11.21.2009

Syntax
by Maureen N. McLane

and if 
I were to say

I love you and 
I do love you

and I say it
now and again

and again
would you say

parataxis
would you see

the world revolves
anew

its axis
you

11.07.2009

poetry, poetry, poetry

I love poetry.  

That much is probably obvious if anyone ever takes the time to look through the archives of this little blog.  It's also obvious to all of my friends, as they all have had to sit down as I proclaim how much I love a poem before I read it to them. I just love the lilting language and powerful images and...well I could go on and on and on, but I won't.

One of my dear friends is getting married next summer and has asked me to not only read a poem at her wedding, but to choose it as well.  Yay! I love any chance to read lots and lots and lots of poetry.  

I did find a love poem that would be wonderful at a wedding, maybe not this wedding, but wonderful anyway.  Here, I'll share it with you!



Superbly Situated
by Robert Hershon

you politely ask me not to die and i promise not to
right from the beginning--a relationship based on 
good sense and thoughtfulness in little things

i would like to be loved for such simple attainments
as breathing regularly and not falling down too often
or because my eyes are brown or my father left-handed

and to be on the safe side i wouldn't mind if somehow
i became entangled in your perception of admirable objects
so you might say to yourself: i have recently noticed

how superbly situated the empire state building is 
how it looms up suddenly behind cemeteries and rivers
so far away you could touch it--therefore i love you

part of me fears that some moron is already plotting
to tear down the empire state building and replace it
with a block of staten island mother/daughter houses

just as a part of me fears that if you love me for my cleanliness
i will grow filthy if you admire my elegant clothes
i'll start wearing shirts with sailboats on them

but i have decided to become a public beach an opera house
a regularly scheduled flight--something that can't help being
in the right place at the right time--come take your seat

we'll raise the curtain fill the house start the engines
fly off into the sunrise, the spire of the empire state
the last sight on the horizon as the earth begins to curve