You can't order a poem like you order a taco.
Walk up to the counter, say, "I'll take two"
and expect it to be handed back to you
on a shiny plate.
Still, I like your spirit.
Anyone who says, "Here's my address,
write me a poem," deserves something in reply.
So I'll tell you a secret instead:
poems hide. In the bottoms of our shoes,
they are sleeping. They are the shadows
drifting across our ceilings the moment
before we wake up. What we have to do
is live in a way that lets us find them.
Once I knew a man who gave his wife
two skunks for a valentine.
He couldn't understand why she was crying.
"I thought they had such beautiful eyes."
And he was serious. He was a serious man
who lived in a serious way. Nothing was ugly
just because the world said so. He really
liked those skunks. So, he reinvented them
as valentines and they became beautiful.
At least, to him. And the poems that had been hiding
in the eyes of the skunks for centuries
crawled out and curled up at his feet.
Maybe if we reinvent whatever our lives give us
we find poems. Check your garage, the odd sock
in your drawer, the person you almost like, but not quite.
And let me know.
- Naomi Shihab Nye
in The Red Suitcase, Brockport, NY: BOA Editions, 1994.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Valentine for Ernest Mann
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I love the line,"Nothing was ugly just because the world said so." I love this poem and the idea of finding beauty and poetry in the things that most people might ignore or find unappealing. I am so excited that Naomi is going to be at Moses Brown! The other line that stands out for me and gives me goosebumps is..."And the poems that had been hiding in the eyes of the skunks for centuries crawled out and curled up at his feet." Wow!! Sigh!!
ReplyDeleteThanks you Dr. Cook!!
I love:
ReplyDelete"Once I knew a man who gave his wife
two skunks for a valentine.
He couldn't understand why she was crying.
"I thought they had such beautiful eyes."
And he was serious"
because that's exactly the type of person I am - I give people the strangest things because I find such meaning in them and usually the receiver doesn't understand :(
But anyway, this poem is beautiful - every line is fantastic!
It just goes to show you that people think so differently about beauty. I have taken a great deal of flack for thinking that seagulls are beautiful creatures instead of "the rats of the sky" so I understand this poem on a personal level,(not to mention that there are a great deal of skunks at the beach and they really do have beautiful eyes because I had a stare down with one once).
ReplyDeleteKathryn, keep giving strange things to people because that is what makes you uniquely you. I look forward to your funny posts on FB.
Love this poem!!
"They are the shadows
ReplyDeletedrifting across our ceilings the moment
before we wake up. What we have to do
is live in a way that lets us find them."
On Thursday morning, at 1:30, I woke up suddenly because I had an idea for a poem. I had to write it down before I forgot what it was. For the next hour and a half, I wrote down more ideas as they came to me. If I didn't have my notebook, I don't know where those ideas might have ended up.
From Lane's suggestion, and from the practice of some professors at RIC, I would want my students to keep a notebook where they can write down poems, stories, and thoughts that occur to them. I want them to keep their minds open, as the speaker implores readers to do, and keep their creative and critical ideas alive.
What a way to start a Sunday! I LOVE what the four of you have written here and how it is so natural to you to respond to a poem with your hearts and your heads. Laura--I hope to encourage all of you to have your students keep writers' notebooks as vessels for all sorts of ideas that come to us at 1:30am. I love, love, love this poem, and I hope some of you consider heading out to see Naomi Shihab Nye when she comes to Moses Brown in March. Inspiring!
ReplyDelete