Tag: big blue

The Biggest Thing There Is

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INTERVIEWER:

There’s a sense of great space in your poems. Would you trace that to growing up in Kansas?

STAFFORD:

I sometimes have thought about that, yes. In our world at least half of the world was sky; that is the way I’ve sometimes phrased it to myself. I mean, there’s the land, but it isn’t as big as the sky. Someone told me a wonderful story about a woman who came out from Nebraska and wanted to see the Pacific Ocean. The motel person said, Yes, you can see it if you walk down to the end of the road. This visitor stood there a few moments on the beach, and then walked back, and the motel person said, What do you think of it? And she said, Well, it’s all right, but I can’t help but think it isn’t as big as I thought it would be. This was the Pacific Ocean! Well, she was from Nebraska, I know about that. That’s the biggest thing there is—the sky! It’s there, and it’s an abiding puzzle, presence, and invitation.

—William Stafford, from “The Art of Poetry No. 67,” The Paris Review (Winter 1993, No. 129)

Credits:

You can never have too much sky

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blue-colors

You can never have too much sky.
You can fall asleep
and wake up drunk on sky,
and sky can keep you safe when you are sad.
Here there is too much sadness
and not enough sky.
Butterflies are too few
and so are flowers
and most things that are beautiful.
Still we take what we can get and make the best of it.

— Sandra Cisneros

Credits: Image – A Poet Reflects. Poem: Stalwart Reader from The House on Mango Street

The greatest crime of all

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water-ripples-blue

2:30 am.
The mind is buzzing.
Thoughts zipping around like skeeter bugs on the surface of a still pond.
Most leaving faint ripples in their wake.
Work. Weight. Weekend. Work. Work. Work.

But One lingers. And has lingered since yesterday morning.

I’m pulling out of the gas station.
The morning traffic is blocking the exit.
Nine cars pass.
I’m counting.
A pick-up finally stops.
I can see the outline of his face.
He’s not smiling.
He doesn’t wave me in.
He just stops.
And waits.

One small gesture.

And it stuck.

And that small gesture…

Led the mind to leapfrog to The greatest crime of all… Continue reading “The greatest crime of all” →

The air gold and so clean it quivers

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autumn,fall,colors,photography

“I remember it as October days are always remembered, cloudless, maple-flavored, the air gold and so clean it quivers.”

~ Leif Enger, Peace Like a River 

“In 2002, Peace Like a River was a National Bestseller and hailed as one of the year’s top five novels by Time, and selected as one of the best books of the year by nearly all major newspapers.” If you haven’t read this wonderful book, it is worth your time. Find it here.

Credits: Thank you Dan @ Your Eyes Blaze Out for the quote. Photograph: micspics444 @ flicker.

Blue on Blue

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red balloon over Manhattan

Knot by knot I untie myself from the past
And let it rise away from me like a balloon.
What a small thing it becomes.
What a bright tweak at the vanishing point, blue on blue.

~ Charles Wright, closing lines to “Arkansas Traveller,” from The Other Side of the River

Poem Source: Thank you A Poet Reflects. Image: Thank you Dr. Bill Wooten