For clarification, the title means that it is the national day of poetry and summer, so fly that Finnish flag high, and read some scintillating sonnets as you sit toasting in the summer sun (gotta love alliteration)! In the newspaper today, a man commenting on poetry said, "I have a natural interest in poetry, because a good poem has depth in the text and beautiful reading in between the lines. A good poem leaves room for the reader."
In hopes of participating in this national day, I present to you snippets of poetry that I have collected in the last, oh decade or so, of my life, because I too love poetry:
love is the voice under all silences,
the hope which has no opposite in fear;
the strength so strong mere force seems feebleness:
the truth more first than sun more last than star
-e.e. cummings, from Being to Timeless as it's to Time
A kid's poem:
We built a ship upon the stair.
All made of the back-bedroom chairs,
And filled it full of sofa pillows
To go a-sailing on the billows.
We took a saw and several nails,
And water in the nursery pails;
And Tom said, "Let us also take
An apple and a slice of cake"--
Which was enough for Tom and me
To go a-sailing on, till tea.
We sailed along for days and days,
And had the very best of plays;
But Tom fell out and hurt his knee,
So there was no one left but me.
-Robert Louis Stevenson, A Good Play
A hope poem:
Own it. Hold your heart the way
you'd hold a live bird--your two hands
laced to latch it in, feeling
its feathery trembling, its fledgling
warmth, its faint anxieties
of protest, its heart stutter
against the palm of one hand, a fidget
in the pull of early light.
Possess it, restless, in
the finger cage of patience. Enfold
this promise with a blue sheen
on its neck, its wings a tremor
of small feathered bones
until morning widens like
a window, and God opens
your fingers and whispers FLY!
-Lucy Shaw, Posses your soul in patience
A Haiku:
Keep straight down this block
Then turn right where you will find
A peach tree blooming
-Richard Wright
And one for my Finnish-speaking friends:
Eilinen on mennyt,
miksi siis kantaa
murhetta siitä,
huomisen huoliin
ei tietomme riitä,
siis tästä päivästä
iloitse ja kiitä!
Wishing one and all a summery and poetry-filled day!
2 comments:
It's interesting to have a day for poems - and summer. Some very interesting lines you posted. They do make a person think more than just reading prose. ec
Yes, poetry can bring to mind different things to different people in a way that prose doesn't. Eino Leino was a poet, so that is why I think the day was named after him. I didn't really see it celebrated any special way, except with flags, and I went to a picnic (the summer part!).
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