My friend Krissy over at Visionarie Kindness Chronicles posted a poem today about her discovery of poetry and how it seeped into her being, helping her make sense of her life. It’s terrific. My origin story is more predictable: My mother read me poetry from the time I was a baby. I remember her reading “The Highwayman” — “the moon was a ghostly galleon/tossed upon cloudy seas/and the highwayman came riding” — and stopping to say, “Do you hear the horse’s hoofbeats?” She tapped out the rhythm of the poem and I HEARD IT. Nothing was the same after that.
I was in bed when poetry first found me,
pierced my heart ear-first, an elf, a thief,
a waif who having found warm welcome
would never leave me. I started hearing it
everywhere, whispering words I kept
hidden in the trunk of a tree, in a shoebox
with my paper dolls, behind the geraniums,
velvet-leafed, that flanked the house I
fledged in. They grew, took root,
cross-pollinated with prayer until
there wasn’t anyone else I could ever be,
so bound was poetry with my blood.
I wept alliteration, sighed in spondees.
I was a Phantom of Delight; I was
alone and palely loitering. I was
The Lady of Shalott in “My heart
belongs to Daddy” pajamas.
Heroes get powers. I got a pen.
But I learned how to fly with it anyway.
Now only God can see me coming.
8 comments
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August 22, 2019 at 6:59 pm
Visionariekind
ah, love this and thanks for the shout out, amazing that line “cross-pollinated with prayer, and hoofbeats, poetry in my blood”- ah so inspired thank you for sharing this, I feel like a little kid again… super talented I may add too…
August 22, 2019 at 8:08 pm
loristrawn
I have a feeling we would have been kindred souls even as children, Krissy!
August 22, 2019 at 10:54 pm
Visionariekind
oh, yes so true 😊🎶
August 23, 2019 at 2:33 am
KDKH
Nicely done. I heard “Winken, Blinken, and Nod” so much as a small child that I can still recall the words over 50 years later. Simple, children’s poetry it may be, but it reeled me in.
August 23, 2019 at 1:37 pm
loristrawn
Have you ever heard the Simon Sisters’ recording of “Winken, Blinken and Nod”? It features a very young Carly Simon and is hypnotically beautiful. I grew up under the influence of folk music, so I remember the words, too! Thanks for stopping by!
August 23, 2019 at 11:36 pm
KDKH
No, I haven’t! But I’m going to look for it – thanks for the idea!
August 23, 2019 at 11:45 am
CareSA
Beautiful.
August 23, 2019 at 1:37 pm
loristrawn
Thank you!