How Do Scientists Connect with Poetry Through Favorite Poets?

[SixNein]

I pretty fond of Silvia Plath.

 

[Dembadon]

Billy Collins!
----------------------------------
"Victoria's Secret"

by Billy Collins

The one in the upper-left-hand corner
is giving me a look
that says I know you are here
and I have nothing better to do
for the remainder of human time
than return your persistent but engaging stare.
She is wearing a deeply scalloped
flame-stitch halter top
with padded push-up styling
and easy side-zip tap pants.

The one on the facing page, however,
who looks at me over her bare shoulder,
cannot hide the shadow of annoyance in her brow.
You have interrupted me,
she seems to be saying,
with your coughing and your loud music.
Now please leave me alone;
let me finish whatever it was I was doing
in my organza-trimmed
whisperweight camisole with
keyhole closure and point d'esprit mesh back.

Continued here: http://www.class.uidaho.edu/cae_core/Links/CollinsVictoria.htm

 

[zoobyshoe]

I pretty fond of Silvia Plath.

That's an amazing and very disturbing poem.

 

[Newai]

William Carlos Williams.

He was also a doctor who brought about a thousand babies into the world.

 

[Evo]

A couple of my favorites

Richard Brautigan

Haiku Ambulance

A piece of green pepper
fell
off the wooden salad bowl:
so what

http://www.poemhunter.com/richard-brautigan/poems/

And

"This is my beloved"
Walter Benton

Entry April 28


Because hate is legislated written into the primer and the testament shot into
our blood and brain like vaccine or vitamins because our day is of time, of
hours and the clock-hand turns, closes the circle upon us and black timeless
night sucks us in like quicksand, receives us totally without a raincheck or
a parachute, a key to heaven or the last long look
I need love more than ever now...I need your love.
I need love more than hope or money, wisdom or a drink.

continued...

http://members.shaw.ca/vintage41/beloved/benton.html

And

Sudden Light

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

Sudden Light


I HAVE been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

http://www.potw.org/archive/potw52.html

 

[turbo]

Too many favorites, though most of them are from the English Romantic movement. Here's one by Shelley:

The Cloud

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,
As she dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
And whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder. (snip)

http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/PShelley/cloud.html

 

[phinds]

Lots of favorites. Wallace Stevens is one. Here are a couple of stanzas from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird:

V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendos,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.



X
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.

 

[Evo]

Just a caution, if the poem is not in the public domain, just paste a stanza and link to it. Even if it is in the public domain, if it is a lengthy poem, perhaps post a few stanzas and link to the rest so people don't have to keep scrolling.

If you have not checked and know for a fact that something is not under copyright, just link to it. If I have to check for copyright and it is, you will receive an infraction. Just err on the side of caution.

Thanks everyone!

 

[arildno]

Now is the winter of our discontent, where the darling boys of May hold hands against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.
Ay, that's the rub, or as you like it, a comedy of errors.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Sudden Light


I HAVE been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

You have been mine before,—
How long ago I may not know:
But just when at that swallow's soar
Your neck turned so,
Some veil did fall,—I knew it all of yore.

Has this been thus before?
And shall not thus time's eddying flight
Still with our lives our love restore
In death's despite,
And day and night yield one delight once more?

I have never run across this poem. Clearly he was describing a Deja Vu.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Now is the winter of our discontent, where the darling boys of May rage against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.
Ay, that's the rub, or as you like it, a comedy of errors.

A man, young in flesh and bone and sinew, there was from Nantucket.
Whose all in all was vast like unto a bucket.
A king of infinite space, it was such
that the lady doth protest too much

I can't finish the poem, I think it's still under copyright.

 

[SixNein]

Here is a classic:
"[URL
Let Evening Come by - Jane Kenyon[/URL]

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a youtube video of her reading this poem. =/

I did manage to find someone singing it through:

 

[SixNein]

Just a note: If the author is remotely modern, see if you can find a youtube video of the author reading the poem.

