This is a great selection of beautiful poems, and many of my own favourites are included, so I'm happy to stay here reading for a while. Perhaps this is as close to heaven as I need to be!
Thank you for this beautiful collection, magnificent journey. One modern song flows with the rest: If You See Her Say Hello, by Bob Dylan. Epically haunting and seeringly sweet - love, loss and longing have never been expressed more poetically and poignantly.
And thank you for your thoughtful, prolific work! I have recently found your Substack publication, via a Note regarding your translation of Rimbaud and restacking of the post.
I'm glad you found me and if you like anything you found enough to keep reading, I'm honored. If you like my Rimbaud translations, you may like my Rilke and Sappho translations as well.
You have picked some hum-dingers, Michael. "When You Are Old" may very well be my all time favorite. It inspired a poem in me, the only time I remember it happening, as it did in you.
Grace and Shadows
When Autumn breathes her cold despair
and steals away the pulsing cloak of green
that sighed, knowing what our smiles would mean,
for others had found beneath its shelter there
the peace when souls together banish night.
Remember then, as time's shadows cloud your eyes,
how sadly love waned and scourged with lies,
ended-- as Icarus did his flight.
Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sunday Mornings" (that's the title I remember) is another that makes the all time list.
"When You Are Old" has been one of my favorites since I first read it. "But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,/ And loved the sorrows of your changing face." Captures an entire love affair in two short sentences. Incredible! "Hearthside" Your second stanza should be listed among the all-time best. Old age and lost love expressed like I've never seen. Genius born of ordinary letters and sorrow made tangible.
I was being interviewed by a journalist and he asked me to recite one of my poems. Couldn't remember a one, but I did remember "When You Are Old." He seemed to enjoy it.
Was reading your list of best songs and singers. Have you heard Dylan's "She Belongs To Me?" You just might put it on the list. And Johnny Cash's "Sunday Morning Comin' Down" written by Kris Kristofferson.
I rank her with the best female poets of the English language, along with Emily Dickinson, the little-known Anne Reeve Aldrich, Louise Bogan, Elizabeth Bishop and Sylvia Plath.
This is a great selection of beautiful poems, and many of my own favourites are included, so I'm happy to stay here reading for a while. Perhaps this is as close to heaven as I need to be!
Yes, I think beautiful poetry, music and art create a bit of heaven on earth.
Thank you for this beautiful collection, magnificent journey. One modern song flows with the rest: If You See Her Say Hello, by Bob Dylan. Epically haunting and seeringly sweet - love, loss and longing have never been expressed more poetically and poignantly.
I will be glad to add it, thanks for the suggestion.
And thank you for your thoughtful, prolific work! I have recently found your Substack publication, via a Note regarding your translation of Rimbaud and restacking of the post.
I'm glad you found me and if you like anything you found enough to keep reading, I'm honored. If you like my Rimbaud translations, you may like my Rilke and Sappho translations as well.
You have picked some hum-dingers, Michael. "When You Are Old" may very well be my all time favorite. It inspired a poem in me, the only time I remember it happening, as it did in you.
Grace and Shadows
When Autumn breathes her cold despair
and steals away the pulsing cloak of green
that sighed, knowing what our smiles would mean,
for others had found beneath its shelter there
the peace when souls together banish night.
Remember then, as time's shadows cloud your eyes,
how sadly love waned and scourged with lies,
ended-- as Icarus did his flight.
Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sunday Mornings" (that's the title I remember) is another that makes the all time list.
Got to go and read some more.
Bobby
We have something else in common with our responses to "When You are Old."
"Those Winter Sundays" is one of my favorite poems, a masterpiece in my opinion.
"When You Are Old" has been one of my favorites since I first read it. "But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,/ And loved the sorrows of your changing face." Captures an entire love affair in two short sentences. Incredible! "Hearthside" Your second stanza should be listed among the all-time best. Old age and lost love expressed like I've never seen. Genius born of ordinary letters and sorrow made tangible.
I was being interviewed by a journalist and he asked me to recite one of my poems. Couldn't remember a one, but I did remember "When You Are Old." He seemed to enjoy it.
Was reading your list of best songs and singers. Have you heard Dylan's "She Belongs To Me?" You just might put it on the list. And Johnny Cash's "Sunday Morning Comin' Down" written by Kris Kristofferson.
Yes, "When You are Old" is one of the great love poems and one of the great looser translations of all time.
I'm glad you liked "Hearthside."
I will add your song suggestions, thanks. "Sunday Morning Comin' Down" has long been one of my favorite country songs by a great songwriter.
Thank you, over and over thank you Sir Michael. Geraldine
Thank you, over and over for taking the time to read and comment!
Well now, they are all brilliant, there are no dead poets.
Yes, the best poets made themselves immortal and speak to us still.
I love D. H. Lawrence
I think "Piano" is a masterpiece, one of the best poems ever written.
I love Christina Rossetti’s body of work.
I rank her with the best female poets of the English language, along with Emily Dickinson, the little-known Anne Reeve Aldrich, Louise Bogan, Elizabeth Bishop and Sylvia Plath.
All Beautiful Poems, Michael. Thank you.
I'm glad you liked my favorites. Hard not to, I suspect.
Yes, it’s hard not to like them.