My taste in poetry runs to the old and traditional, but I’ve found a modern poet whose work I enjoy so much that I’m making my way through her website at the rate of one page every Sunday morning – because I don’t want to run out too quickly! Her tagline, “The art of noticing your life,” fits very well with my inclination to keep my eyes open for wondrous things, from Sistine Chapel-size to daily joys.
Samantha Reynolds (BentLily.com) generously says, “Can you reprint my poems? Goodness, yes. Post them on your blog, put them in your book, tape them to your fridge. The very idea makes me do a happy dance. You can credit bentlily.com or Samantha Reynolds, and a link to this site would be lovely.” Thank you, Samantha, for the poems even more than the permission! The very idea of you doing a happy dance makes me smile.
And this one, which I recently posted to Facebook: it so perfectly captures what I feel about all my friends who are musicians, painters, sculptors, novelists, architects, and other creative types. What the hell, I’ll copy it. (Online BentLily here.)
Ode to musicians
They sit there
as though they are
like me
but then the music
erupts out of their necks
and hands
it is as though
they said
don’t mind me
as they turned into
tigers and birds
floating and roaring
claws and wings
before wrapping up their tune
and re-entering
the average flesh
of the rest of us.
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