request + yusef komunyakaa
Jan. 29th, 2012 06:10 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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greatpoetryHi poetry lovers,
I'm looking for poems dealing with jealousy/envy. If you know of and share any, I will appreciate it! <3 In return, here's a poem by Yusef Komunyakaa. It's from his most recent collection,The Chameleon Couch.
Ode to the Guitar
The strings tremble & traverse
back up through that other
strong muscle singing blood
& guilt. Press a finger down,
& the message changes into blame
& beauty, into the scent of a garden
rising from peat moss & brimstone …
the frets & shaped neck worked
& caressed into a phantom limb
of hope. Does it have anything to do
with how the player’s shoulder blades
curve out as if bowing over an altar
or how the doors of day & night
spring open, made to bridge
differences? Chance is fretted
till love moans swell in a gourd
hanging on an unknotted vine.
The strings hum inside stone,
undoing all the bright hooks
of promise stitched into silk
& printed cloth. Each note
true as a bone turning to dust,
suspended like an old belief
blooming from hush & blues
cries on the horizon. Catgut
& wood breathe together till
there’s a beckoning left
quivering in the dark.
I'm looking for poems dealing with jealousy/envy. If you know of and share any, I will appreciate it! <3 In return, here's a poem by Yusef Komunyakaa. It's from his most recent collection,The Chameleon Couch.
Ode to the Guitar
The strings tremble & traverse
back up through that other
strong muscle singing blood
& guilt. Press a finger down,
& the message changes into blame
& beauty, into the scent of a garden
rising from peat moss & brimstone …
the frets & shaped neck worked
& caressed into a phantom limb
of hope. Does it have anything to do
with how the player’s shoulder blades
curve out as if bowing over an altar
or how the doors of day & night
spring open, made to bridge
differences? Chance is fretted
till love moans swell in a gourd
hanging on an unknotted vine.
The strings hum inside stone,
undoing all the bright hooks
of promise stitched into silk
& printed cloth. Each note
true as a bone turning to dust,
suspended like an old belief
blooming from hush & blues
cries on the horizon. Catgut
& wood breathe together till
there’s a beckoning left
quivering in the dark.
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no subject
Date: 2012-01-30 02:13 am (UTC)Here's a poem that might be suitable for your request:
A Dog After Love
by Yehuda Amichai
After you left me
I had a bloodhound sniff at
my chest and my belly. Let it fill its nostrils
and set out to find you.
I hope it will find you and rip
your lover's balls to shreds and bite off his cock -
or at least
bring me one of your stockings between its teeth.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-01 02:50 am (UTC)http://greatpoets.livejournal.com/3234745.html#comments
no subject
Date: 2012-02-01 04:36 am (UTC)hanyway. onto the relevant part of this comment:
Envy
by Stephen Dobyns
You invite me to a banquet in your honor;
I bring my own dinner: ash and vinegar.
*
You won a prize
where I wasn't a judge.
*
I put on the news of your success
like a coat of nails.
Each step I take
is another reason to hate you.
Covetousness
by Stephen Dobyns
Keep your toys and small possessions;
I only want your hands.
Everything I touch feels like it's mine.
*
He does his shopping in the houses of his friends.
*
I dreamt I was you, sleeping with your wife,
dreaming you were me, sleeping with mine.