Poem in Your Pocket Day

It is the last day of National Poetry Month, and I'm sad that I've been too busy reading and studying poetry to post any. But other people have a done a great job of that and so I feel happy to delegate that responsibility to others. Today, however, is "Poem in Your Pocket Day", and since I don't plan on going anywhere I thought the best way to share a poem with those I care about is through the Internet. Here's a poem by John Donne that I've been mulling over in my brain a lot for the past few weeks. It really speaks to me at this time of great confusion and fearfulness:

A new philosophy calls all in doubt,
The element of fire is quite put out,
The sun is lost, and the earth, and no man's wit
Can well direct him where to look for it.

And freely men confess that this world's spent,
When in the planets and the firmament
They seek so many new; they see that this
Is crumbled out again to his atomies.

'Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone;
All just supply, and all relation:
Prince, subject, father, son, are things forgot,

For every man alone thinks he hath got
To be a phoenix , and that there can be
None of that kind, of which he is but he.

Comments

Science Teacher Mommy said…
I don't know why, but this poem reminds me of a line from a Simon and Garfunkle song. (They are poets, right?)

And so you see I've come to doubt
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you

In times of difficulty, I suppose the best we can do is cling to those we love and keep hoping for a brighter tomorrow. But don't discount the Pheonix lying dormant inside you either. ;)
5/01/2009 8:43 AM
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