best words in the best order, sometimes poetry

Thursday, February 16, 2006

So much can be said, and unsaid, in so few words.



Carl Sandburg's

Fog


The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.


Louise Bogan's


Solitary Observation Brought Back From A Sojourn In Hell

At midnight tears
Run into your ears.



The Roman poet Horace writes:


Boy, I detest the Persian style
Of elaboration, Garlands bore me
Laced up with lime-bark. Don't run a mile
To find the last roses of summer for me.

None of your fussy attempts to refine
On simple myrtle. Myrtle suits both
You pouring, me drinking, wine
Under the trellised vine's thick growth.


Haiku is perhaps the ultimate in brevity, for example, Basho's

An old pond!
A frog jumps in-
The sound of water.


I like the spare discipline of Haiku form: its infinite possibility within the strict structure; it's deep connection with seasons and nature - but as
British poet Roger McGough writes -

The only problem
with Haiku is that you just
get started and then


posted by mike smith @ 10:54 PM 

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