Wednesday, March 01, 2006

OTHER THINGS


Today is the birthday of Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Wilbur, born in NYC in 1921. Of the major poets of his generation he is one of the last still living and writing. Today is also the birthday of poets Robert Lowell and Robert Haas. Hass once said: "Everyone ... wants to say in their own terms what it means to be alive.... Take time to write. You can do your life's work in half an hour a day."

Here's one of Wilber's, called ELSEWHERE

The delectable names of harsh places:
Cilicia Aspera, Estremadura.
In that smooth wave of cello-sound, Mojave,
We hear no ill of brittle parch and glare.

So late October's pasture-fringe,
With aster-blur and ferns of toasted gold,
Invites to barrens where the crop to come
Is stone prized upward by the deepening freeze.

Speechless and cold the stars arise
On the small garden where we have dominion.
Yet in three tongues we speak of Taurus' name
And of Aldebaran and the Hyades,

Recalling what at best we know,
That there is beauty bleak and far from ours,
Great reaches where the Lord's delighting mind,
Though not inhuman, ponders other things.

7 comments:

slickdpdx said...

Another good one. Where did you find that crazy illustration?!

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

Crazy? What did you think of the winking flapper?

slickdpdx said...

Crazy is not always bad! I loved the illustration...but she doesn't wink on the blog! If I knew how to put the pictures up that way I would tell you, but I don't :(

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

Gee, she winks and the smoke curls up on mine!? Why not on yours???

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

You were looking at THE SECOND VISIT, right? Down a ways....

slickdpdx said...

Oh ya. That one was slick! I thought you meant this one.

slickdpdx said...

I think i will post some lit soon. I recently bought a collection of Ted Hughes poems. Good stuff.