The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Sun 11/2/2008)

[RetroLounge]

A Litany

I remember him falling beside me,
the dark stain already seeping across his parka hood.
I remember screaming and running the half mile to our house.
I remember hiding in my room.
I remember that it was hard to breathe
and that I kept the door shut in terror that someone would enter.
I remember pressing my knuckles into my eyes.
I remember looking out the window once
at where an ambulance had backed up
over the lawn to the front door.
I remember someone hung from a tree near the barn
the deer we'd killed just before I shot my brother.
I remember toward evening someone came with soup.
I slurped it down, unable to look up.
In the bowl, among the vegetable chunks,
pale shapes of the alphabet bobbed at random
or lay in the shallow spoon.

Gregory Orr

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

:hi:

RL

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. sort of hits you right in the pit of your stomach, doesn't it...

did me any way.

Happy Sunday, Retro :donut: :hi:

[RetroLounge]

7. Oh yeah, tragic stuff...

:hi:

RL

[Lyric]

2. We studied some of his poetry last semester.

He wrote quite a few poems about his brother's death--apparently this accident happened when he was only twelve years old. The one I loved best was titled, "Gathering the Bones Together."

:hug:

[RetroLounge]

8. Intense stuff...

I was reading that he believes poetry is good 'therapy' but only if it's good poetry too...

:hug:

RL

[Chorophyll]

3. Retro!

I foisted this poem on my students a couple of weeks ago. They're prose-writers, but I had them write a piece in which every sentence begins with "I remember." Not surprisingly, they dredged up some dark stuff.

I believe that the narrator here finds his future redemption in the alphabet letters. Some have disagreed with me. :)

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

5. I agree with your idea

The letters to me represented his future poetry...

:hi:

RL

[lizziegrace]

4. wow...

x(

[RetroLounge]

9. Yeah...

:(

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. My dear Retro...

Wow, this one really hurts. But it's beautiful at the same time...

It's a great idea for an exercise! I may try this myself, once I have time to write again...

Thanks for the great inspiration!

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

10. ...

:hi:

RL