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Ten thousand cicadas

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  • on The Oven Bird by Robert Frost, on August 22
    Sometimes in this life, we find ourselves amid the "norm" and forget that there is more...a greater life, a more beauteous expression. The warbler here serves as a reminder of what is most precious, while other bird, as convention might have it, have forsaken the truth of singing. Whether the perfumes of spring, or the freedom of song (or poetry, for that matter) unaffected by constraints of the times or prescriptions, we should take heed of their import, and be true to ourselves, to beauty, always taking advantage to experience life and it's treasures in the fullest, not forgetting in the "down" times to both appreciate and call to memory what we once knew..perhaps, hoping to experience once again.

    The bird never answers "what to make of a diminished thing," but I think Frost has done so by implication. Let us take nothing for granted. For winter's dull prepares the heart for the vibrancy of spring. Anticipation and want breed gratitude, I think. Thus, each season of life has it's import.

  • on Colored Toys by Rabindranath Tagore, on August 2
    the perfection of nature and the delight of a child...here so perfectly one. just lovely.

  • on A Man's Requirements by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, on March 4
    Well, EBB, is probably my all time favorite, if not, she's in the top three... and this poem is a great example why. She is able to capture romance and depth in her words with such tender beauty. Here she writes, actually, from a man's perspective, and you find yourself all along wanting to say, "YES! I will love you like that! With all of myself!" But then, EBB's incredible wit (and wisdom, lol) come through at the end... when this guy reveals the truth! "A Man's Requirements" of her have been high and lofty, even inspiring...until the reveal... that he can only guarantee half a year of his own life in return. I mean what a hoot! I know a lot of the girls will read this and say, "Ain't it the truth!"

    I just love how this poem displays EBB's incredible propensity for romance and beauty, pulling the reader completely into her comedic trap at the end. She had never been a "dummy." Not even when she was in love! LOL.

    She has many other poems that do not display this "cute cynicism" toward a man's love, but here it is playfully on show with such a clever turn. This one is a regular nineteenth century Hoot! if I ever read one.

  • on i carry your heart with me by e e cummings, on March 1
    Ah, Love, the great force of the universe...with such vast implications and applications, yet able to be held within the heart of a man. Stunning progression here in these lines... building to a gorgeous denoument and then returning again to the simplicity of the beginning!!!