Those Watercolor Journals: A Vlog
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Pinkdogwood asked about those watercolored poetry journals of my yesteryear, and so this vlog is for her. (Ironically, given the heat in this house, the video kept changing color as I recorded.)
While searching the too-hot closets for this exhibition A, I found other journals of the not-color-drenched variety. Below is a found poem from an August 2nd, many years ago, when extroverted rhyme still mattered to me in poems.
But before I get to that, there is this: The other day I was reading Maya Ganesan's Apologies to an Apple, a book this lovely eleven-year-old poet had sent to me. Maya's the real thing; she absolutely is. When I look back on what I was writing way back then and look now to what this so intelligent soul writes today—the clear brooked wonder of it, the no-rush-toward-conclusion of it, the simple made large—I see a slice of the future, and the future looks like wisdom unspooled.
This, then, from my own past.
Who shall know this wooden
window box when you are gone?
Shall know it as you do at night,
shall watch, shall wait for pink
to enter through the moon's white light?
Who will care enough to guard
this mottled wall, the mason's hand?
Who will listen and belong
to street sounds, urban moods, to
the swish step skip of jumprope song?
And what will there be when
there cannot be your interludes anymore?
What will stand where two guitars
now balance on the floor?
And what will become of your easle eyes
when at last you shut the door?
9 comments:
Still better than any of my young attempts at poetry. I wrote a good poem when I was eleven, and another when I was fourteen, but other than that it was hopeless.
I suppose I've come a long way.
You're wonderful.
I can not wait for the day I look back and cringe and smile at my poems.
One good thing about the passing of time :)
Thank you for sharing, Beth.
omg, Both my daugther and my jaw dropped to hear us mentioned on your blog - we are so honored. You are mentioned a lot around our house lately - Meghana, my 12 year old, just got your book house of dance from the library.
Truly enjoyed this vlog and thank you for taking the time out to show us that. My daughter is truly inspired by you and aspires to become a writer like you.
thank you so much from both of us :)
How lovely, Beth, to see those childhood/young adult journals and, especially, to read that poem. Already your gift shines through 'Shall know it as you do at night/shall watch, shall wait for pink/to enter through the moon's white light?' A magic weaver even then....
And what an inspiration you are - not only to young people, but to old fogies like me as well!
That was fun to see, Beth. Thanks for taking the time to post that and the lovely younger you of the poem.
I think it's a nice poem. It's very intense. (My old poems were rhyming ones about princesses and goblins.)
Pink Dogwood, I was DELIGHTED to do this. Even though my video camera was on the blink.
And Q and Emily Ruth and Priya and Tessa and LN, I'm always so happy when you are here.
Thank you so much. It's a lovely poem and your words are an enormous gift. You have me grinning madly now, and it is for your praise and for these moments of happiness that I thank you.
Your voice and speech mannerisms remind me so much of one of my employers.
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