bloggers (silent) poetry reading
February 2, 2010
Leda and The Swan
William Butler Yeats
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?
A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
Photo credit: Hamish Irvine
For more information on the Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading, click here.
Thank you to Peter for reading this poem to me over the phone a few nights ago. I had never heard it before.
Posted by jodi on February 2, 2010 at 9.03am
bloggers (silent) poetry reading
February 2, 2009
Poem
Leonard Cohen
I heard of a man
who says words so beautifully
that if he only speaks their name
women give themselves to him.
If I am dumb beside your body
while silence blossoms like tumors on our lips
it is because I hear a man climb stairs
and clear his throat outside our door.
From Let Us Compare Mythologies. Contact Press, 1956.
For information on the bloggers silent poetry reading, visit this site.
Posted by jodi on February 2, 2009 at 12.11pm
