Monday, December 29, 2008

Made Me Cry (Almost)

Everything that I have tried to say in my poetry, is captured in these few lines. When I read them, I felt my heart shiver. It will haunt my dreams, tonight.


Forgotten Language
by Shel Silverstein


Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly 
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying 
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers . . .
How did it go?
How did it go?

4 comments:

  1. Wow, that IS good. Where'd you come across this piece?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love that poem! It's on my wall!
    Honestly, when I need some inspiration and my muse isn't giving it (she's moody), I read that and I suddenly can work again.
    And yes, it's everything that I want to be able to say through my work. Of course, I'll have the boring, needful stuff that I'll write in order to live and eat, but this... will be the truthful life-opus. :)

    -Linden

    ReplyDelete
  3. P.S. Posting at two in the morning? *curious look* I know it's tempting to blog all the time, but there is a time for sleep. However, since I already knew that you stayed up really late writing, you have a good excuse for this post. (And now you have facebook... which is another symptom of late nights on computers...)

    -Linden

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's in Shel Silverstein's 'Where the Sidewalk Ends', I believe . . . I actually found it online, though. The only Silverstein books I own are 'Falling Up' and that beautiful fable 'The Giving Tree'. Can't say that I like 'Falling Up' much, but this poem was amazing.

    ReplyDelete

Penny for your thoughts?