Poetry Post. Skip it.

[ninanevermore]

  

When I was doing readings on Saturday nights, I made an effort to type up at least a few poems from the wretched first-draft horror of my notebook every weekend. Now that I have no place to read at, I've lost my motivation. Hence, no poetry posts for awhile because I haven't been typing anything up. But I was cleaning up so older stuff this weekend and thought I'd post a little of it.

This is a very old one, but it's always been one of my favorites. It's so old that it has been retyped several times in a multitude of electronic formations. The original typed draft (after the one in the notebook for my economics class) was on an electronic typewriter I had in college. Then on a word processor, which is best described as an electronic typewriter that you could store files in. Now, it's the 21th century and it's made its way to being a Word file. And, at last, a post on the internet. That's quite an adventure for a humble little love poem writtin circa 1989.

My cousin typed this one up for me once, and she altered the format. She found it strange and wanted to make it look more like other poems I've written; she just didn't get it. I can only say that its format is mandatory. It's a poem about a picture, and it is shaped like a piece of paper. I don't usually write "concrete" poems, but this poem makes me sad in any format but this one. Sorry, noblwish  , but it has to be this way.

Bouquet

I decided to draw a picture of you    and capture the curves

and angles of          your face        on a clean sheet of paper
Then                   in one corner             I sketched in a rose

I imagined the graphite petals         as a deep       velvet red

just as I imagined           the gray shading         of your eyes

as worn-denim blue      after that         I sketched in another

and then one more      then a few others        here and there

until the entire page    looked like nothing   but a flat field of

flowers     and the face I first began with     only managed to

peak out from under the garden      I had drawn    over you.

 

 

 

 

 

- Nina Erickson

circa 1989

© 2007

 

 

Comments

concrete poems

[regatomic.livejournal.com]

:)

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I didn't skip :D

:D

[mugglemomjsw.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's lovely! Thank you for sharing!

[aymen.livejournal.com]

I really like your poetry. :) Thank you for sharing!

[robin-rule.livejournal.com]

hey, i've never seen this done and i teach poetry. when school starts up again, i plan to use this as an example, if you don't mind. if you do mind, tell me, and i'll just explain the idea, but to have an example is so important for kids. i teach high school, so they will 'get it'.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

I would be flattered. Live Journal still altered my format a little. As a Word file, the lines of the poem are spaced 1.5, giving it the look I prefer. Email me at neanah_e@yahoo.com and I will be happy to send you the poem in MS Word format. :)

[noblwish.livejournal.com]

Hey, you're the artist! ;D

[jenelycam.livejournal.com]

What a lovely poem...and LOVE the format!!

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

People who draw seen drawn to this one. ^_^

[jenelycam.livejournal.com]

Imagine that. It's a canvas with WORDS on it!! ^^