Life in ten poems, eight song titles, and five movie lines

You who read this blog regularly know I can’t resist any meme involving poetry, and hence it was only a matter of time before I succumbed to the Ten Poems meme. The idea is to post ten poems that represent what you want to write. Here are a rapidly-chosen ten of mine:

John Ashbery, "Wet Casements"
Elizabeth Bishop, "The Shampoo"
Anne Carson, "Hopper: Confessions"
John Donne, "A Valediction of Weeping"
George Herbert, "Prayer" (1)
Andrew Marvell, "The Mower’s Song"
James Merrill, "The Victor Dog"
Paul Muldoon, "Milkweed and Monarch"
Susan Stewart, "The Forest"
Cole Swensen, "The Invention of Streetlights"

(That was harder than it looked.)

Via Poesy Galore and TangognaT. Also from TangognaT is this one, on a related note:

Step 1) Pick a band or singer
Step 2) Answer the questions using only song titles
Step 3) Post

Artist: The Magnetic Fields (all titles from 69 Love Songs)

Are you male or female?: Queen of the Savages

Describe yourself:
Very Funny

How do some people feel about you?:
A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off

How do you feel about yourself?:
I Think I Need a New Heart

Describe what you want to be:
The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side

Describe your current mood:
Yeah! Oh Yeah!

Describe your friends:
Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing

Share a few words of wisdom:
Love Is Like A Bottle Of Gin

Note: the Magnetic Fields’ songs count as poetry as far as I’m concerned. This is not quite true of random movie lines, but I’m on a roll. Asks OGIC: "What are the first five movie quotes that pop into your head? They must be from different movies." Okay then:

"Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up." (Sunset Boulevard)
"Well, I think you should quit." (The Royal Tenenbaums)
"A wolf without a foot!" "A bride without a head!" (Moonstruck)
"Put the blame on Mame, boys, put the blame on Mame…" (Gilda)
"You’d make an excellent Dread Pirate Roberts." (The Princess Bride)

So there you have it. Propagate at will.

Comments are closed.