Goldstars

[osprey_archer]

I haven't posted a poem in a long time. How can this be? I am remiss, remiss.

This poem comes from the Shadow Poetry contest, back when they had contests. The quality of the poetry varies but the ones on this page are all quite short, so it's like looking through a chocolate box and trying to figure out where the truffle is hiding.

Here's one of them, no searching needed.

Goldstars
by Maralee Gerke

Too early for bees,
the tiny flowers of
Goldstar shimmer in
a spreading yellow carpet.
their golden tongues beckon
me to lie down and
pollinate my dreams.

Pollinate. Doesn't that just make the poem? Such an odd use of the word, but so right.

We've been reading poetry in Russian class. There is something very satisfying about Pushkin, even when you have no earthly idea what he's saying; you can hear the rhythm in it, and you know that this is real poetry, and this is why for centuries poetry was the pinnacle of art.

Comments

[exuberantself.livejournal.com]

You know, I was just thinking how absurd it is that it's National Poetry Month--something I've celebrated for four years now--and I haven't posted so much as a rhyme.

You're right, the pollinate is what makes the poem stand out. The images are nice (especially the "too early for bees" bit), but between the punch of the unexpected word choice, the fact it's the longest word used and takes up more than half its lines meter, and the potential discord between the connotations word itself--the birds and the bees anyone?--and its more sublime usage...yeah, pollinate is my now my word of the day.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Yes. It's like - until pollinate it's a nice poem, you would read it and go "Aw, cute," and forget about it, but the pollinate makes it POP.

[longlegs21.livejournal.com]

I'm just finishing a 19th-century Russian poetry class, and Pushkin is so not overrated. Every time I study poetry, I have to be reconvinced that it can be interesting, powerful, beautiful, and worthwhile. Somehow my natural aversion always makes me forget its virtues. But this time around, Pushkin is sticking with me. And you're right: even if you don't understand a word, they really are some of the best-sounding poems I've ever read. A few of my favorites that we read: Prophet, To Chaadaev, and Onegin's letter to Tatyana (from Evgeny Onegin).

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think current American culture inculcates a suspicion of poetry; it's hard, when you haven't read any for a while, to remember why it is worthwhile and not just an annoyingly elliptical way to explain a point that could be more easily explained in prose.