Poetry Friday: Richard Wilbur, "The Writer"

Although I've shared Richard Wilbur's "The Writer" numerous times (along with loads of other Wilbur treasures), I never tire of this gorgeous poem. It fits beautifully with the relationship theme I've been chasing — this week, we drop in on a father and his junior-high-school-aged daughter. (I love the final lines so much.) 

The Writer
by Richard Wilbur


In her room at the prow of the house
Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,
My daughter is writing a story.

I pause in the stairwell, hearing
From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys
Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.

Young as she is, the stuff
Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:
I wish her a lucky passage.

But now it is she who pauses,
As if to reject my thought and its easy figure.
A stillness greatens, in which

The whole house seems to be thinking,

(Read the rest here, at Poets.org. And to hear Richard Wilbur read it, go here.)

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The fabulous Tabatha Yeatts has the Poetry Friday round-up this week at The Opposite of Indifference. 

Poetry Friday: January Gill O'Neil

Simple, lovely, and simply lovely: to my dearest women friends, a relationship like no other. 

In the Company of Women
by January Gill O’Neil

Make me laugh over coffee,
make it a double, make it frothy
so it seethes in our delight.
Make my cup overflow
with your small happiness.
I want to hoot and snort and cackle and chuckle.
Let your laughter fill me like a bell.
Let me listen to your ringing and singing
as Billie Holiday croons above our heads.

....

(Read the rest of this short, wonderful poem here, at Poets.org.) 

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Delightful Denise Krebs, at Dare to Care, has the Poetry Friday round-up this week. 

Photo courtesy of Pixabay. 

Poetry Friday: "Forty Years" by Mary Oliver

        Photo courtesy of Sponchia at Pixabay. 

The last two weeks I shared poems that were simple, lovely, and simply lovely as they touched on the intricacies of relationships. This week, another in that vein: this one's about the poet's relationship with language. 


Forty Years
by Mary Oliver

for forty years
the sheets of white paper have
passed under my hands and I have tried
    to improve their peaceful

emptiness putting down
little curls little shafts
of letters words
    little flames leaping

not one page
was less to me than fascinating

....

(Read the whole thing here, at the Poetry Foundation.) 

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This week's wonderful host, Tracey Kidd-Judson, is cooking up some Poetry Friday inspiration at Tangles and Tales. 

Photo courtesy of Sponchia at Pixabay. 

Poetry Friday: "The Raincoat" by Ada Limón

Continuing with last week's theme of poetry that is simple, lovely, and simply lovely while touching on the intricacies of relationships, I give you Ada Limón's "The Raincoat." 

I'm sharing some of the most significant lines to tempt you to go read the whole thing. It's only twenty-five lines in total, but I know how Poetry Friday is. I know it's sometimes hard to read everything, click through to everything, and take in everything you want to take in. But you won't regret the time it takes to read these twenty-five lines. I promise. 

The Raincoat
by Ada Limón


When the doctor suggested surgery
and a brace for all my youngest years,
my parents scrambled to take me

 

-----

...I never

asked her what she gave up to drive me,

or how her day was before this chore. 

-----

(And the end of the poem:) 

...and I saw a mom take her raincoat off
and give it to her young daughter when
a storm took over the afternoon. My god,
I thought, my whole life I’ve been under her
raincoat thinking it was somehow a marvel
that I never got wet.

Fill in the blanks and read the whole thing here, at Poets.org. 

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The always-lovely Janice Scully has the round-up this week at Salt City Verse. 

Photo courtesy of Jupilu on Pixabay. 

Poetry Friday: "String Quartet" by Carl Dennis

This is a simple and simply lovely poem by Carl Dennis that masterfully touches on the complexity of music, art, and human interaction. 

String Quartet

by Carl Dennis

Art and life, I wouldn't want to confuse them.

But it's hard to hear this quartet

Without comparing it to a conversation

Of the quiet kind, where no one tries to outtalk

The other participants, where each is eager instead

To share in the task of moving the theme along

From the opening statement to the final bar.

....

(Read the whole poem here.) 

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Enjoy your time with this string quartet, and be sure to visit Michelle Kogan for this week's Poetry Friday round-up. 

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.