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Thread: Poetry books you love

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    rio's Avatar
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    Poetry books you love

    I am just reading Rupi Kaur's newest, "home body" and I need to talk about it! She is such a talent and the little illustrations bring such life to them. The progression of her books are wonderful too. I think "milk and honey" chapters resonated with me most (hurting, loving, breaking, healing) but the opening of "home body" ("i am in the darkest room of my life") is so powerful.

    Another wonderful collection in a similar style to Rupi's is "whisky words & a shovel I" by r.h. Sin.

    "Swimming Lessons" by Lili Reinhart is high on my list to read too, I had a quick flick through in the bookstore and there were some really beautiful sentences in there.

    Lastly, I have a book of E.E Cummings poetry which I believe there are a few editions of and may be country dependent, but his work is brilliant too. He is said to have written almost 3,000 poems! I recommend looking up his "let it go" and "i carry your heart" poems. Fun fact, I have a tattoo of the final line of "let it go" ("let all go dear so comes love").

    Please share your favourite poets and their books!

    (you need an account to see links)(you need an account to see links)

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    Menine's Avatar
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    There's a portuguese poet named Florbela Espanca.
    Her poetry is melancholic and beautiful, and there's one specific that touches me a lot. It was published in a book named Livro de Mágoas (meaning: Book of sorrow):

    Tédio
    Passo pálida e triste. Oiço dizer:
    “Que branca que ela é! Parece morta!”
    e eu que vou sonhando, vaga, absorta,
    não tenho um gesto, ou um olhar sequer ...

    Que diga o mundo e a gente o que quiser!
    – O que é que isso me faz? O que me importa? ...
    O frio que trago dentro gela e corta
    Tudo que é sonho e graça na mulher!

    O que é que me importa?! Essa tristeza
    É menos dor intensa que frieza,
    É um tédio profundo de viver!

    E é tudo sempre o mesmo, eternamente ...
    O mesmo lago plácido, dormente ...
    E os dias, sempre os mesmos, a correr ...

    --------

    The translation (it lost the rhymes but it kept the essence):

    Tedium

    I walk pale and sad. I hear:
    "How white she is! She looks dead!"
    And I am dreaming, vague, absorbed,
    I don't have a gesture, or even a look ...

    Let the world and the people say what they want!
    -What does that do to me? ... what do I care? ...
    The cold that I bring inside freezes and cuts
    Everything that is dream and grace in a woman!

    What does it matter to me?! This sadness
    It’s a less intense pain than coldness,
    It is a profound tedium to live!

    And it's all the same, forever ...
    The same placid lake, dormant...
    And the days, always the same, are always running ...

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    Goddammit's Avatar
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    I don't really read poetry but I read this when I was 14 and it's been my favorite poem ever since. It's by Longfellow

    The Reaper and the Flowers

    There is a Reaper, whose name is Death,
    And, with his sickle keen,
    He reaps the bearded grain at a breath,
    And the flowers that grow between.

    "Shall I have naught that is fair?" saith he;
    "Have naught but the bearded grain?
    Though the breath of these flowers is sweet to me,
    I will give them all back again."

    He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes,
    He kissed their drooping leaves;
    It was for the Lord of Paradise
    He bound them in his sheaves.

    "My Lord has need of these flowerets gay,"
    The Reaper said, and smiled;
    "Dear tokens of the earth are they,
    Where He was once a child.

    "They shall all bloom in fields of light,
    Transplanted by my care,
    And saints, upon their garments white,
    These sacred blossoms wear."

    And the mother gave, in tears and pain,
    The flowers she most did love;
    She knew she should find them all again
    In the fields of light above.

    Oh, not in cruelty, not in wrath,
    The Reaper came that day;
    'T was an angel visited the green earth,
    And took the flowers away.

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    carrottea's Avatar
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    Not 2 be basic, but I fucking love Richard Siken's work

    Scheherazade

    Tell me about the dream where we pull the bodies out of the lake
    and dress them in warm clothes again.
    How it was late, and no one could sleep, the horses running
    until they forget that they are horses.
    It’s not like a tree where the roots have to end somewhere,
    it’s more like a song on a policeman’s radio,
    how we rolled up the carpet so we could dance, and the days
    were bright red, and every time we kissed there was another apple
    to slice into pieces.
    Look at the light through the windowpane. That means it’s noon, that means
    we’re inconsolable.
    Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us.
    These, our bodies, possessed by light.
    Tell me we’ll never get used to it.



    And Mary Oliver

    The Kitten

    More amazed than anything
    I took the perfectly black
    stillborn kitten
    with the one large eye
    in the center of its small forehead
    from the house cat's bed
    and buried it in a field
    behind the house.

    I suppose I could have given it
    to a museum,
    I could have called the local
    newspaper.

    But instead I took it out into the field
    and opened the earth
    and put it back
    saying, it was real,
    saying, life is infinitely inventive,
    saying, what other amazements
    lie in the dark seed of the earth, yes,

    I think I did right to go out alone
    and give it back peacefully, and cover the place
    with the reckless blossoms of weeds.


    I'm a total sucker for prose poetry.

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