Safire Rose and Stella Graham-Landau - Living Your Poetry Series

Well, I would like to read a poem, um, that I actually wrote in response to this idea about living your poetry and what does that mean.

Um, I, and I do, I wanna preface it by saying, you know, poems, uh, so many people will say, "I, I don't, I don't read poems.

I, uh, yeah." But most people listen to music, and music is essentially poems set to music, set to, to, to tunes.

Um, and s- and, uh, people love music.

They use music to, and songs to access deeper parts of themself, uh, to help them e- uh, get in touch with their emotions.

Um, so it...

That's one of the things I love about poetry, is that one of the things that we do is, and, and I've been thinking about poems for a while, is, like, quilts of words.

That we have words and phrases that kind of catch our attention, and we start putting them together in a way that creates a p- picture that is accessible in a l- a small moment, and that people can carry away with them.

You know, w- we could go buy, um, greeting cards that have, uh, you know, a few lines in them that really can touch our hearts.

So the, the poetry, I think, is, is much more valuable, much more valued than people realize.

You know, they think of it as fifth grade and I'm supposed to write a poem, and I'm supposed to read a poem and then tell everybody what it means.

And we a- a lot of us have, you know, horror stories of those times in our life.

But, you know, the truth is, poetry really i- influences us much, much more than we realize, and I'm grateful to be able to write poems.

So anyway, so here, um, is a poem that I wrote this week, and the title is Grace.

The poet distills disasters, catastrophes, and soul-searching wounds into simple prayers of reckoning, forgiveness, and grace.

Teasing out the strength and tenderness of ordinary words to ease the wrenching pain of chaos.

The same poet takes tiny moments of observation, a stroll across the leaf-strewn lawn, a glance out the window as she walks past, a nursing fawn, a faded peony, a tilting mushroom, and creates hymns of gratitude and symphonies of wonder.

Thank you.

I love that.

Thank you.

Uh, one of the things about, um...

Well, let me just sit with that for a moment.

That was really beautiful.

Thank you.

Uh, one of the things I was exploring this week, uh, around this topic that came to me is, about poetry, is metaphor.

Well, I would like to read a poem, um, that I actually wrote in response to this idea about living your poetry and what does that mean.

Um, I, and I do, I wanna preface it by saying, you know, poems, uh, so many people will say, "I, I don't, I don't read poems.

I, uh, yeah." But most people listen to music, and music is essentially poems set to music, set to, to, to tunes.

Um, and s- and, uh, people love music.

They use music to, and songs to access deeper parts of themself, uh, to help them e- uh, get in touch with their emotions.

Um, so it...

That's one of the things I love about poetry, is that one of the things that we do is, and, and I've been thinking about poems for a while, is, like, quilts of words.

That we have words and phrases that kind of catch our attention, and we start putting them together in a way that creates a p- picture that is accessible in a l- a small moment, and that people can carry away with them.

You know, w- we could go buy, um, greeting cards that have, uh, you know, a few lines in them that really can touch our hearts.

So the, the poetry, I think, is, is much more valuable, much more valued than people realize.

You know, they think of it as fifth grade and I'm supposed to write a poem, and I'm supposed to read a poem and then tell everybody what it means.

And we a- a lot of us have, you know, horror stories of those times in our life.

But, you know, the truth is, poetry really i- influences us much, much more than we realize, and I'm grateful to be able to write poems.

So anyway, so here, um, is a poem that I wrote this week, and the title is Grace.

The poet distills disasters, catastrophes, and soul-searching wounds into simple prayers of reckoning, forgiveness, and grace.

Teasing out the strength and tenderness of ordinary words to ease the wrenching pain of chaos.

The same poet takes tiny moments of observation, a stroll across the leaf-strewn lawn, a glance out the window as she walks past, a nursing fawn, a faded peony, a tilting mushroom, and creates hymns of gratitude and symphonies of wonder.

Thank you.

I love that.

Thank you.

Uh, one of the things about, um...

Well, let me just sit with that for a moment.

That was really beautiful.

Thank you.

Uh, one of the things I was exploring this week, uh, around this topic that came to me is, about poetry, is metaphor.