best reason I ever heard
for trying to be a champion.
Another poet who captures my imagination is Naomi Shihab Nye in the opening line of "The Rider."
A boy told me
if he roller-skated fast enough
his loneliness couldn't catch up to him,
the best reason I ever heard
for trying to be a champion.
Reply
Stendhal
12:32 AM on April 06, 2010
Nice! Heaney is great. I had a college professor whose initials are SH and she introduced me to his work. Coincidence? I think not.
Reply
Stendhal
12:29 AM on April 06, 2010
But is it in your concience
that you're after another glimpse
of the madman across the water?
(Bernie Taupin)
that you're after another glimpse
of the madman across the water?
(Bernie Taupin)
Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.
~Wendell Berry~ "How to Be a Poet" (the closing stanza)
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.
~Wendell Berry~ "How to Be a Poet" (the closing stanza)
Reply
Robert West
03:06 PM on April 05, 2010
"I rhyme / To see myself, to set the darkness echoing."
--Seamus Heaney, the conclusion of "Personal Helicon." From _Death of a Naturalist_ (1966).
--Seamus Heaney, the conclusion of "Personal Helicon." From _Death of a Naturalist_ (1966).
And now the baby lurches huge beside
the game, its globe-like head bobbing, pushing
to their huddle. A blunt knee covers Jail;
one hand like a spatula flips a tiny,
gabled house. Another like Godzilla
smashes GO, , and still the baby keeps
on coming...
Lynnell Edwards: The Baby Plays Monopoly
What Comes Down to Us 25 Contemporary Poets, edited by Jeff Worley.
the game, its globe-like head bobbing, pushing
to their huddle. A blunt knee covers Jail;
one hand like a spatula flips a tiny,
gabled house. Another like Godzilla
smashes GO, , and still the baby keeps
on coming...
Lynnell Edwards: The Baby Plays Monopoly
What Comes Down to Us 25 Contemporary Poets, edited by Jeff Worley.
How We Became Cosmic Possums
(Suburban Appalachian Baby Boomers)
Caught between Country Club and 4-H,
Neither shrimp nor crawdad,
Neither hip nor hillbilly,
Neither feedsack nor cashmere.
~ JANE HICKS
(Suburban Appalachian Baby Boomers)
Caught between Country Club and 4-H,
Neither shrimp nor crawdad,
Neither hip nor hillbilly,
Neither feedsack nor cashmere.
~ JANE HICKS
Never mind.
The self is the least of it.
Let our scars fall in love.
-- Galway Kinnell
from "Dear Stranger, Extant in Memory by the Blue Juniata,"
THE BOOK OF NIGHTMARES, Houghton Mifflin, NY, 1971
The self is the least of it.
Let our scars fall in love.
-- Galway Kinnell
from "Dear Stranger, Extant in Memory by the Blue Juniata,"
THE BOOK OF NIGHTMARES, Houghton Mifflin, NY, 1971
Visit my blog OPEN MIC. Add your comments/thoughts about writers & writing, favorite links, quotes, & any writer news under BOOK & WRITER BUZZ.
Recent Blog Entries
13 comments
0 comments
2 comments
0 comments
Follow me on Twitter
Oops!
Oops, you forgot something.