A Little Poetry for You: Moore

Happy Poetry Friday! The round-up can be found at this link.

I'm off for a sailing trip today, and leave you with this little bit about the sea.

A Grave
by Marianne Moore

Man looking into the sea,
taking the view from those who have as much right to it as you have to yourself,
it is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing,
but you cannot stand in the middle of this;
the sea has nothing to give but a well excavated grave.
The firs stand in a procession, each with an emerald turkey-foot at the top,
reserved as their contours, saying nothing;
repression, however, is not the most obvious characteristic of the sea;
the sea is a collector, quick to return a rapacious look.

Go here for the rest of this poem.

No reliable audio this time (you might try this link but it didn't work for me), but here's a bio of the poet. She worked at the New York Public Library, just like other people we admire who may or may not have blogs and who appreciate good poetry.

While you're there reading the bio, click on the link to read another good poem called "Baseball and Writing." Moore was a big baseball fan, and it shows in this second poem!

Update: here's an audio clip of Moore reading "Silence." Quite interesting.

Back next week!