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40th Virtual Poetry Circle

Are you ready for the 40th Virtual Poetry Circle this week?  I hope you are because we’re continuing the celebration of National Poetry Month.

If you missed my earlier announcement (don’t worry, it’s a sticky post), you can check out the 2010 National Poetry Month Blog Tour details here.

Today, we’re going to visit with a contemporary poet.

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

From Richard Blanco’s City of a Hundred Fires (page 16):

She scratches the oranges then smells the peel,
presses an avocado just enough to judge its
ripeness,
polishes the Macintoshes searching for bruises.

She selects with hands that have thickened, fingers
that have swollen with history around the white gold
of a wedding ring she now wears as a widow.

Unlike the archived photos of young, slender digits
captive around black and white orange blossoms,
her spotted hands now reaching into the colors.

I see all the folklore of her childhood, the fields,
the fruit she once picked from the very tree,
the wiry roots she pulled out of the very ground.

And now, among the collapsed boxes of yuca,
through crumbling pyramids of golden mangoes,
she moves with the same instinct and skill.

This is how she survives death and her son,
on these humble duties that will never change,
on those habits of living which keep a life a life.

She holds up red grapes to ask me what I think,
and what I think is this, a new poem about her–
the grapes look like dusty rubies in her hands,

what I say is this: they look sweet, very sweet.

Let me know your thoughts, ideas, feelings, impressions. Let’s have a great discussion…pick a line, pick an image, pick a sentence.

I’ve you missed the other Virtual Poetry Circles, check them out here. It’s never too late to join the discussion.

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Please also stop by today’s National Poetry Month Blog Tour stop at Booking Mama where she will review some children’s poetry books as part of her regular feature Kid Konnection and Write Meg! will feature Kim Addonzinio.

Comments

  1. Those lines, in fact, make me think of my husband’s grandmother, who scrutinized my wedding band when I got married (at the age of just-turned-21) and told me approvingly that she thought it was just thick enough to last through an entire lifetime. She showed me hers, worn thin from years of wear.
    .-= Jeanne´s last blog ..Harkaway Reader Survey =-.

  2. People do keep up with mundane tasks to forget their losses. These lines really stood out to me:

    She selects with hands that have thickened, fingers
    that have swollen with history around the white gold
    of a wedding ring she now wears as a widow.

    It says so much about who she is and shows that time has passed, and maybe it hasn’t been good to her.
    .-= Anna´s last blog ..Mailbox Monday — April 12 =-.