2nd Annual St Brigid Bloggers Poetry

Root Down is hosting  the tradition that Reya started last year. It  was lovely. There was poetry everywhere online. Here are the specs:

WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading
WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2007
WHERE: Your blog
WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day
HOW: Select a poem you like - by a favorite poet or one of your own - to post February 2nd.

RSVP: If you plan to publish, feel free to leave a comment and link on this post. Last year Reya put out the call and there was more poetry in cyberspace than she could keep track of. So, link to whoever you hear about this from and a mighty web of poetry will be spun.

Feel free to pass this invitation on to any and all bloggers.

And my contribution:

                                    Believing In Iron

                                                          by Yusef Komunyakaa

The hills my brothers & I created
Never balanced, & it took years

To discover how the world worked.

We could look at a tree of blackbirds
& tell you how many were there,
But with the scrap dealer
Our math was always off.
Weeks of lifting & grunting
Never added up to much,
But we couldn't stop

Believing in iron.
Abandoned trucks & cars
Were held to the ground
By thick, nostalgic fingers of vines
Strong as a dozen sharecroppers.
We'd return with our wheelbarrow
Groaning under a new load,
Yet tiger lilies lived better
In their languid, August domain.
Among paper & Coke bottles
Foundry smoke erased sunsets,
& we couldn't believe iron

Left men bent so close to the earth

As if the ore under their breath
Weighed down the gray sky.
Sometimes I dreamt how our hills
Washed into a sea of metal,
How it all became an anchor
For a warship or bomber
Out over trees with blooms
Too red to look at.

And there must be knitting content:

Winding Wool

by Robert Service

She'd bring to me a skein of wool 

And beg me to hold out my hands; 

so on my pipe I cease to pull 

And watch her twine the shining strands

Into a ball so snug and neat, 

Perchance a pair of socks to knit

To comfort my unworthy feet, 

Or pullover my girth to fit. 

As to the winding I would sway, 

A poem in my head would sing,

And I would watch in dreamy way

The bright yarn swiftly slendering.

The best I liked were coloured strands

I let my pensive pipe grow cool . . .

Two active and two passive hands,

So busy winding shining wool. 

Alas! Two of those hands are cold,

And in these days of wrath and wrong,

I am so wearyful and old, 

I wonder if I've lived too long.

So in my loneliness I sit 

And dream of sweet domestic rule . . .

When gentle women used to knit,

And men were happy winding wool.

Comments

[Anne]

I love love love the Robert Service. Thank you.

[Chris]

Both were lovely, but I particularly liked Winding Wool!

[Aven]

Both lovely -- but I'd never seen the Service one before, which sort of surprises me given its knitting content. Beautiful but sad. Thanks!

[Helen]

I love that Winding Wool poem!
I'll try to blog a poem this evening... but there's so little time left!

[melanie]

I posted here:
http://teareads.blogspot.com/2007/02/2nd-annual-st-brigid-bloggers-silent.html

The poem by Robert Service is wondereful!

[Amanda Cathleen]

great poems girl, love the last one ; )

[Charity]

I love them both, but of course the Service one is special. :0)

[Brigitte]

I love the Winding Wool!

Great choices!

[rhelynn]

Beautiful poems - the first reminded me of the taconite hills in Minnesota's Iron Range, where I grew up. The second one is so sweet (and knitting!) I love these lines: 'The best I liked were coloured strands - I let my pensive pipe grow cool . . . Two active and two passive hands, - So busy winding shining wool. '

[Becky]

I love the Service poem. I've never heard it before, either. Thanks!

[deborah oak]

thank you. both poems touch me...and loving following the links to all the wonderful new people and sites in blogosphere!!

[Monika]

Thanks Carrie! I don't get poetry most of the time, but I know if I like a poem or not. I don't have a favorite poem either, but I think I really would love to have one.

[mrspao]

Those are great poems! I love the Robert Service one in particular!