Poetry Friday with Czeslaw Milosz and a Snowy Owl

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.

I've nearly missed Poetry Friday. I'm headed over to Biblio File now to read the round up.

Poetry Friday: Czeslaw Milosz

I really love poetry about poetry and the act of writing poetry. For some reason the meta- aspect of the poetic act appeals to me.

Today's Poetry Friday comes from Czeslaw Milosz's "Ars Poetica?":

The purpose of poetry is to remind us

how difficult it is to remain just one person,

for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors,

and invisible guests come in and out at will.

What I'm saying here is not, I agree, poetry,

as poems should be written rarely and reluctantly,

under unbearable duress and only with the hope

that good spirits, not evil ones, choose us for their instrument.

Isn't that wonderful?

You can read the rest of the poem here at Poetry Foundation.org.
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It's time to get a few hosts on the schedule. If you'd like to host Poetry Friday in February or March, please drop me an e-mail or a comment.

Today's round up is at The Book Mine Set.