from a new, guest blogger:
I've recently set up my email to receive any new postings on this blog, which
makes me a more committed book club member, I guess!
I love this book of poems. I have often asked myself: Why are poems effective?
I think because they are boiled down to their essence. There is no excess, and
so we are not distracted from the main message. We are enabled to see polished
gems of ideas. It reminds me of the tale of an old Chinese wood carver who
carved the most exquisite water birds. One day he was asked how he sculpted so
exquisitely, and he replied that he simply carved away everything that did not
resemble a waterbird. Poets do that too, with words.
I've been considering the poem on page 47, Reward, by Wilhelmina Belle Barnes.
How about the preposterousness of thinking that all that you need to say can be
encapsulated in 4 short lines! And how effective it is, leaving us somewhere
different from where it found us, and demanding action of us! It most certainly
is a complete and potent idea
Marie Fox
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