The Pen

(Intermezzo by Françoise Gilot, born 1921, French painter,
writer, and muse of Pablo Picasso)

I found this poem recently at the blog hosted by librarian Diane Mayr at the Nesmith Library in Wyndam, N. H. You can visit it here.

THE PEN

Take a pen in your uncertain fingers.
Trust, and be assured
That the whole world is a sky-blue butterfly
And that words are the nets to capture it.

~ Muhammad al-Ghuzzi, born 1949, Tunisian poet and translator

Dreams and Poetry

(Still Life with a Glass under Lamplight, linoleum print
by Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973, Spanish artist)

Poems, it could be said, are a little like dreams, only you experience them when you are awake. Both are works of the imagination expressed through symbolism and figurative language.

DREAMS AND POETRY

It’s all ordinary experience,
All ordinary images.
By chance they emerge in a dream,
Turning out infinite patterns.

It’s all ordinary feelings,
All ordinary words.
By chance they encounter a poet,
Turning out infinite new verses.

Once intoxicated, one learns the strength of wine,
Once smitten, one learns the power of love:
You cannot write my poems
Just as I cannot dream your dreams.

~ Hu Shih (1891-1962), Chinese poet

When I Met My Muse

Each Friday we provide the link to the blog that is hosting a celebration of poetry around the blogosphere. At that site you can find the links to the many other blogs that are posting poems (new and old), discussions of poems, and reviews of poetry books.

Enjoy the festivities!

The host this week is Elaine Magliaro. You can visit her here at Wild Rose Reader.



(The Head of a Woman, 1508, unfinished painting
by Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519, a true Renaissance
Man)

“The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.” ~ Pablo Picasso
(1881-1973), Spanish artist

WHEN I MET MY MUSE

I glanced at her and took my glasses
off — they were still singing. They buzzed
like a locust on the coffee table and then
ceased. Her voice belled forth, and the
sunlight bent. I felt the ceiling arch, and
knew that nails up there took a new grip
on whatever they touched. “I am your own
way of looking at things,” she said. “When
you allow me to live with you, every
glance at the world around you will be
a sort of salvation.” And I took her hand.

~ William Stafford (1914-1993), American poet

To My Mother

(Mother and Child by Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973,
Spanish artist)

After he finished writing his poems for children, entitled A Child’s Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote about them to a friend, noting that there was “something nice in the little ragged regiment . . . they seem to me to smile, to have a kind of childish treble note that sounds in my ears freshly — not song, if you will, but a child’s voice.”

This is one of the poems from that collection.

TO MY MOTHER

You too, my mother, read my rhymes
For love of unforgotten times,
And you may chance to hear once more
The little feet along the floor.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), Scottish poet, novelist, and travel writer

If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso

(Portrait of Gertrude Stein by Pablo Picasso,
1881-1973, Spanish artist)

In Cubist art, which began with Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, an object is examined from all sides, to present an abstraction of the essence of the object rather than a flat two-dimensional view of the object.

Some years after Picasso gave Gertrude Stein this portrait, with her face painted in the Cubist style he was following at the time, Stein responded in kind with what could be described as a Cubist portrait of her own, but in words.

Stein’s poems definitely benefit from being read out loud. To listen to a reading by Stein herself, accompanied by a video of Picasso's paintings, go here (you may have to cut and paste):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MbWNACKi5A&feature=related


IF I TOLD HIM: A COMPLETED PORTRAIT OF PICASSO

If I told him would he like it. Would he like it if I told him.
Would he like it would Napoleon would Napoleon would would he like it.
If Napoleon if I told him if I told him if Napoleon. Would he like it if I told him if I told him if Napoleon. Would he like it if Napoleon if Napoleon if I told him. If I told him if Napoleon if Napoleon if I told him. If I told him would he like it would he like it if I told him.
Now.
Not now.
And now.
Now.
Exactly as as kings.
Feeling full for it.
Exactitude as kings.
So to beseech you as full as for it.
Exactly or as kings.
Shutters shut and open so do queens. Shutters shut and shutters and so shutters shut and shutters and so and so shutters and so shutters shut and so shutters shut and shutters and so. And so shutters shut and so and also. And also and so and so and also.
Exact resemblance to exact resemblance the exact resemblance as exact as a resemblance, exactly as resembling, exactly resembling, exactly in resemblance exactly a resemblance, exactly and resemblance. For this is so. Because.
Now actively repeat it all, now actively repeat it all, now actively repeat it all.
Have hold and hear, actively repeat it all.
I judge judge.
As a resemblance to him.
Who comes first. Napoleon the first.
Who comes too coming coming too, who goes there, as they go they share, who shares all, all is as all as as yet or as yet.
Now to date now to date. Now and now and date and the date.
Who came first Napoleon at first. Who came first Napoleon the first. Who came first, Napoleon first.
Presently.
Exactly do they do.
First exactly.
Exactly do they do too.
First exactly.
And first exactly.
Exactly do they do.
And first exactly and exactly.
And do they do.
At first exactly first exactly do they do.
The first exactly.
And do they do the first exactly.
At first exactly.
First as exactly.
At first as exactly.
Presently.
As presently.
As as presently.
He he he he and he and he and and he and he and he and and as and as he and as he and he. He is and as he is, and as he is and he is, he is and as he and he and as he is and he and he and and he and he.
Can curls rob can curls quote, quotable.
As presently.
As exactitude.
As trains.
Has trains.
Has trains.
As trains.
As trains.
Presently.
Proportions.
Presently.
As proportions as presently.
Father and farther.
Was the king or room.
Farther and whether.
Was there was there what was there was there but was there was there there was there.
Whether and in there.
As even say so.
One.
I land.
Two.
I land.
Three.
The land.
Three.
The land.
Three.
The land.
Two.
I land.
Two.
I land.
One.
I land.
Two.
I land.
As a so.
They cannot.
A note.
They cannot.
A float.
They cannot.
They dote.
They cannot.
They as denote.
Miracles play.
Play fairly.
Play fairly well.
A well.
As well.
As or as presently.
Let me recite what history teaches. History teaches.

~ Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), American writer and poet