Day 16 – Favorite poem or collection of poetry
Forgive my overzealous quoting, but I simply couldn’t limit myself to naming just one poem. Truth be told, reading an entire poetry collection is something I should do much more these days. But I do consume individual poems quite a lot and here are just five of the many that have resonated with me through the years. I don’t actually own Richard Siken’s Crush, but that is something I intend to rectify very soon.
It calls the heart, this music, to a place
more intimate than home, than self, that face
aging in the hall mirror. This is not
music to age by — no sprightly gavotte
or orderly pavane, counting each beat,
confining motion to the pointed feet
– Rachmaninoff on the Mass Pike,
Rhina P. Espaillat
Had you entered that afternoon
you would have thought you saw a man
planting something in a boy’s palm,
a silver tear, a tiny flame.
– The Gift,
Li-Young Lee
Now you know: this is the place
where water insists on being ice,
where wind insists on breathlessness,
where the will of the cold is so strong
that even the stone’s desire for heat
is driven into the eye of night.
– The Last Poem About the Snow Queen,
Sandra M. Gilbert
Tila ako si Bidasari –
Patay sa araw, buhay sa gabi:
Naghihintay kay Sultan Mogindra
Na sa buhay ko’y ikaw;
Naghihintay ng maalat na halik
Na isisiil mo sa dagat na dibdib
Upang ibangon ako
Sa masasamyong panaginip.
– Tila Ako si Bidasari,
Ruth Elynia Mabanglo
Here is a map with your name for a capital,
here is an arrow to prove a point: we laugh
and it pits the world against us, we laugh,
and we’ve got nothing left to lose, and our hearts
turn red, and the river rises like a barn on fire.
– Saying Your Names,
Richard Siken
