It's National Poetry Month

[nightdog_barks]

What is it to be human?


What is staying alive? To possess
A great hall inside of a cell.
What is it to know? The same root
Underneath the branches.

What is it to believe? Being a carer
Until relief takes over.
And to forgive? On fours through thorns
To keep company to an old enemy.

What is it to sing? To receive breath
From the genius of creation.
What's work but humming a song
From wood and wheat.

What are state affairs? A craft
That's still only crawling?
And armaments? Thrust a knife
In a baby's fist.

Being a nation? What can it be? A gift
In the swell of the heart.
And to love a country? Keeping house
In a cloud of witnesses.

What's the world to the all powerful?
A circle spinning.
And to the children of the earth?
A cradle rocking.


~ Waldo Willliams, 1904 - 1971
translated from the Welsh by Menna Elfyn, from the April 2008 issue of Poetry

Comments

[nieded.livejournal.com]

That poem is beautiful.

I'm glad you reminded me that it's poetry month. It's a great time to consider and write poetry when everything is coming to life outside. Thanks.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

*smiles*

It has some really lovely images, I think. Sometimes it's hard to get close to the poems in Poetry, but I liked this one a lot.

[purridot.livejournal.com]

To possess
A great hall inside of a cell.

Wow! That line really got to me. Even though it just now occurred to me that it probably means "jail cell", which is a moving image (remembering your Wilson in prison story). When I first read it I thought it meant "cell" as in the building blocks of a human body, which is still a neat image. :-)

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

*g*

I really liked these lines:

And to forgive? On fours through thorns
To keep company to an old enemy.

Because it sounded like something straight of an Annals tale.

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

Our minds obviously think alike, because that's how I read that line as well!

[purridot.livejournal.com]

In my usual vague, bizarre way, I think that line reminded me of Otto Rank's (?) theory of how humans may be programmed for story-telling similarly to the way they are programmed for language. And I was thinking about how ancient story-telling took place in great halls. So maybe the "great hall" gene is embedded somewhere within ourselves?

I think I am way too tired to be posting comments on LJ.

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

I like this interpretation! It manages to encompass multiple meanings of "great hall" and "cell," yet still remain plausible. After all, it is our highly evolved imaginations that allow us both to imagine our humble surroundings as great halls and to produce lasting works of literature.

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

What is it to sing? To receive breath
From the genius of creation.

That is gorgeous. Thank you.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

*smiles*

You're welcome.