Jonna Gjevre's Commonplace Book
Posted in Poetry Fix on Mar 2nd, 2010
“The City of Violinmakers” by Henrik Nordbrandt (1999). A poem about longing, helplessness, perception.
Every time that you return
I could kill you for it–
out of envy at the view
I never gained a glimpse of, the river
that wound its way through the city and out
into lush countryside
unless it was a stream of blue horses
the snow of the mountains and the [...]
Posted in Poetry Fix on Mar 15th, 2009
Another Merwin poem, this one filled with visionary longing.
Vision
What is unseen
flows to what is unseen
passing in part
through what we partly see
We stood up from all fours
far back in the light
to look
as long as there is day
and part of the night.
Posted in Poetry Fix on Nov 10th, 2008
Since it’s been snowing back home in Wisconsin, here’s a Robin Robertson poem about snow. It comes from “Swithering,” the Scottish poet’s recent collection.
The Park Drunk
He opens his eyes to a hard frost,
the morning’s soft amnesia of snow.
The thorned stems of gorse
are starred crystal; each bud
like a candied fruit, its yellow
picked out and lit
by the [...]
Posted in Poetry Fix on Oct 7th, 2008
The shifting voice, along with MacDiarmid’s use of “Lallans” Scots, makes this a magical and moving poem.
“The Bonnie Broukit Bairn”
Mars is braw in crammasy,
Venus in a green silk goun,
The auld mune shaks her gowden feathers,
Their starry talk’s a wheen o blethers,
Nane for thee a thochtie sparin’
Earth, thou bonnie broukit bairn!
– But greet, an [...]
Posted in Poetry Fix on Jul 26th, 2008
I teach this poem every spring. I love how clearly Auden sees the loneliness that’s inherent in human suffering: so much of the world’s pain takes place “in a corner, some untidy spot,” while the rest of humanity is too busy to take notice.
“Musée des Beaux Arts”
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: [...]