Need to the Nth Power

Love,

I have to tell you something—

It is so overpowering

Nothing dares

Come through.

"Friends, You Drank Some Darkness"

"Revelation"

Dear friends

Who are in need,

Do not be so

Easily carried away

By the promising

Lyre of darkness—

Though the sun

May not always come out

When you need it,

When it does,

It always does

What is needed.

NB: Tomas Tranströmer’s poem “Elegy”—from which Bly got the title for his translations of Swedish poetry (Martinson, Ekelöf, and Tranströmer)—is as follows:

ELEGY

I open the first door.

It is a large sunlit room.

A heavy car passes outside

and makes the china quiver.

I open door number two.

Friends! You drank some darkness

and became visible.

Door number three. A narrow hotel room.

View on an alley.

One lamppost shines on the asphalt.

Experience, its beautiful slag.

Placebo

Treat yourself if you must,

Even indulging yourself

To surfeit but remember

This bitter pill—

Poetry cures nothing.

Huuklyeand Cinquor on Poetry and the Mother Lode

Like any prospector hot on prosperity’s trail,

I claim my fair share of digging for nuggets—

But you know what?

No fool ever struck it rich by pretending

He was looking for gold.

Moderator’s comments: I can dig this, but what about all those poor fools who never pretended a spade was not a spade? 

The Toad in the Word Garden

Wherein we are transported 26 years back in time to read a review of some books of poetry and in the process come upon Miss Marianne Moore weeding out the image of a toad—together with a host of other likewise lively conceits—as welcome additions to her magical word garden, but I’m with Pinsky and a slew of other poets and critics who think Miss Moore should have left the toad in the poem. But then again, perhaps she was afraid of coming down with warts.