Flo’s Reviews > View With A Grain Of Sand: Selected Poems – A Nobel Prize-Winning Poetry Collection Celebrating Wit and Humor > Status Update
Flo
is 11% done
Travel Elegy
Everything’s mine but just on loan,
nothing for the memory to hold,
though mine as long as I look.
…
from Salt (1962)
— Jul 20, 2021 05:51PM
Everything’s mine but just on loan,
nothing for the memory to hold,
though mine as long as I look.
…
from Salt (1962)
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Flo’s Previous Updates
Flo
is 86% done
Reality Demands
…
This terrifying world is not devoid of charms,
of the mornings
that make waking up worthwhile.
from The End and the Beginning (1993)
— Jul 29, 2021 06:25PM
…
This terrifying world is not devoid of charms,
of the mornings
that make waking up worthwhile.
from The End and the Beginning (1993)
Flo
is 52% done
Smiles
…
Dreamers keep saying, “Human brotherhood
will make this place a smiling paradise.”
I’m not convinced. The statesman, in that case,
would not require facial exercise,
except from time to time: he’s feeling good,
he’s glad it’s spring, and so he moves his face.
But human beings are, by nature, sad.
So be it, then. It isn’t all that bad.
from A Large Number (1976)
— Jul 27, 2021 05:43PM
…
Dreamers keep saying, “Human brotherhood
will make this place a smiling paradise.”
I’m not convinced. The statesman, in that case,
would not require facial exercise,
except from time to time: he’s feeling good,
he’s glad it’s spring, and so he moves his face.
But human beings are, by nature, sad.
So be it, then. It isn’t all that bad.
from A Large Number (1976)
Flo
is 35% done
The letters of the dead
We read the letters of the dead like helpless gods,
but gods, nonetheless, since we know the dates that follow.
We know which debts will never be repaid.
…
from Could Have (1972)
— Jul 26, 2021 02:24PM
We read the letters of the dead like helpless gods,
but gods, nonetheless, since we know the dates that follow.
We know which debts will never be repaid.
…
from Could Have (1972)
Flo
is 19% done
The joy of writing
…
Is there then a world
where I rule absolutely on fate?
A time I bind with chains of signs?
An existence become endless at my bidding?
The joy of writing.
The power of preserving.
Revenge of a mortal hand.
From No End of Fun (1967)
— Jul 24, 2021 11:04AM
…
Is there then a world
where I rule absolutely on fate?
A time I bind with chains of signs?
An existence become endless at my bidding?
The joy of writing.
The power of preserving.
Revenge of a mortal hand.
From No End of Fun (1967)
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Junta
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rated it 4 stars
Jul 22, 2021 11:47PM
These repeated lines in that poem left an impression! I read this one just before.Ah, our memories. It made me think of how I tend to like lines in poems which talk about abstract things, like memory. In my last anthology there were too many poems which focused literally on things and people, with not much space for interpretation or relation to myself, if that makes sense.
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Junta wrote: "These repeated lines in that poem left an impression! I read this one just before.I won't retain one blade of grassas it's truly seen.Ah, our memories. It made me think of how I tend to like lines..."
Same here. :) Abstract things, timeless themes. Reading this collection reminds me of my reading experience with Kamieńska: some poems I really love, others are not as memorable. The main difference between them is something I already mentioned: Kamieńska's direct, unadorned but still poetic and powerful language. Szymborska's verses seem to be more playful and unfathomable sometimes, but also political and thought-provoking as K's poetry. For different reasons, I love them both.
