Poetry Thursday: William Wordsworth

Book Inscription 1881

One hundred and forty-three years ago, a man gave his wife a Christmas gift of the book, The Poetical Works of Wordsworth. The pale pencil lines he made to insure his script would be straight are barely visible. There are also light pencil marks in the table of contents marking some poems. To my surprise, the poem I chose to quote below, is one of them. Eerie.

From The Oak and the Broom, a Pastoral, VIII, 

O the Same Flower, last stanza, page 146:

Bright Flower! for by that name at last,

When all my reveries are past,

I call thee, and to that cleave fast,

        Sweet silent creature!

That breath'st with me in sun and air,

Do thou, as thou art wont, repair

My heart with gladness, and a share

        Of thy meek nature!

1805

William Wordsworth

Pastoral in poetry
William Wordsworth

Poetry Thursday: Eliza Cook 1818 ~ 1889

From The Poetical Works of Eliza Cook,
Song of the Seagull, last stanza

We hold our course o'er the deep or the land,

O'er the swelling tide or weed-grown strand;

We are safe and joyous when mad waves roll,

We sport o'er the whirlpool, the rock, and the shoal;--

Away on the winds we plume our wings,

And soar the freest of all free things

Oh! the sea-gull leads a merry life

In the glassy calm or tempest strife.

 

Eliza Cook

In 1980, I bought an old book that was to be the first of a collection of poetry books by women poets. Alas, I didn't find the old obscure books of poetry to make the happen. So the Eliza Cook poems have rested in boxes, cabinets and bookshelves in all my moves for these last 44 years. 

Ninteenth Century sing songy poetry is easier to read under a big shady tree on a sunny summer's day with a nice picnic spread out on a flowery blanket. 

Reading other stanzas of the poem quoted above, I didn't find myself breezing along. The wording didn't go comfy with my 21st Century senses. Strange. I grew up reading such metered lines of poety. Thus, my youthful brain was more at ease than my elderly mind of today.

If you have a chance to read old poetry, then give it a try. Despite the wordiness, sweetness excess (imho), the experience can be refreshing in the way of contrasts.  

Poetry Thursday

There is no fantasy

more true

than how we,

in our element,

in this era,

on these days,

are living with

fiction ingredients 

folded into reality.

M.Flannery

2024

The Why Photograph

A Squished Pinecone*

Do you feel sorry for everything that shows trace vulnerability? 
Think berry picking. Passing up or tossing the ones that are damaged in some way. Do you think about how a person can relate to not being the perfect one on the branch? 

What's this all about? Well, it is like this. On a slow autumn afternoon, as I lightly recover enough energy to accomplish more than I have been, I look once again to old pictures for a get-a-better-attitude boost (shove actually). There has been a lot of thinking going on here.

I posted a poem born out of this mood of mine on my poetry blog, Coffee Frappes & Seashells, A Pervading. The line that sticks with me is...flitters like a dry leaf, clinging to a dead tree.Those words describe how I feel. The mood is the result of pressing myself to figure out how to turn old habits towards the horizons in life that I face, (largely facing the sunset.)

Take a simple thing like a squished pinecone on the driveway to analyze why I stop to take a photograph. Why blares in my brain. Am I just an eccentric artist? I could be. After all, I am a septuagenarian. That comes with a ten year free to be anomalous me license. 

Over thinking can be entertaining.

How are your autumn afternoons going?

*Taken circa 2004

Coffee Frappes & Seashells: The Poetic Apples, A Conversation With ...

Coffee Frappes & Seashells: The Poetic Apples, A Conversation With a Semi-stra...: 

In season, I try to make good use of the atmosphere of autumn to write and think of ideas, harvest words and images that are heavy with the ...

A favorite post on Coffee Frappes & Seashells poetry blog

click on the title to read

 

P.S.

Magnetic storms. It is a good idea to be aware of how solar eruption's  impact on Earth, their level, and when they are expected. The present magnetic storm will be a K-index 5 and last for 2 days. Search the Internet for more information and/or visit the NOAA link below.

Geomagnetic 3 Day Forecast, Space Weather Prediction Center, NOAA

Foliage, Riprap & Poetry

Looking northeast to Green Mountains
from the meadow
at Robert Frost Interpretative Trail
14 October 2023

Along Rt 125 Ripton, Vermont
14 October 2023

Ripton, Vermont 14 October 2023

Rt 125 RipRap roadside repairs
after July 2023 heavy flooding 

Riprap

There is a lot of roadside repairs being done on Route 125 going up from East Middlebury to Ripton, Vermont. There was heavy flooding last July 2023. One section is one lane with lights to manage traffic.

The peak foliage, I believe, was the Indigenous Peoples' Day long weekend. My photographs here were taken the weekend after. This illustrates how short a window there can be to see the best colors in certain areas. There are places that are just turning. For the most part, the higher elevations are past peak. Again, my opinion. Check your local foliage reports.

