Today's advice
Another day of National Poetry Month leads to another poem from an American poet, this time from Kay Boyle. Although she was born in Minnesota, she spent many years of her life in Paris, France -- living there with her French husband. Today's advice:
Advice to the Old (Including Myself)
by Kay Boyle
Do not speak of yourself (for God's sake) even when asked.
Do not dwell on other times as different from the time
Whose air we breathe; or recall books with broken spines
Whose titles died with the old dreams. Do not resort to
An alphabet of gnarled pain, but speak of the lark's wing
Unbroken, still fluent as the tongue. Call out the names of stars
Until their metal clangs in the enormous dark. Yodel your way
Through fields where the dew weeps, but not you, not you.
Have no communion with despair; and, at the end,
Take the old fury in your empty arms, sever its veins,
And beat it fiercely, fiercely to the wild beast's lair.
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From:
Poem A Day
Edited by Retta Bowen, Nick Temple, Nicholas Albery, Stephanie Wienrich
Hanover, NH
Zoland Books
2003, pg. 371
[General] ( April 21, 2008 09:54 PM )
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Monday April 21, 2008 
hi , love this poem , especially these lines :
"An alphabet of gnarled pain, but speak of the lark's wing
Unbroken, still fluent as the tongue. Call out the names of stars
Until their metal clangs in the enormous dark. Yodel your way
Through fields where the dew weeps, but not you, not you. "
thank you for sharing .
Posted by anna on April 22, 2008 at 12:09 AM MDT #