A little Plath

My, this woman was a stunning poet. Some startling imagery, the last stanza of "Southern Sunrise":

"A quartz-clear dawn
Inch by bright inch
Gilds all our Avenue,
And out of the blue drench
Of Angel's Bay
Rises the round red watermelon sun."

A little Haiku

If Haiku is 8-5-4 syllable lines, then I've just written some. I love minimalism. :)

The snow blower's motor rattles
the iced windows
or is it the wind?

The stray cat finds safe interval
sure of escape
turns to me and blinks.

Rosalie K. Fry's Promise of the Rainbow

I haven't yet cracked it open but I'm already in love, not only with the book's sweet cover art but also with its little card pocket and all those old stamped dates and names written in childish cursive. Whoever they were, I hoped they enjoyed reading the lovely Ms. Fry!

Susan Coolidge

I came across the following poem written by Susan Coolidge today as I was reading in my Poem a Day (yes, one of my NY resolutions is to read poetry more regularly and in the morning). Here's the poem:

New Every Morning

Every day is a fresh beginning
Listen my soul to the glad refrain.
And, spite of old sorrows
And older sinning,
Troubles forecasted
And possible pain,
Take heart with the day and begin again.

Which is an excellent thought for any beginning but what struck me more was the biographical note under the poem. Apparently Coolidge wrote something called the Katy books "and other unsentimental stories in a natural style for girls." This is no small feat for a writer who lived from 1835 to 1905, decades of intense sentimentality.

I've already ordered the first Katy book from the library as one of my other resolutions is to read more classic children's literature (I can blame that one on the wonderful "Saving Mr. Banks").

Happy New Year!