October 6: Poems, Poets, Madeleine L'Engle, "Annunciation"

I've just spent the last couple of hours reading poems for the university's literary magazine.  Some of them excited me.  Some of them left me cold.  I wish I could come up with a definition of what makes a good poem.  Emily Dickinson had a pretty good definition:  "If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way?"

I think I've always subscribed to Dickinson's definition.  Good poetry has to be a physical thing for me.  I have to feel cold, unstitched, wounded.  The best poems, the ones to which I return again and again, have a moment.  I refer to it as the breathless moment.  It's when I read a line, and it literally knocks the air out of my lungs.  That's poetry.

So, I wasn't feeling very winded after I got done reviewing the poems for the magazine.  There were hiccups.  Maybe an audible sniff.  But no gut punches.  I wasn't surprised.  There are very few poets who can take off the top of my head, as Dickinson said.  What I read today was beautiful.  Moving at times.  But not breathtaking.

The Poet of the Week is Madeleine L'Engle, and she can take my breath away.  I know what you're all thinking:  didn't she write A Wrinkle in Time?  She writes poetry, too?  Yes, Madeleine L'Engle is a poet, and a damn good one.  At times a breathtaking one.

L'Engle took Saint Marty's head off with this poem.

 Annunciation

by:  Madeleine L'Engle

Sorrowfully
the angel appeared
before the young woman
feared
to ask what must be asked,
a task
almost too great to bear.
With care,
mournfully,
the angel bare
the tidings of great joy,
and then
great grief.
Behold, thou shalt bring forth a son.
This must be done.
There will be no reprieve.

2

Another boy
born of woman (who shall also grieve)
full of grace
and innocence
and no offense--
a lovely one
of pure and unmarked face.

3

How much can a woman bear?

4

Pain will endure for a night
but joy comes in the morning.

His name is Judas.

That the prophets may be fulfilled
he must play this part.
It must be done.
Pain will endure.
Joy comes in the morning.

My head's off to Emily