Half Starts and Trail Offs

Making language beautiful.

Apr 04

MeredithPoetry, Writing 1 Comment

It’s National Poetry Month. When I told Avelino that, he congratulated me. I looked at him, rather perplexed, and he responded “They’re recognizing what you do.”

I write poetry; I have for something like 6 years now. I even call myself a poet sometime, but when April rolls around, I don’t think of myself, my work, being celebrated. Now, thanks to Ave, I am. And in honor of that, I’m going to make a little goal for myself: every day, I’m going to share my favorite lines of poetry. I might even share some of my own poetry.

Vera Pavlova
I’ve only recently discovered Vera Pavlova, but her ability to create something so forceful in such a small space is amazing to me. On of my favorites:

If there is something to desire,
there will be something to regret.
If there is something to regret,
there will be something to recall.
If there is something to recall,
there was nothing to regret.
If there was nothing to regret,
there was nothing to desire.

You can read a few more of her poems over at the New Yorker.

And if you’re looking for more poetry, visit www.poets.org and www.poetryfoundation.org.