The Tuesday Platform

Geoffrey G. O’Brien (May 10, 1969) is an American poet. Educated at Harvard University and University of Iowa, he has taught at Brooklyn College, The University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and has been a Distinguished Poet in Residence at St. Mary's College of California. I recently came across a poem written by him was deeply touched by the emotion in his writing:

May

This is a love poem. It has no business. It happens

in that anyway world where the bodies are by now
decided to get all the way up, accompanied

by changes in temperature and light welcome and
unwelcome both, lie down, get up, go prone again,

get nowhere in time. I won’t reduce to a single
preposition a relation to the one person about it 

like grass. Who has a pronoun, a name, three or
four even, which globe, without containing,
her experience, of which I chase awareness till  

her letters are with one exception all over this
deepening sheet, name- blind blue of a cloudless
day. Unconcerned with property disputes,
the poem gradually permits itself to figure grass,
the blue of the sky because we see those first kinds

of immense quiet as sleepers while walking the dog
in the hills and store them for future use as simile
and metaphor, each ancient and suspiciously free of
present disaster. (Read full poem here)

As a poet, O’Brien is meditative, given to neither satire nor parody and is anything but un-selfconsciously literal, the highs and lows keep the reader engrossed, but most of the poem's appeal is found in quiet passages, in the rich detail and the savouring of moments.

Welcome to the Tuesday Platform, the weekly open stage for sharing poems in the Imaginary Garden. Please link up a poem, old or new, and spend some time this week visiting the offerings of our fellow writers.

SHARE * READ * COMMENT * ENJOy

Kerry Says ~ Let's have a Conversation

conversation

noun 
a talk, especially an informal one, between two or more people, in which news and ideas are exchanged.

synonyms:
discussion, talk, chat, gossip, tête-à-tête, heart-to-heart, head-to-head, exchange, dialogue, parley, consultation, conference

[Screen capture] Click on pic to enlarge
Copyright of this poem belongs to the Livingstone estate 

Greetings to all!
Today we are taking inspiration from South African poet, Douglas Livingstone, in particular his poem, Conversation with a Giraffe at Dusk in a Zoo. For this challenge, I would like you to select an animal, portrait, statue or any suitable companion of conversation that can be successfully addressed in Apostrophe.

There are a few rules to this challenge:

• Use "second person" narrative
• The entire poem should consist of the conversation, so any references to setting, characterization etc must be included in the words spoken.
• It may be a monologue or dialogue. 
• Colloquial language, slang, informal speech is encouraged.

Have fun with this one, friends. Once you have written a new poem for this challenge please link it up below and let's engage in conversations with our fellow poets. 

A Birthday in April ~ Shakespeare

Today, the 23^rd of April, is the anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth in 1564, and—52 years later—the anniversary of his death.

~Today's Prompt~
Write a new poem inspired by 
Shakespeare, the Bard.

(From Becky To, with permission)

Shakespeare' influence on the English language and on world literature is hard to measure.  Chiefly remembered for his dramatic works, Shakespeare was also an inspired poet. His sonnet sequence - consisting of 154 separate poems - is often cited as "the finest collection of love poems in the English language."  

Title page of Shakespeare's Sonnets (1609)

It is also one of the most mysterious as scholars still do not know the identity of the young man and the Dark Lady who inspired them.  

Statue of Shakespeare in London. Photo Taken by Lonpicman

Other major poems by Shakespeare are: Venus and Adonis (1593), The Rape of Lucrece (1594) and A Lover's Complaint (1609).  These last are narratives complete with drama. In dialogue, they would be plays.

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~Ideas for your Shakespeare-inspired poem~

1. I imagine that I could share a joke or critique with Shakespeare!  What about you?  Try a poem of dialogue with Shakespeare.  
2. I imagine rivaling him in writing a poem to or about my love.   How about trying this, in sonnet form or free verse?
3. Or you may celebrate Shakespeare by letting a phrase or a line of his inspire a poem of your own.  You may choose any line from any Shakespeare’s drama or poems.  Here are a few of my favorite lines which may inspire you: 

~“Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.” 
~“Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?” 
~“So are you to my thoughts as food to life, or as sweet seasoned showers are to the ground.”
~“Why should we rise because 'tis light? Did we lie down because t'was night?” 
~"For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;Lillies that fester smell far worse than weeds.” 
~“What is your substance, whereof are you made,That millions of strange shadows on you tend?"
~“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
~“If music be the food of love, play on.”
~"Look, how a bird lies tangled in a net, So fasten'd in her arms Adonis lies"
~“Now I will believe that there are unicorns...”
~“Sweet are the uses of adversity Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”

Find Shakespeare quotes on the web everywhere, including:  

• "William Shakespeare: Quotes and quotations"
• Goodreads: William Shakespeare
• Google will give you the source for any of the quotes above: Just plug them in.

Enjoy!  
Remember to share the link to your new poem on Mr. Linky and leave a comment.  
Then come back to read and comment on the rest.