Nature Be Damned

Waiting For The Sun

We have watched from our windows as the gray skies become a permanent backdrop to late spring and early summer. This year, Seattle’s weather is giving the landscape poem new meaning. Those rolling hills are greener and wetter than usual and the movement everywhere is slower than expected  — we’re still wearing sweaters, taking baths and bracing hot drinks. And certainly no one’s racing to the park or evening BBQ’s! Yeah, it’s a bummer. One thing we can do — weather notwithstanding — is enjoy some poetry from a couple of scribes who understand what it’s like to be controlled by nature.

Turns out there’s some major truth to the meteor poet Walt Whitman referred to in his poems:

Nor forget I to sing of the wonder, the ship as she swam up my bay,
Well-shaped and stately the Great Eastern swam up my bay,
she was 600-feet long,

Her moving swiftly surrounded by myriads of small craft I forget not to sing;
Nor the comet that came unannounced out of the north flaring in heaven,
Nor the strange huge meteor-procession dazzling and clear shooting over our
heads,

(A moment, a moment long it sail’d its balls of unearthly light over
our heads,  Then departed, dropt in the night, and was gone;)

So yes, poetic inspiration is, like, astronomically real! And if you don’t consider this news far out, try reading “On Whitman,” a new book by poet CK Williams.

Next up, we visit the poetic landscapes of India, which provide the theme for today’s Literary Review. If you don’t know much about Indian poetry, here’s your chance to soak it up.

Video: India’s Poetic Landscapes

One woman who certainly loved landscape poems was Emily Dickinson.

Sepal — Petal — And A Thorn

by Emily Dickinson

A sepal — petal — and a thorn
Opon a common summer’s morn –
A flask of Dew — A Bee or two –
A Breeze — a’caper in the trees –
And I’m a Rose!

Dickinson even has her own show at the New York Botanical Gardens.

Wow, that woman does everything posthumously!

– Lori Huskey