The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Wed 2/13/2008)

[RetroLounge]

The Writer

In her room at the prow of the house
Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,
My daughter is writing a story.

I pause in the stairwell, hearing
From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys
Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.

Young as she is, the stuff
Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:
I wish her a lucky passage.

But now it is she who pauses,
As if to reject my thought and its easy figure.
A stillness greatens, in which

The whole house seems to be thinking,
And then she is at it again with a bunched clamor
Of strokes, and again is silent.

I remember the dazed starling
Which was trapped in that very room, two years ago;
How we stole in, lifted a sash

And retreated, not to affright it;
And how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the door,
We watched the sleek, wild, dark

And iridescent creature
Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove
To the hard floor, or the desk-top,

And wait then, humped and bloody,
For the wits to try it again; and how our spirits
Rose when, suddenly sure,

It lifted off from a chair-back,
Beating a smooth course for the right window
And clearing the sill of the world.

It is always a matter, my darling,
Of life or death, as I had forgotten. I wish
What I wished you before, but harder.

Richard Wilbur

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

:hi:

RL

[xchrom]

1. happy birthday!

it was richard wilbur's translation of moliere's tartuffe that i used to get into school.

[Inchworm]

2. Thats a pretty story

Loved it.

Happy Birthday!

:hug:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. The title and I automatically thought of

~Writer The Missed Around Here~

love these lines:

"We watched the sleek, wild, dark

And iridescent creature
Batter against the brilliance,..."

Did I miss yesterday's poem from you?

:hi:

:donut:

[RetroLounge]

7. If you miss a poem, Check my journal

All my poem posts are there...

But be careful, there's over 2 years worth of daily poems in there.

You can spend an hour or two really easily...

:hi:

RL

[BarenakedLady]

4. That was lovely.

:thumbsup:

[BlueIris]

5. Mind-meld! (I was gonna use this for the poem threads in April.)

[RetroLounge]

6. GMTA

:hi:

RL