Friday, April 03, 2009

Poetry Friday

Some flowers from my garden for you!

April is National Poetry Month, and I'm going to be using Fridays to share some poems. Probably on other days, too. Here are a few for you. It's rainy here today, but the flowers love it!

Beloved, Let Us Once More Praise The Rain
by Conrad Aiken

Beloved, let us once more praise the rain.
Let us discover some new alphabet,
For this, the often praised; and be ourselves,
The rain, the chickweed, and the burdock leaf,
The green-white privet flower, the spotted stone,
And all that welcomes the rain; the sparrow too,—
Who watches with a hard eye from seclusion,
Beneath the elm-tree bough, till rain is done.
There is an oriole who, upside down,
Hangs at his nest, and flicks an orange wing,—
Under a tree as dead and still as lead;
There is a single leaf, in all this heaven
Of leaves, which rain has loosened from its twig:
The stem breaks, and it falls, but it is caught
Upon a sister leaf, and thus she hangs;
There is an acorn cup, beside a mushroom
Which catches three drops from the stooping cloud.
The timid bee goes back to the hive; the fly
Under the broad leaf of the hollyhock
Perpends stupid with cold; the raindark snail
Surveys the wet world from a watery stone...
And still the syllables of water whisper:
The wheel of cloud whirs slowly: while we wait
In the dark room; and in your heart I find
One silver raindrop,—on a hawthorn leaf,—
Orion in a cobweb, and the World.


Rain by Shel Silverstein

I opened my eyes
And looked up at the rain,
And it dripped in my head
And flowed into my brain,
And all that I hear as I lie in my bed
Is the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head.

I step very softly,
I walk very slow,
I can't do a handstand--
I might overflow,
So pardon the wild crazy thing I just said--
I'm just not the same since there's rain in my head.

6 comments:

Rosemary said...

Fun poetry! Particularly enjoyed the second one.

BTW, congrats... you're the winner of our contest week #5, please contact me with your mailing address so we can send you your prize!
Nancy

Anonymous said...

I like the poem by Shel Silverstein...maybe because its beat is similar to many childrens books that I read these days! :)
Keri

Teresa's New Life said...

Been gone a few days- so much to catch up on. The party looked to be a great success.
Vegans rejoyce! Those menu items sound pretty good, especially the mushooms on toast.
Love the poetry today. I love poetry so much, but never take the time to get into it that often so thank you for sharing it here. Toodle~

Martha said...

thanks for sharing poetry. My favorite was the second one. I have several poetry books that I haven't read in a long time -- your post reminded me.

Marilyn Miller said...

I love Shel Silverstein. Grape hyacinths and daffodils. I have those in my garden too.

Philigry said...

oh, i love poetry. I used to write poetry all the time.
such sweet pictures of your flowers too. i love those.