Monday, January 23, 2012

Poetry Monday

As part of the Reading blog comment challenge, I've been visiting (and commenting on) a lot of blogs, and one of the trends I've noticed is a regular day-of-the-week post on a particular topic.  I like the idea, so I've decided to begin a Poetry Monday series in which I reprint something I've come across in the previous week that I've liked.  This means I've got to read some poetry the week before, which is always a worthwhile way to spend time, and good for me as a writer too since I'm working on a book, and reading poetry is the best way to stimulate writing it - it gets your mind in the right observant groove. For this first blog, I thought I'd feature a poem I love so much for all its terrible beauty, I've committed it to memory.  It's the great Dorothy Porter's "III" from her "Comets" series in Other Worlds (Picador, 2001). What have you read that you've loved so much it's stayed with you, moving through your skin into the very fabric of you you are?

What voice of dirty ice
is talking in my head?

I can't watch the sky
without ringing Heaven.

My heart ticking as slowly
as poison
over its hissing dial tone.

Pick up, Heaven.
Please pick up.

It's me.

4 comments:

  1. I can see why this poem stays in memory. Thank you for sharing. I look forward to your new Monday feature.

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  2. Terrible beauty indeed. I am trying to memorize 10 poems this year, mind if this is one of them?

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  3. I love this as a regular post! I am a big fan of poetry- both reading it and writing it. It will be fun to see what you post each week. I enjoyed this week. So many poems stay with me- but right now I have "After a While" in my mind.

    ~Jess
    http://thesecretdmsfilesoffairdaymorrow.blogspot.com/

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  4. Thanks for introducing me to this poem, Maggie. Love it. Really looking forward to Poetry Monday. Never take the time to think about poetry much and then when I do, I realize how much I miss it.

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