Article Contributed on: 7/13/2007 12:15:20 PM
You might be wondering how I've been spending my time, now that I've "retired" from YourHub.com. If you don't, well, this here be a blog, and on blogs, most people tend to write about themselves and their lives, so, sometimes even I admit these entries aren't that thrilling, but they have their place.
Actually, I don't really want to write about myself. I just want an excuse to share a poem that I discovered online yesterday. In addition to some relatively minor CSU preparation, I've been looking at literary publications to submit to before school's in session.
I came across an impressive publication called
Rattle.
Each of their 2006 poetry prize winners are beyond my abilities and style right now.
This one, in particular, has held my attention. The poet is
Malcolm Alexander. Each line gives me something to think about. The poem could be overly instructional, and the first lines of each stanza remind me of passages of the Bible, but I don't feel like I hear the poet himself hammering away -- I feel like I enjoy his thoughts without him being too present in the poem:
BEGINNER'S LESSON
If you wish to be wealthy, duck beneath
the topcoat of a well-dressed river
until you come up with a mossy boot
filled with shiners. Spend them wisely.
To tread lightly on the earth,
first breathe in and out slowly
to sense how oxygen walks barefoot,
then observe butterflies, so weightless
even our poetry burdens them.
Avoid mistaking sadness for blueberries,
but if this happens, remember only one
of the two tastes like a somersault.
Make nothing more of the moon
than what it is, a great big pebble
hunting for a shoe, not to be confused
with the heart, likewise a vagabond.
Inside of every stray cat lurks a person
who discarded love. Remember this
when you bend over to wind them up.
If you feel compelled to fly a flag,
note how it struggles in vain to be a rainbow
and how envy will make it twist and flap
like a tongue. Consider instead a kite.
If you desire to reach heaven,
have your body buried in an aspen grove.
In time, all of you will wick up
into a loud version of it.
If the noise of the human world overwhelms you,
trace the voicebox of an orchid with your finger.
When you get to the aria, listen.
But beware, for beauty can be a lacewing
or a meteor, and lands wherever it pleases.
When you finish reading a poem,
bend it around so you can see
yourself in it. Then laugh out loud.
Everything else now should come easy.
--2006 Rattle Poetry Prize, Honorable Mention
You may also like Alexander's poem Sisyphus, which you can read
here.