Inspirational Poems Biography
Source(google.com.pk)There is a pain – so utter –
It swallows substance up –
Then covers the Abyss with Trance –
So Memory can step
Around – across – opon it –
As one within a Swoon –
Goes safely – where an open eye –
Would drop Him – Bone by Bone.
—from “599” by Emily Dickinson
I thought of this Emily Dickinson poem when I got the news that the husband of a dear friend of mine had committed suicide. I do not know how my friend bears such pain. I believe it’s an act of courage for her to speak to anyone at all, much less at his funeral service in which she gave everyone there the gift of trying through her grief to articulate how much she loved him.
Dickinson’s poem is an argument. The speaker doesn’t tell us what occasioned her pain, but lets us plug in our own. There is no information in the poem that separates her from us. The poem is made to be an experience instead of referring to one, which is precisely how she says she knows poetry in her famous remark to Higginson: “If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire ever can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way.”
No, I don’t think there is. Dickinson’s poems have certainly taken the top of my head off and they frequently put it back on when I need it.
Michael Ryan
Irvine, California
To know just how He suffered – would be dear –
To know if any Human eyes were near
To whom He could entrust His wavering gaze –
—from "688" by Emily Dickinson
Read recently at the funeral of a young man who died suddenly, surprisingly, and alone, at the age of twenty-six, with no apparent cause or explanation, and lay for a time undiscovered, this poem by Emily Dickinson named the mystery uncannily and precisely as I believe nothing else could have, and performed a kind of grace.
Jeff Seroy
New York, New York
I felt my life with both my hands
To see if it was there—
I held my spirit to the Glass,
To prove it possibler—
—from "#351" by Emily Dickinson
On days I feel alienated or isolated I recite these lines to myself. The idea that one's existence—which often seems ephemeral, marginal—can be felt like a solid object in one's own hands is very comforting and reassuring. I like to imagine what my life might look like as a weaving or collage, what colors and textures it might contain. I also like Emily's neologism, "possibler." I can't help but wonder what would have happened if she had used this word in an English composition class.
Nancy Gerber
Montclair, NJ
On Lines by Gerard Manley Hopkins
...birds build -- but not I build; no, but strain,
Time's eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.
Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.
—from "Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord" by Gerard Manley Hopkins
These lines continue to sustain. They admit powerfully to a paralysis--spiritual, but also a paralysis of one's ability to make or nurture art--and yet they yearn, ultimately, in those last lines, for sustenance. This is a very real statement of what it means to be human, to be self-aware, and to struggle--against God, yes, and against oneself and the need to create. The last four words alone have come to mind often, as prayer, as chant, as mantra, as life-saving music: "send my roots rain."
Jeffrey Shotts
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes its self; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.
—from"As Kingfishers Catch Fire" by Gerard Manley Hopkins
As someone who has struggled to find my calling, my specific purpose in life, Hopkins reminds me that as a "mortal thing", I can do "one thing and the same". Hopkins asserts that my purpose, what I do, flows out of who I am. Finding my calling in life is intertwined with finding the real me. Contrary to how people define themselves by what they do, Hopkins believes that what one does, flows from who they are. Every time I read "Kingfishers", Hopkins encourages me to continue searching for why I am here and to do that "one thing and the same."
Mike Tillema
Tualatin, Oregon
On Lines by Mark Strand
We all have reasons
for moving.
I move
to keep things whole.
—from "Keeping Things Whole" by Mark Strand
I first encountered this poem buried in the depths of an anthology for a course on Contemporary American Literature. I was never assigned the poem by the professor, but I find myself continually returning to this quatrain because of its utter simplicity and complete transcendence. This poem has altered my perception of the life I act upon each day, reminding me of all that our planet contains within its atmosphere and how desperately everything seeks a feeling of connectedness. Strand acknowledges that separation is unavoidable, that feeling void or isolated occurs around every bend of existence; but, he insists, in a voice that is unimposing, that we have to keep going because absence breeds unity and unity breeds absence. One cannot exist without the other. I remember this poem on those days when I feel ready to give up, to plunge headfirst into complacency. Eventually, Strand's words replay themselves in my mind. I overcome these feelings and, simply put, keep moving.
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Inspirational Poems About Life Tumblr Wallpaper Imags Facebook Covers For Work About Love For The Day About Success And Sayings
Inspirational Poems About Life Tumblr Wallpaper Imags Facebook Covers For Work About Love For The Day About Success And Sayings
Inspirational Poems About Life Tumblr Wallpaper Imags Facebook Covers For Work About Love For The Day About Success And Sayings
Inspirational Poems About Life Tumblr Wallpaper Imags Facebook Covers For Work About Love For The Day About Success And Sayings
Inspirational Poems About Life Tumblr Wallpaper Imags Facebook Covers For Work About Love For The Day About Success And Sayings
Inspirational Poems About Life Tumblr Wallpaper Imags Facebook Covers For Work About Love For The Day About Success And Sayings
Inspirational Poems About Life Tumblr Wallpaper Imags Facebook Covers For Work About Love For The Day About Success And Sayings
Inspirational Poems About Life Tumblr Wallpaper Imags Facebook Covers For Work About Love For The Day About Success And Sayings
Inspirational Poems About Life Tumblr Wallpaper Imags Facebook Covers For Work About Love For The Day About Success And Sayings
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