Saturday, September 10, 2016

Here’s a poem for today



Here’s a poem for today by Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac and me. I made this poem by collecting the first lines of this week’s offerings. The line from William Wordsworth is a moment of delight, but as for the other six: an anecdotal sameness sets in rather quickly. Keillor’s reading voice adds an extra element of sameness, covering everything in dreary piety. Everyone sounds alike, or at least like cousins.

If I were a novice in poetry, The Writer’s Almanac would probably convince me that poetry had very little to offer. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along. But putting these lines next to one another makes, I think, for greater interest. (Parataxis FTW!) The last stanza seems especially promising.

Related reading
A Palm memo
The “well-crafted” poem
All OCA poetry posts (Pinboard)

[Credit where it’s due: I have learned the publication date of On the Road from The Writer’s Almanac , which deepened my understanding of Nancy . And I have learned that “Be well, do good work, and keep in touch” is a registered trademark®.]

comments: 2

shallnot said...

Parataxis? Yup, federal and provincial governments do take their share of my earnings... :-)

Michael Leddy said...

I used to tell my students that the only things certain in modernist literature are dearth and parataxis.