false 33 183 183 true 6036902 read 0 true 884352 currently-reading 0 true 884351 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/240583-please-post-your-poem-for-the-december-goodreads-contest Kitty made a comment in the ¡ POETRY ! group:

poem (Villanelle -- especially since there has been a discussion about rhyme and form in this forum) to be considered -- I'd really love it if people would email me with comments.
Beyond the Beam

I had a folder called “a pocket for lost souls”
for words, thoughts, things at risk, but not yet lost
when the beam from the lighthouse sweeps the sand.

Its light captures the tide ebbing in bowls
filled with silver shell, sand dollars – no cost
to put them in my folder for lost souls.

Waves shred kelp, and ghosts of shipwreckers land
strips of forebearing, forgotten, sea-muscled and mossed
the beam from the lighthouse, sweeping the sand.

Soon sandpipers will skitter, peck at shell they know
buried in sand, covered now with melting frost
pockets of food, beached up for the lost, for All Souls

perhaps once saints, the light searching, warning, a band
beckoning the gnostic, loosed, then lost
in the beam from the lighthouse, sweeping the sand.

I consider my pocket, feel its holes, feet sinking on land
the light still sweeping, to lure, to guide, now lost
in the distance, like my folder, given to souls
now floating to beam, sweeping the sand.
-- Kitty Jospé


]]> http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/227298-let-s-make-up-a-poem Kitty made a comment in the ¡ POETRY ! group:

umber leaf, still pierced
begins to play a dry-lipped tune
"meine Ruh ist hin, Mein Herz ist schwer,
Ich finde sie nimmer, Und nimmermehr"
(Gretchen am Spinnrad)

the music spins like a blindsighted brook
blessing the Zauberfluss ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/22613-a-fun-excercize Kitty made a comment in the ¡ POETRY ! group:

I love this exercise, -- here's a different spin on it:

The belligerence of bells measured into expectations in els;
the spurned speeches spumed to tangible woes of terrible wars,
the deliberations of the desperate,
the machinations of moreover-madmen,
the architecture for arrowed stings of Apollo’s sings,
the ruthlessness of remorse,
the decisive politics of damned perfection,


]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72863753 to: The Random House Book of 20th Century French Poetry (Vintage) by Paul Auster
side-by-side edition of 47 20th c. French poets -- 663 pages of pleasure not only for the French, but the multitude of venerable British and American poets who make their mark. I like the variety of voices which range from translations of poets from the turn of the century to the later years of the 20th century.

I'm using many of the poems for a course I'm teaching on French poetry for the non-fluent French student.
Having the side-by-side edition is a distinct asset, to point out the form and sounds of the original language. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72863624 to: The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden (Paperback) by Stanley Kunitz
A treasure of a book to read and read again. Given to me for my 57th birthday, and in this year of much summer rain, the poems, reflections and discussions of the book, match the energy of my garden --
which says, "I am not done with my changes" -- and invites living in the layers. Check out Stanley Kunitz reading "Touch Me" on Youtube and you will tremble. We discussed "The Long Boat" 9/28/09, "An Old Cracked Tune" and "the Testing Tree" yesterday. Haunting music for the dance -- whether flying in magic keds, or preparing to lie "in the slop of the cradle". ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72863612 to: Bel Canto (Paperback) by Ann Patchett
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72863591 to: Jim the Boy: A Novel (Paperback) by Tony Earley
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72863460 to: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Hardcover) by Mary Ann Shaffer
delightful to read a novel based on letters and got me reading Charles Lamb. However, the cleverness falls flat and the ending was disappointingly facile as if the niece had to meet a deadline as opposed to an ending which maintained the energy of the reader to care about finishing the book. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/214350-connecticut-river-review Kitty made a comment in the ¡ POETRY ! group:

Congratulations! I'd love to see your pantoum!
It is a beautiful cover and I enjoyed the sample poems very much.
The one about the amputated leg gave me shivers.
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/210001-please-post-your-poem-for-the-october-goodreads-contest Kitty made a comment in the ¡ POETRY ! group:

Old French on a September Evening

At the end of the day,
crows pick the fresh-mown fields
of Upstate New York.
We’ve run out of English words
and read Balzac together,
spilling the sounds of Illusions Perdues.

The sun catches the solo gold gladiola
as we take turns reading, looking
at the shadows dancing on the wall
flickering like ghosts.

I think, 'cueillez', as in gathering rosebuds
a 'recueillement', as in meditation
as in gathering in again, called back

ask him if he hears the urgency
in the sounds of this old French
'cueillez', 'cueillez'
its sharp
shearing
scissored
knife
'cueillez'
but it’s been a long day and his ears are worn out
and I doubt he heard me
as he ruffles over
another page.

--Kitty Jospé
kjospe1@rochester.rr.com



]]>