old stone wall, now overgrown with moss: live & not alive?
Old Stone Wall [Haiku]
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Tag Archives: poetry
Bright City [Haiku]
neon signs fire, pulse, and send shimmers of light between the black spaces
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Socratic Method [Clerihew]
Beloved teacher, Socrates won each debate with great ease. The first of his winning suggestions? Ask [don't answer] all the questions.
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The Doldrums [Ruba’i]
Back in the days of wooden sailing ships some unsaid words could never grace the lips: the "calms," or "doldrums," signed apocalypse. Better storm than lull end one's life of trips.
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For Those Seeking Immortality [Rondeau Triolet]
To stretch a life beyond the time of trees be ready for a glacial shift of pace. There'll be no undulation of the seas. To stretch a life beyond the time of trees, the tradeoff is what's quick will pass unseen. So, what say you, Kings of infinite space? To stretch a life beyond the time of trees be ready for a glacial shift of pace.
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Cat Conformity [Senryū]
the cat that conforms to a hollow in the wall won't conform elsewise
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Candle Flicker [Haiku]
in the dim temple, candlelight flickers, and bronze moves
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Emerson’s Wave [Free Verse]
Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not.
Ralph waldo emerson, Self-reliance
Is there any angst that we will tumble off a cliff that we should have railed off long ago? -- Nuclear War -- I fear that wave has rolled onward, and we have lost that angst. Do we not fear: blast wave disintegration? fire that turns wet things -- such as ourselves -- into instant ash? clumps of hair in the hands of the neutron-cooked? If we've forgotten to fear such things, we are surely doomed.
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BOOK REVIEW: The Ghetto, and Other Poems: An Annotated Edition by Lola Ridge [ed. Lawrence Kramer]
The Ghetto, and Other Poems: An Annotated Edition by Lola RidgeMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
Release Date: January 17, 2023
Non-annotated edition at Project Gutenberg
This collection was originally published in 1918, and, therefore, the original edition is public domain and can be acquired via Project Gutenberg or other such sites. However, this review is for the new Fordham University Press edition, the value-added of which is primarily to be found in the annotations — as well as in the inclusion of an abridged version of the titular poem that appeared in The New Republic. (i.e. There are two versions of “The Ghetto,” in this edition, one in an appendix.) The annotations definitely add benefit for the average poetry reader because, being over a hundred years old, many of the poet’s allusions will not be self-evident. That said, if you’re reading the poetry purely as artistic language and don’t really care about the author’s allusions or intended messages, the annotations might not have much value for you.
I was captivated by Ridge’s poems. She wrote a great deal of poetry of dissent and protest, and – as with standup comedy – it’s no simple matter to take on such subject matter and still produce an appealing product. [That’s part of the reason why the annotations can be valuable, because the metaphors and allusions may not be clear for a reader who can only access a literal reading of the poems.]
If you’re interested in American poetry, and particularly that of social objection, this collection is worth reading.
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Autumn Breeze [Haiku]
dried plants bobble in an autumn breeze with erratic shakes
Tiger Riding for Beginners 