26 Oct. 2006

"Inspiration"

Currently I am reading "The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within" by Stephen Fry. Someday soon I'll write here, my own poetry. Until then I offer thse:

The prompt for today is, where/what in your place do you find inspiration for poetry.
I find ispiration for poetry in every place I'm at. For todays prompt I've choosen 2 poems, 1, to put my life in perspective, and 2, to celebrate my favorite season; autumn.


A Man said to the universe

A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
"A sense of obligation."

Stephen Crane

(1871-1900)

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Heart of Autumn

Wind finds the northwest gap, fall comes.
Today, under gray cloud-scud and over gray
Wind-flicker of forest, in perfect formation, wild geese
Head for a land of warm water, the boom, the lead pellet.

Some crumple in air, fall. Some stagger, recover control,
Then take the last glide for a far glint of water. None
Knows what has happened. Now, today, watching
How tirelessly V upon V arrows the season's logic,

Do I know my own story? At least they know
When the hour comes for the great wing-beat. Sky-strider,
Star-strider -- they rise, and the imperial utterance,
Which cries out for distance, quivers in the wheeling sky.

That much they know, and in their nature know
The path of pathlessness, with all the joy
Of destiny fulfilling its own name.
I have known time and distance, but not why I am here.

Path of logic, path of folly, all
The same--and I stand, my face lifted now skyward,
Hearing the high beat, my arms outstretched in the tingling
Process of transformation, and soon tough legs,

With folded feet, trail in the surrounding vacuum of passage,
And my heart is impacted with a fierce impulse
To unwordable utterance---
Towar sunset, at a great height.

Robert Penn Warren
(1905-1989)