This is my 100th post! And for this milestone, I have decided to enjoy myself. I found audio recordings of my favorite poem, The Rain by Robert Creeley. The first is of a poetry reading done by Creeley, but it ends funnily, so I have included a second, which may be by Creeley too, it doesn't indicate the speaker.
Just ♥. Love to the poet, the poem, and to POETRY.
Showing posts with label Robert Creeley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert Creeley. Show all posts
Monday, December 7, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Water Music (Robert Creeley)
I like the poet, so I picked a new poem of his at random. And, ha, what is with poets telling me that poems don't have meaning or rather that they don't have to. I don't think so. Maybe poems don't have to have a grand idea at their heart, but I do not agree with the claim that words mean nothing, which is what this poem is trying to do. It's just telling me that words sound good, like "water music", but that they do not have to hold greater importance than that.
But, you know, bosh! To say that words never mean anything is ridiculously unworldly. Words and images contain a great deal. Even if that 'deal' is simply the eating of lunch, I don't see how that statement is a zero-sum. It still means something. From the "nothing" in this poem I learn that words are like water. They bounce about through water making music. I learn that words are always on the search for a place to stop, rest, and replenish. That words are searching, and that through their searching they make "beautiful music."
Favorite line: "off the boats,/birds, leaves."
But, you know, bosh! To say that words never mean anything is ridiculously unworldly. Words and images contain a great deal. Even if that 'deal' is simply the eating of lunch, I don't see how that statement is a zero-sum. It still means something. From the "nothing" in this poem I learn that words are like water. They bounce about through water making music. I learn that words are always on the search for a place to stop, rest, and replenish. That words are searching, and that through their searching they make "beautiful music."
Favorite line: "off the boats,/birds, leaves."
Monday, August 17, 2009
The Rain (Robert Creeley)
This poem is my favorite poem. I love the way it sounds. I love what it means to me.
I first read it in a poetry anthology I received in 9th grade that really ignited a love of poetry in me. Each poem was prefaced with a comment from a random person, not an academic, about why the subsequent poem was their favorite poem. For this poem's preface, the woman said that the first part was full of stress and jumbled meaning and that she only began to breath again once the lines "Love, if you love me..." started.
I think it was the first time I had ever heard that lines could be jumbled, unclear and yet still loved. That was very freeing, as a reader of poetry. It didn't much matter if I understood every single line or what every single word was doing there. It was the overall picture they created for me that mattered. It was the way they felt.
This poem feels, for me, as it did for the woman who chose it for that anthology, hectic at first, then calm and directed. I see it as this person sitting inside, perhaps seated by a window, hearing a rainstorm. At first, all N can think of is anxiety-filled: "What am I to myself". The way that Creeley writes these lines is hectic-making. They are hard to read. My breath stumbles over itself. But then it all brakes. The cure to this endless questioning, of finding oneself, is for N's love to come close.
At the end, N tells the love to "Be wet/with a decent happiness." That is, N tells the love to be like rain, the impetus for all the questions, but to also have a decent happiness--to have a calmness, a non-gleeful happiness. I think happiness like that is the same as to be contentedly secure. So, N is telling the love to be questioning, but to not get all worked up or anxious, to be calm with a satisfied happiness. The poem is about love as much as it is about rain and questions of self.
Favorite line: "Love, if you love me,/lie next to me."
I first read it in a poetry anthology I received in 9th grade that really ignited a love of poetry in me. Each poem was prefaced with a comment from a random person, not an academic, about why the subsequent poem was their favorite poem. For this poem's preface, the woman said that the first part was full of stress and jumbled meaning and that she only began to breath again once the lines "Love, if you love me..." started.
I think it was the first time I had ever heard that lines could be jumbled, unclear and yet still loved. That was very freeing, as a reader of poetry. It didn't much matter if I understood every single line or what every single word was doing there. It was the overall picture they created for me that mattered. It was the way they felt.
This poem feels, for me, as it did for the woman who chose it for that anthology, hectic at first, then calm and directed. I see it as this person sitting inside, perhaps seated by a window, hearing a rainstorm. At first, all N can think of is anxiety-filled: "What am I to myself". The way that Creeley writes these lines is hectic-making. They are hard to read. My breath stumbles over itself. But then it all brakes. The cure to this endless questioning, of finding oneself, is for N's love to come close.
At the end, N tells the love to "Be wet/with a decent happiness." That is, N tells the love to be like rain, the impetus for all the questions, but to also have a decent happiness--to have a calmness, a non-gleeful happiness. I think happiness like that is the same as to be contentedly secure. So, N is telling the love to be questioning, but to not get all worked up or anxious, to be calm with a satisfied happiness. The poem is about love as much as it is about rain and questions of self.
Favorite line: "Love, if you love me,/lie next to me."
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