I find Anne Porter utterly charming.
Porter began seriously pursuing her poetry at the age of 64, after her husband, artist Fairfield Porter passed away in 1975. Her first collection of poetry was published 1994, when she was 83 years old.
Read more about her here, at the Poetry Foundation.
For a longer bio, go to Best American Poetry, where Porter, after being asked why she was still writing at her age, said that "art may be the only pursuit that old age can't wreck":
Living Things
by Anne Porter
"You can't sing anymore, you can't dance anymore, you can't drive anymore — but you can still write."
Here's to continuing to create living things in 2024.
Living Things
by Anne Porter
(1911-2011)
Our poems
Are like the wart-hogs
In the zoo
It's hard to say
Why there should be such creatures
But once our life gets into them
As sometimes happens
Our poems
Turn into living things
And there's no arguing
With living things
Our poems
Are like the wart-hogs
In the zoo
It's hard to say
Why there should be such creatures
But once our life gets into them
As sometimes happens
Our poems
Turn into living things
And there's no arguing
With living things
....
(Read the rest here.)
~~~~~~~~~~
Tracey Kiff-Judson is hosting today. Join her as she ponders Monopoly pieces and pulls together the Poetry Friday round-up.
12 comments:
This is a lovely poem and I do think of poems as having lives of their own comprised of just words that with each word they declare themselves. Thank you for sharing this, Karen.
Always enjoying hearing about writers first published after 50! 😁🙏🏽📝 … hope, springing eternal, and all …
Karen, poems are indeed living things -- a beautiful thought! What really made me laugh though, was this line: "art may be the only pursuit that old age can't wreck." :)
Oh I am so grateful to know about Porter (since I am that same magic 64 now). Thank you for the links!
Ha! Now I am thinking about myself as a warthog. What a great little poem. And, that she began as a poet in her 60s is inspiring!
Hurray for the spirit of Anne Porter living in my aging heart!
Thanks for introducing me to Anne Porter. I will look for more of her work!
It really is inspiring to read about Porter, Karen, and her own ideas of poems, "in and out/Of jails and gardens." My students and I, on a trip to California, visited Angel Island (now a state park) where some prisoners were kept, foreign-born, in caves, during WWII. There were poems written on the walls, a reminder, like Porter's poems, that they can be anywhere. It's a poignant and lovely post! Thank you!
Beautiful! Love this, Karen. I was also struck by the line "in and out/Of jails and gardens."
That poem is a keeper, Karen! Thank you for sharing. Anne Porter is reassuring on multiple levels. xo
No arguing with living things. I love that! What a great defense of art to anyone who doesn't see the point of it. Thanks, Karen!
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