12 January 2009

Life Needs Its Outer Horrors

For H.D.

Life needs its outer horrors.
You are right, my new friend, with all of your wisdom -
There must be a Hideousness
To stamp upon our hearts the marks of Beauty.
We are as children, all -
Running in our own already-trodden footprints,
Hanging our hats or letting them fall
Carelessly to the floor;
We search for things of Beauty
That we threw away - retracing our steps -
Looking for the fallen pearl,
The soft feather lost, the
Memory of a leaf-shadow or
The contrast to laughter
Mixed with the hyacinth or
Sprinkled along paths we have walked before.
Life needs its outer horrors -
Its scavenger's pits where we find black violets
And blood-red treasures
Among the bones and harrowed gore of all the days.
Life needs its outer horrors -
So bring them - bring all the hideous elements -
And let me brand my heart
So that it never forgets.
I love the Beauty.
I embrace it.
Life needs its outer horrors.
You are right, my friend.

That girl in Switzerland

2 comments:

  1. interesting! I like it. Btw your were right about that 'd' on practice, and right about my meter too. sometimes it drives me nuts until I get it right, sometime I feel like I'm channeling dr. suess. But for some reason I have never been able to make poetry sound natural unrhymed like you do. I guess its not my style, but I do like it.

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  2. it's way too easy to get stuck in common meter. That's how my poems usually turn out. But I've always loved your poetry! I adore my free verse too, but it's a careful study. But, I have to say...the poem I was referring to when I left that comment on your blog was the one in my post "In Quiet Imitation of Dickinson..." You're a few posts behind...lol...So please read it and let me know what you think! It rhymes! It has a meter!

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