Today's poet

[freckle]

From Ruth Stone who died in November this year aged 96.

Curtains


Putting up new curtains,
other windows intrude.
As though it is that first winter in Cambridge
when you and I had just moved in.
Now cold borscht alone in a bare kitchen.

What does it mean if I say this years later?

Listen, last night
I am on a crying jag
with my landlord, Mr. Tempesta.
I sneaked in two cats.
He screams, "No pets! No pets!"
I become my Aunt Virginia,
proud but weak in the head.
I remember Anna Magnani.
I throw a few books. I shout.
He wipes his eyes and opens his hands.
OK OK keep the dirty animals
but no nails in the walls.
We cry together.
I am so nervous, he says.

I want to dig you up and say, look,
it's like the time, remember,
when I ran into our living room naked
to get rid of that fire inspector.

See what you miss by being dead?


Ruth Stone

absolutely beautiful evocation of loss and love, thanks alf

[Hes]

That's a perfect example of how poetry can say so so much in just a few lines.

From Ruth Stone who died in November this year aged 96.

Curtains


Putting up new curtains,
other windows intrude.
As though it is that first winter in Cambridge
when you and I had just moved in.
Now cold borscht alone in a bare kitchen.

What does it mean if I say this years later?

Listen, last night
I am on a crying jag
with my landlord, Mr. Tempesta.
I sneaked in two cats.
He screams, "No pets! No pets!"
I become my Aunt Virginia,
proud but weak in the head.
I remember Anna Magnani.
I throw a few books. I shout.
He wipes his eyes and opens his hands.
OK OK keep the dirty animals
but no nails in the walls.
We cry together.
I am so nervous, he says.

I want to dig you up and say, look,
it's like the time, remember,
when I ran into our living room naked
to get rid of that fire inspector.

See what you miss by being dead?


Ruth Stone

[OneOffPoet]

Aw this is just lovely and made me feel even more festive although I can relate to the "pesky needles" line!

lush to see original work back on here, nice one

Thank you to those that liked this and commented, always lovely to read when you're a nervous poet! Great use of the word lush Freckle, makes me smile as my wife's a Geordie so it's lingua franca in this house

I must say, my basic rhyming couplets are all very well, but Ruth Stone's Curtains is a proper poem, absolutely brilliant. I'd say that what 96 years of practice brings, but I dare say there's some lifelong talent in there. Thanks very much for posting it.

[Alf]

I picked up a chillblain on one of my toes a few weeks back though it has healed now fortunately. I didn't expect it and have never had one before so this poem has some resonance with me.

Lets look after our tootsies out there!


Frostbite


Less a nip than gnaw,
the way a goat,

tethered, will ruminate
a rope; the way

each in extremis tip
of ear and nose

unbuds, or snail-
like toe, curled

dreamily, lets
go too fat a foot,

cinching filament
and tendril, pinch

by stony pinch
until the pulse exhausts

and flickers down
to drowse and numb,

the sleep so close,
so old, so mild

inside the placid
scald

and hissing of the snow.


Hailey Leithauser

[Wheeze]

Truely impressed by this thread. Lets have a race. See if you can get to 15,000 posts/500,000 views before QAH thread hits 30,000/1 million!

My words tread as light
as the pattering feet
of a timid bog-trotting runner
in shiny new walshes

[Alf]

Truely impressed by this thread. Lets have a race. See if you can get to 15,000 posts/500,000 views before QAH thread hits 30,000/1 million!

My words tread as light
as the pattering feet
of a timid bog-trotting runner
in shiny new walshes

It must take its own sweet time Wheeze......each poem to be tasted, rolled round the tongue...savoured and swallowed...like a good claret

[Alf]

Truely impressed by this thread. Lets have a race. See if you can get to 15,000 posts/500,000 views before QAH thread hits 30,000/1 million!

My words tread as light
as the pattering feet
of a timid bog-trotting runner
in shiny new walshes

Nice poem by the way

[Wheeze]

My first attempt....ever! Is it anything like a Haiku? What are the rules for those?

[Alf]

My first attempt....ever! Is it anything like a Haiku? What are the rules for those?

No rules on this thread Wheeze, this is the home of free verse! I am sure our glorious leader freckle will confirm this

[freckle]

Truely impressed by this thread. Lets have a race. See if you can get to 15,000 posts/500,000 views before QAH thread hits 30,000/1 million!

My words tread as light
as the pattering feet
of a timid bog-trotting runner
in shiny new walshes

Very nice indeed wheeze i like the imagery ...strictly speaking traditional haiku consist of three phrases with a syllable count of 5, 7 and 5 respectively...however I am not one for rules myself and it is apparent that the thread welcomes verse of any type! in fact we sometimes positively encourage the breaking of rules...