One Lane Light Rt 125 Ripton, Vermont

I always remember the name riprap from the title of Gary Snyder's first book of poetry, "Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, 1965."

Day 259 of Week 37, September 2023

 

Creeping Smartweed (Persicaria longiseta)

The location of the random photograph is a mystery to me. Taken in 2014, I see a piece of blue braided strap, a chunk of red sandstone, and, a  dry leaf in the center that looks like a duck. The dark area is a deeper crack the red sandstone leans over.

Big landscapes leave out the small things we are closer to. The amount of feeling we have for the outdoors, the large and small views, I feel, doesn't differ widely. I believe our need to connect to Nature is one size fits it all.

Have a naturally wondrous weekend!

Sing to your dish towel

Read about ducks in your area

Write a poem about midnight

Browse photo editing software online

Learn how to make pineapple syrup

Draw blueberries

Study a map of New Hampshire

Give your favorite coffee mug a name

Happy Collect Rocks Day!

P.S.

Oh Wow!

I just realized my change to the default font on this blog to the Delius font works! I went into the HTML page, found the header where the font I chose is, and changed it to Delius. I realize it work because the comments are also in the Delius font.

A New Poetry Blog

Coffee Frappes & Seashells

My new poetry blog has a name posted on Blogger, (link above).

Posting will include my original poems as well as articles about the writing process, reviews, and other poetry news. One day I might actually attend a poetry reading to report about. 

It is amazing to me the amount of time it took me to figure out a title over the last few months. My goal was to have a similar one like this blog's title that combines my homeland Atlantic Ocean Boston area vibe with the Champlain Valley Vermont vibe. 

I haven't added Poetry to the title because the description of amateur poet blog should signal searches engines well enough for that category. There's also (eventually as the blog's search rank rises), the bonus of showing up with food and seashell searches.

The goal is to stop posting first draft poems. I hope to develop as a better poet by editing, seriously editing what I write. There are so many poems on my first poetry blog that make me cringe, I feel compelled to change.

I recently wrote a poem that I immediately like. That doesn't often happen. I saved it thinking this should be the first post on the new poetry blog. The day arrived. Whittled down to the easiest and most user friendly free blog host, I decide on Blogger.

At the keyboard, the 5 stanza, 20 line poem became a free verse 13 line poem. I slid along the thought that what I write has to make sense. I use to write inside how words feel, represent my mind's images. Stream of consciousness writing doesn't always translate to making sense unless edited to do so. I hope I got close.

P.S.

This entire post is inside the caption space of the first photograph. I don't know how that happened. See the shadow framing the post?  That's an indication the post is in a caption space. I discovered it when the font color turned out brown inside of the default black. I like it so much, I changed the font color for the entire blog.

Summer Vibes In Progress

Salubrity Summer, In Progress Drawing
18" x 24" Mixed Media Acrylic

Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea,

Drink from the wild air's salubrity

from Poems, 1904 Household Edition

Ralph Waldo Emerson

1803 ~ 1882 

The original, "Merlin's Song," in May-Day, 1867, has only one stanza that doesn't include the often used Emerson quote.  In his book, Poems, the poem, Merlin, has the quote.

The year 1904 is the publication copyright date by his son, Edward Emerson. RW Emerson copyright of the book is dated 1867, 1876. You can read more about Poems, Household Edition, at the website,  Wikisource.org.

Salubrity is a new word to me that I rather like. Thus, the drawing in progress has a title. Wild air in a way, I feel, has a summery vibe.

My spring cleaning is helping me feel enthusiastic about warm sunny summer days. I'm also pleased that I found my fabric remnant bin. Like an Alfred Hitchcock drama, the bin has been about two feet away from me under the card table. I lol for that one.

How was your week-end?

Update, 13 March 2023 late afternoon:

After painting more, I'll let it rest before finishing the colors. For now, I'll not be adding more drawing because it is busy enough, and, color will bring it together.

Yellow In Flight

At Noon, 5"x7" watercolor

 

From dewy lanes at morning

The grapes' sweet odors rise;

At noon the roads all flutter

With yellow butterflies.

from the poem, "September"

by Helen Hunt Jackson

1830 ~ 1885

At this New England latitude, in the Northern Hemisphere, there are 4 seasons, winter, spring, summer, and fall. 

By color, I believe there are 5 seasons:

White-snow 

Chartreuse-new plant growth

Yellow-summer sunshine 

Orange-autumn foliage

Gray-bare tree branches

Color illuminates  shades of ourselves a gray scale shapes. Line. Contour. Direction.

A lemon gives me permission to like yellow. Sunshine, a reason to smile. Art, the encouragement to love Peace over war.