Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Marriage

Marriage is memory, marriage is time. ~ Joan Didion

“The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude . . . . ”  ― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: the ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint, or obligation.” 
― Simone de Beauvoir

Midweek Motif ~ Marriage

Love and marriage

Love and marriage

Go together like a horse and carriage . . . .

And then what happens??

Your Challenge: Marry your truths about marriage to a story in a new poem.  Enjoy!

Here's some more inspiration:

The Ache of Marriage

BY DENISE LEVERTOV

The ache of marriage:

thigh and tongue, beloved,   

are heavy with it,   

it throbs in the teeth

We look for communion

and are turned away, beloved,   

each and each

It is leviathan and we   

in its belly

looking for joy, some joy   

not to be known outside it

two by two in the ark of   

the ache of it.

Denise Levertov, “The Ache of Marriage” from Poems 1960-1967. 

Copyright © 1966 by Denise Levertov.  New Directions Publishing Corporation.

Raking

BY TANIA ROCHELLE

Anna Bell and Lane, eighty,

make small leaf piles in the heat,

each pile a great joint effort,

like fifty years of marriage,

sharing chores a rusty dance.

In my own yard, the stacks

are big as children, who scatter them,

dodge and limbo the poke

of my rake. We’re lucky,

young and straight-boned.

And I feel sorry for the couple,

bent like parentheses

around their brittle little lawn.

I like feeling sorry for them,

the tenderness of it, but only

for a moment: John glides in

like a paper airplane, takes

the children for the weekend,

and I remember,

they’re the lucky ones—

shriveled Anna Bell, loving

her crooked Lane.

Used with the poet's permission.

 Reprinted from The Poetry Foundatiom.

From Karaoke Funeral, Snake Nation Press, 2003. 

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Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others 

in the spirit of the community.

(Next week, Susan's Midweek Motif will be martyrdom / witness. )

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Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Health

“We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane.” 
― Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

Flag of the WHO (World Health Organization).

“All too often women believe it is a sign of commitment, an expression of love, 

to endure unkindness or cruelty, to forgive and forget.  In actuality, 

when we love rightly we know that the healthy, loving response 

to cruelty and abuse is putting ourselves out of harm's way.” 

― bell hooks, All About Love: New Visions

“We still counted happiness and health and love and luck 

Médecins Sans Frontières

and beautiful children as "ordinary blessings.” 
― Joan Didion, Blue Nights

Midweek Motif ~ Health

Your challenge: Center a poem on 

health ~ even if you must begin with disease. 

PS: Today is also World Toilet Day.  Yes.  Feel free to write to a motif of toilets or lack of them.   Many in the world have no toilets or sanitary systems.  Water Aid.org  (link) is doing something about it.  Here's a song:  

To a Marsh Hawk in Spring

BY HENRY DAVID THOREAU

There is health in thy gray wing,

Health of nature’s furnishing.

Say, thou modern-winged antique,

Was thy mistress ever sick?

In each heaving of thy wing

Thou dost health and leisure bring,

Thou dost waive disease and pain

And resume new life again.

Progressive Health

BY CARL DENNIS

We here at Progressive Health would like to thank you   

For being one of the generous few who've promised   

To bequeath your vital organs to whoever needs them.   

Now we'd like to give you the opportunity   

To step out far in front of the other donors   

By acting a little sooner than you expected, 

. . . .

(Read the rest HERE at the Poetry Foundation.) 

For those who are new to Poets United:  

1. Post your new health poem on your site, and then link it here.
2. If you use a picture include its link.  
3. Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 
4. Leave a comment here.
5. Visit and comment on our poems.

(Next week's Midweek Motif is Gratitude)

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