Posts Tagged ‘origin’

Who She Is

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Should I tell her who she is
And ruin your surprise?

How long did you want her to forget
Who her father is
And ahh, her mother too?

I have kept my promise to serve.
But I can no longer look upon her and pretend
That her rags and fetters are real.
Even if I keep silent, my eyes reveal.

Shall I make it subtle
Or shall I be quick?
Will she believe?
Or run away thinking I am mad?

Who her father is
And ahh, her mother too!

Did you cause this meeting
Only so I should betray you,
And reveal to her that she is
A lady of the most noble birth.

© 2009 Ron Herman

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A few words from W.S. Merwin

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

“Poetry begins with hearing. It is more physical than prose.”

“Poetry is really about what can’t be said.”

“When you really get a poem, don’t you have a feeling that you discovered it yourself, that you remembered it?”

- W. S. Merwin, in an interview with Bill Moyers, 2009

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Emergence of Language

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

“You see a silent photograph of an Iraqi woman whose husband or son or brother has just been killed by an explosion. You know that if you can hear, you’d hear one long vowel of grief, just senseless, meaningless vowel of grief.  That’s the beginning of language.  Inexpressible sound.  It’s antisocial, it’s destructive, it’s utterly painful beyond expression, and the consonants are the attempts to break it, control it, do something with it.  I think that’s how language emerges.”

- W. S. Merwin, in an interview with Bill Moyers 2009

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