It’s Poetry Friday, hosted this week by Molly Hogan HERE at Nix the Comfort Zone. Thank you for hosting, Molly!
This week, I spent some time on the prompts Laura Shovan posted on Poetry Friday LAST WEEK. “Bodies” are the theme for her February Poetry Project. Thank you, Laura, for inviting us to be part of it. I found the prompts fun and challenging.
As I was choosing a subject for this week’s post I realized that Valentine’s Day is a few days off. I remember sending valentines like the one below made with paper lace doilies for my classmates. Be Mine, Valentine!
I searched for a love poem this week and on my shelves I found an old one, written in 1606 by Ben Jonson. Looks white, he’s not someone you would swoon over, perhaps, though that’s in the eye of the beholder. But I think he makes up for it in depth of feeling and earnestness. That’s really what matters.
Though four hundred years old, his love poem, in iambic meter, was immediately familiar, and so smooth to read aloud, maybe that’s why someone eventually put it to music:
SONG: TO CELIA
Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I'll not look for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise
Doth ask a drink divine:
But might I of Jove's nectar sup,
I would not change for thine.
I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
Not so much honoring thee,
As giving it a hope that there
It could not withered be.
But thou theron didst only breathe,
And sent'st it back to me,
Since when it grows and smells, I swear,
Not of itself, but thee.
I like the notion that the rose the lover gives to his love, Celia, could not wither. His love for her imbues it with life.
To write my own poem for this post, I found a Van Gogh painting, a picture that offered a possibility for an ekphrastic poem appropriate for Valentine’s Day.
The Dutch genius is one of my favorite artists, and I know I’m not alone. His yellows and blues, his skies and his flowers never fail to evoke strong emotion whenever I look at them. In this painting, Starry Night over the Rhône, at first I didn’t notice the two figures in the lower right. But there they were, with this fabulous backdrop, walking closely together as if oblivious to it. If they are lovers, maybe the stars and water are transformed by their love, like Jonson’s roses.
STAGELIGHTS (After Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhône) A starry night at the river bend, constellations in green starbursts— fantastic fireworks sparkle down on the waves flowing forever towards the sea, while a man and woman, arms linked, cloaked against the night air, stroll in the ancient light as if it shimmered for them. © Janice Scully 2021
I hope everyone has a good week. Maybe Valentine’s Day can provide momentary levity this week during the pandemic while teachers, health care workers, the government, and all essential workers continue to get the country back on track.
Do you want more info about Poetry Friday? Check HERE.