Tag Archive for 'Poet Laureate'

2010 Poet Laureate: W.S. Merwin

jordan published on July 2, 2010 in art. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

I know it’s not the 2nd or 4th Friday of the month, but when I read this in the paper today, I had to share it with all of you:

W.S. Merwin Appointed as Next Poet Laureate

(via Matt Valentine/Library of Congress/AP Photo)

What is the Poet Laureate?  An honorary position appointed by the US government to a poet to promote the artform on a national level.  Who is W.S. Merwin?  At 83 he is perhaps the greatest living poet — a master who won his second Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for his book The Shadow of Sirius.

He’s also my favorite poet of all time (after Neruda, whose work we would not be able to truly appreciate without Merwin’s translations).  You can read my previous posts about Merwin here and here.

A Zen Buddhist and an outspoken environmentalist who lives on his own Zero One like converted plantation in Haiku, Maui — Merwin embodies many of the ideals we strive for at SuperForest.

For A Coming Extinction

Gray whale
Now that we are sending you to The End
That great god
Tell him
That we who follow you invented forgiveness
And forgive nothing

I write as though you could understand
And I could say it
One must always pretend something
Among the dying
When you have left the seas nodding on their stalks
Empty of you
Tell him that we were made
On another day

The bewilderment will diminish like an echo
Winding along your inner mountains
Unheard by us
And find its way out
Leaving behind it the future
Dead
And ours

When you will not see again
The whale calves trying the light
Consider what you will find in the black garden
And its court
The sea cows the Great Auks the gorillas
The irreplaceable hosts ranged countless
And fore-ordaining as stars
Our sacrifices
Join your work to theirs
Tell him
That it is we who are important

It’s truly a great day for poetry and a great day for SuperForest.  If you’ve never read Merwin before, here’s several links where you can immerse yourself in the magic of his words (and voice): npr.org, pbs.org, poemhunter.

Found Poetry Friday: Billy Collins

jordan published on June 25, 2010 in art. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

I bring today’s poem in honor of and inspired by Jackson’s last, and the marvelous work he is doing in the dirt of Zero One.

Picnic, Lightning
It is possible to be struck by a
meteor or a single-engine plane while
reading in a chair at home. Pedestrians
are flattened by safes falling from
rooftops mostly within the panels of
the comics, but still, we know it is
possible, as well as the flash of
summer lightning, the thermos toppling
over, spilling out on the grass.
And we know the message can be
delivered from within. The heart, no
valentine, decides to quit after
lunch, the power shut off like a
switch, or a tiny dark ship is
unmoored into the flow of the body’s
rivers, the brain a monastery,
defenseless on the shore. This is
what I think about when I shovel
compost into a wheelbarrow, and when
I fill the long flower boxes, then
press into rows the limp roots of red
impatiens — the instant hand of Death
always ready to burst forth from the
sleeve of his voluminous cloak. Then
the soil is full of marvels, bits of
leaf like flakes off a fresco,
red-brown pine needles, a beetle quick
to burrow back under the loam. Then
the wheelbarrow is a wilder blue, the
clouds a brighter white, and all I
hear is the rasp of the steel edge
against a round stone, the small
plants singing with lifted faces, and
the click of the sundial as one hour
sweeps into the next.

–Billy Collins

If you are not familiar with former Poet Laureate Billy Collins, you should really check him out.  His poetry is effortless  and accessible, infused with humor and grace. Perhaps no other American poet since Robert Frost has spoken so directly to our country’s hearts and minds.  Which is why Collins has been called “The most popular poet in America”.

Here’s a link to a plethora of his poems for your reading pleasure (there are so many great ones): www.poemhunter.com/billy-collins/poems/

Happy Friday!