The past two weeks have left me feeling a little frazzled. I have a to-do list that's 8 miles long, and then there's the politics, hurricanes, September 11, Lauren Conrad and her book deal, several exploding inboxes...It's all been a little much. I spent most of the week reading political news and writing a poem that begins with, "Russia: You can see it from Alaska..." And guess what? My poem is, well, a little unhinged.
So, instead, for this Poetry Friday I turn to my friend the Snowy Owl (snapped in a Scottish Wildlife park) and Czeslaw Milosz's "Incantation" for some wisdom, some reason, and some peace.
Here are the first eight lines of "Incantation":
Human reason is beautiful and invincible.
No bars, no barbed wire, no pulping of books,
No sentence of banishment can prevail against it.
It establishes the universal ideas in language,
And guides our hand so we write Truth and Justice
With capital letters, lie and oppression with small.
It puts what should be above things as they are,
Is an enemy of despair and a friend of hope....
Read the rest of "Incantation" at PoetryFoundation.org.
Read the rest of "Incantation" at PoetryFoundation.org.
I've nearly missed Poetry Friday. I'm headed over to Biblio File now to read the round up.