 

[turbo]

I think I can find a poetry slam of Shelley, Coleridge, Keats, and Byron all together on YouTube. No Robert Burns, though. He was notoriously camera-shy.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Don McLean

I like singing poets best.

 

[SixNein]

Ann Sexton reads wanting to die

 

[ThomasT]

http://www.octopusmagazine.com/Issue09/browning.htm

 

[fluidistic]

Guillaume Appollinaire and then Arthur Rimbaud.

 

[SixNein]

Sudden Light

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

Sudden Light


I HAVE been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

http://www.potw.org/archive/potw52.html

I like this =)

 

[Evo]

I like this =)

He was also a gifted artist.

http://www.google.com/search?source...US339US339&q=dante+gabriel+rossetti+paintings

 

[micromass]

Bob Dylan. Or isn't he allowed?
Jim Morrison is also great.

 

[Chi Meson]

I had the good fortune of taking several classes with Carolyn Forche back in the early 90s while I got my MFA. Here is her smash hit poem, "The Colonel." It has a naughty word near the end, cover your children's ears.

Oh, not a happy, uplifting poem, or poet.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Bob Dylan.

I was trying to think of my favorite in a poetic context and McLean was the only person that came to mind [could be the lack of sleep]. I did think of a few others like Lennon, but in a poetic sense I prefer McLean.

Dylan; that would be the one.

 

[SixNein]

I had the good fortune of taking several classes with Carolyn Forche back in the early 90s while I got my MFA. Here is her smash hit poem, "The Colonel." It has a naughty word near the end, cover your children's ears.

Oh, not a happy, uplifting poem, or poet.

For some reason, poetry always seems better when the author reads it. I was hoping more people would post videos of their favourite poets reading a poem.

 

[Moonbear]

For some reason, poetry always seems better when the author reads it. I was hoping more people would post videos of their favourite poets reading a poem.

Actually, this summer, a group was invited to perform poetry for the program I was teaching in. It was amazing, to say the least! I've heard authors of poetry do readings, but it was never so exciting and amazing as that group actually performing it. I'll give them a little plug, because they were so great, and because they do these performances for school groups of all ages. Their website is www.poetryalive.com There are some video clips there of some excerpts from performances. The one I saw was done by Ken and Nadine (though I think they said they're retiring this year ).

 

[SixNein]

Actually, this summer, a group was invited to perform poetry for the program I was teaching in. It was amazing, to say the least! I've heard authors of poetry do readings, but it was never so exciting and amazing as that group actually performing it. I'll give them a little plug, because they were so great, and because they do these performances for school groups of all ages. Their website is www.poetryalive.com There are some video clips there of some excerpts from performances. The one I saw was done by Ken and Nadine (though I think they said they're retiring this year ).

Nice

I think poetry gets a bad rap. Some of the best writing ever is in poetry.

 

[Chi Meson]

For some reason, poetry always seems better when the author reads it. I was hoping more people would post videos of their favourite poets reading a poem.

Here's Wallace Stevens reading my favorite poem of his, "Idea of Order at Key West." To me it is an "answer poem" to his "Connoisseur of Chaos." In a weird way, I always thought he was aware of fractals a few decades ahead of Mandelbrot.

Unfortunately, I don't think Wallace reads his own poetry very well--far too many pauses.

 

[SixNein]

Here's Wallace Stevens reading my favorite poem of his, "Idea of Order at Key West." To me it is an "answer poem" to his "Connoisseur of Chaos." In a weird way, I always thought he was aware of fractals a few decades ahead of Mandelbrot.

Unfortunately, I don't think Wallace reads his own poetry very well--far too many pauses.

Ha ha ha well... i guess they all can't be winners.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Thomas reading "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Goodnight"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyWiE1vNSxU

 

[HeLiXe]

Edgar Allen Poe...although Chaucer does make me laugh a bit. Zoobyshoe has also written some pretty cool things on PF, and the Little Lizard Poem thread is filled with talent