The Geometry of Poetry

For more information on this week's poet, Rita Dove, see the following links:

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/185

http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rfd4b/

Geometry

I prove a theorem and the house expands:
the windows jerk free to hover near the ceiling,
the ceiling floats away with a sigh.

As the walls clear themselves of everything
but transparency, the scent of carnations
leaves with them. I am out in the open

and above the windows have hinged into butterflies,
sunlight glinting where they've intersected.
They are going to some point true and unproven.

Ask The Possible: Tagore

Thanks to Johny for suggesting this post's poet: Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore was a very important figure in Bengali literature and culture. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. You can read more about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore#Poetry

Though Tagore has written many longer poems, novels, and plays, the following is one of his shorter poems.

Ask The Possible

Asks the Possible of the Impossible,
"Where is your dwelling-place?"
"In the dreams of the Impotent,"
comes the answer


~


A dewdrop is a perfect integrity
that has no filial memory of its parentage.


~


A mind all logic is like a knife all blade.
It makes the hand bleed that uses it.