read poetry

or something similar (don’t have it right with me) – this is a two-book set, one for Modern, one for Contemporary – this is what I’m starting with. First poet in it is Walt Whitman.

I have no background in poetry at all so I thought I would start with stuff that might feel more familiar to me in structure and language.

Other than lame attempts in high school, I’ve never really been exposed to poetry and it seems like a good thing to explore. I’d like to find a book of poetry and try reading it before Feb.

I’m interested in Poetry and am motivated by many a poet. But after graduating from High School, I have hardly read or learnt any new poetry. I’d like to start reading – up on some good poems again. One that I can remember till date (and is also, my favourite) is Miles To Go Before I Sleep (Robert Frost).

I’m not really sure what to start with as I don’t want something to difficult to get my mind round that will just put me off. Ideas welcome… maybe something modern?

“Dear Ghosts”

is the title of this poem published in the American Poetry Review, Vol. 35/No.2 March April editon. Here’s the link:

http://www.aprweb.org/issues/mar06/gallagher.html

I’d like to share in the reading and the knowing of this poem. I loved its far-away feel and the exotic flavour of those Cairo streets, where the author shared a sidewalk cafe’ with her friend, drinking whiskey and listening to the sounds of a wedding nearby.

“We drink a little shiskey together,
joining one far midnight to another, because
my black-haired orphan is with us—she whose brown eyes
adda crackling to the night. Her glances,
black butterflies of the general soul, join me to one
who is missing…” (read the rest at
http://www.aprweb.org/issues/mar06/gallagher.html)