The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Fri 7/7/06)

[RetroLounge]

Low and Delicious

—the fire, the sweet hell within,
The unknown want, the destiny of me.
—Walt Whitman


This morning, even the roses look morose,
More elegy than awe. And yet,
The sun holds up its end of the bargain, rays
Gliding the grass and the green thorns,
Midas with a clumsy touch, until
Everything we love grows stiff and cold.
But that's spring for you, late spring,
Like a man with no sense of humor
Making jokes, and the hand-me-down eye
Always sizing up the day
One season behind the evidence.
So charity begins in misgiving, or ought to;
So faith and hope have their own ambitions,
Sucking up to the absolute: the eternal
Spawned by desperation, sweet nothings
Whelped out of fear. Or perhaps,
With an ear for anger, a nose for
The rituals of rot, I'm just too good
At writing the strophes and catastrophe,
Scriptures in a pickled idiom
For the slow torment of the middle class,
When all I really want is
A plate of bacon in a fracas of eggs
At some little diner in Hinckley, Ohio,
Where every year, before the blood warms,
The buzzards come home to roost.

Elton Glaser

********************

RL

If you have a request for a certain Poet, post their name in the thread and I will find a poem by them and post it...

if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[wildhorses]

1. two poems for the price of one? cool

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

3. It's all one poem

Glaser quotes Whitman...

:hi:

RL

[wildhorses]

4. thanks for the schooling...

:blush:

[RetroLounge]

7. No blushing...

In the poem, it is indented and obvious, but for some reason the indents go away when I post the poem, so it is harder to tell...

:hi:

RL

[Callalily]

2. Nice choices RL

I love the Whitman one, short yet animated.

As far as the Glaser poem, quite vivid.

Midas with a clumsy touch, until
Everything we love grows stiff and cold.
But that's spring for you, late spring,

Yes, Glaser certainly captures images with his strict choice of words. Very niiiice.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

6. LOL--I love the smilie.

:rofl:

[MissMillie]

5. I like that one

:thumbsup:

[Phillycat]

8. I am putting in a request for Adrienne Rich

:thumbsup: I love these threads.

[RetroLounge]

9. Thanks, I'll dig one up...

Good choice!

:hi:

RL