RSSSwallows can die by it, if not live in the tomatoes–a poetry mash-up.
Apr 05
Since I started this little project a couple days late, today I’m going to share a few poets. Also, since I’m not sure of the legalities of posting poems in their entirety, I’m going to give you my favorite lines and then link you to the poem as a whole somewhere else.
G.C. Waldrep
He’s another recent discovery for me. I absolutely adore the way he plays with language, his phrasing, the simplicity he can use to achieve music:
“What is a high sound when a sparrow takes it. When breath snatches. A latch catches.” from What Is a Soprano
John Donne
I really only know one poem by John Donne, but it is my all time favorite poem. It’s hard for me to choose a poem, just as it is hard for me to choose one book, that is my most favorite. I love many all at once and new ones as they cross my path. But this poem is one I have loved since I first read it in a college English class. I have carried it around in my head ever since and it has been posted on my bulletin board for years. I love it for its romance, for its clarity.
And if unfit for tombs and hearse
Our legend be, it will be fit for verse
Allen Ginsberg
An iconic poet I feel in love with a few years ago. First, I discovered his poem “A Supermarket in California,” which is, if not tied with “The Canonization,” a close second for my all-time favorite poem. Then I downloaded a CD of his readings and fell harder. I love the way he reads. These lines are my favorite; it’s that kind of imagery and play I wish I could achieve.
What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at
night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!
–and you, García Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?