The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Tue 5/23/06)

[RetroLounge]

The Sentence

And the stone word fell
On my still-living breast.
Never mind, I was ready.
I will manage somehow.

Today I have so much to do:
I must kill memory once and for all,
I must turn my soul to stone,
I must learn to live again—

Unless . . . Summer's ardent rustling
Is like a festival outside my window.
For a long time I've foreseen this
Brilliant day, deserted house.

Anna Akhmatova

Translated from the Russian by Judith Hemschemeyer


********************

RL

If you have a request for a certain Poet, post their name in the thread and I will find a poem by them and post it...

if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[miss_american_pie]

1. That's pretty

Reminds me of her "Lot's Wife"

[RetroLounge]

2. Not familiar with that one so i googled - nice

And the just man trailed God's shining agent,
over a black mountain, in his giant track,
while a restless voice kept harrying his woman:
"It's not too late, you can still look back

at the red towers of your native Sodom,
the square where once you sang, the spinning-shed,
at the empty windows set in the tall house
where sons and daughters blessed your marriage-bed."

A single glance: a sudden dart of pain
stitching her eyes before she made a sound . . .
Her body flaked into transparent salt,
and her swift legs rooted to the ground.

Who will grieve for this woman? Does she not seem
too insignificant for our concern?
Yet in my heart I never will deny her,
who suffered death because she chose to turn.

RL

[swimboy]

3. Thank you.

:hi: :hug:

[RetroLounge]

5. Hello my friend

Good to see you popping in on the poetry thread!

:hi:

:hug:

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My dear RetroLounge!

Oh wow, what an incandescent poem!

I can see you here in it.....

Thank you.....

:hug: :loveya:

[lizziegrace]

Today I have so much to do:
I must kill memory once and for all,
I must turn my soul to stone,
I must learn to live again—
=======================================
living again. The hardest part. :hug: