Day 6 of NAPOWRIMO; Inspiration

Reflections by Kitty Jospé, guest blogger:

P eople
Of
E very
T ribe
R egion
Y es to your voices!
Are you writing a poem a day? I love this challenge and have posted them under “NAPOWRIMO” on my blog. http://kdjospe.blogspot.com/2011/04/napowrimo-april-poem-day-april-45.html I am a teacher of language, poetry and art appreciation, and love preparing lectures on music, word, art, human expression.

Saturday April 2, in a gathering of poets, we all read our favorite poems and why they are among our favorites. I presented a topic of the day on Style and Performance and how we are captivated by tone and language more than content.
Here’s the “occasional” poem I wrote – i.e. the ditty for that occasion.

If by YOU – the world’s your oyster, you’re the one to tell—
the poem, your pick
to play open, or closed, or simply on the half shell

For the Edna St. Vincent Millay poem, I picked, (Modern Declaration), I would not have enjoyed it as much, nor been able to read it convincingly without analyzing the syntax. By responding to it (on April 1), I was able to dig deeper not only into her poem, but find an echo in my own voice.

This idea of resonating with another voice in a conversation, might be called by some “imitation” – but it is deeper than that. We observe the style, the manner, linked to a time period, culture, affectation, but underneath it is a universal element of being human which makes us say, “I recognize that” – and if it is GREAT, we want to follow suit.
My poem for April 6 is a response to Wallace Stevens, “Large Red Man Reading”.

Behind the Reading

perhaps, a large red man, or a ghost returning
to hear his phrases or one of those stars,
or scars etched into midnight,
mid-point wilderness where memory hears
the clatter of pans, tulips in clay pots, wheels
sinking barefeet first spoken by spoke
feeling
where the shiver spines and pricks
and iron-clamps lock the throat
until the heart expulses broken rocks
veiled in the eyes saying, and yet, and
yet –