Comparing Poetry
I am trying to appreciate poetry (blame it on watching “Dead Poet’s Society” and my deceased grandmother-in-law), but I’m afraid I lean more toward Dr. Seuss than Robert Frost.
Here’s one I didn’t care for followed by one I do.
Eating Poetry
by Mark Strand
Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.
The librarian does not believe what she sees.
Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.
The poems are gone.
The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.
Their eyeballs roll,
their blond legs burn like brush,
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.
She does not understand.
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams.
I am a new man,
I snarl and her and bark.
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.
Bed in Summer
In Winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle light.
In Summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people’s feet
Still going past me in the street.
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?
O yes, totally agree. The second poem is by far the better of the two. Btw, I loved the movie "Dead Poets Society". Probably one of the best movies ever made.