Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Museum(s)

“The building has the ability to wrap itself around you, making you feel safe. All the animosity if the street is left outside, for everyone in there has come for the same reason. To be humbled by art.”
― Carrie Adams, The Godmother

The front view of National Museum New Delhi India

"When you think about it, department stores are kind of like museums."

 ― Andy Warhol

“As once-colonized nations seek to stand on their own, the countries once denuded of their past seek to assert their independent identities through the objects that tie them to it. The demand for restitution is a way to reclaim history, to assert a moral imperative over those who were once overlords.”
― Sharon Waxman, Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures . . .

Street facade of the Castillo Serrallés — overlooking Ponce, in southern Puerto Rico. 
(An agricultural museum that showcases the sugar cane and its derivative rum industry)

Midweek Motif ~ Museum(s)

Can museum be a verb?  I love museum-ed objects of art and history and the buildings that stage them and the evidence of choices made of what to include and why.  Lately, I sit down frequently, so appreciate the many benches that dot museums.  Also, I've grown to enjoy smaller and more obscure collections than in the past.  How about you?

Your Challenge: Pick a museum, pick any museum, and write a new poem that takes us there. 
 

The Louvre in Paris.

Museum Piece

by Richard Wilbur

The good grey guardians of art
Patrol the halls on spongy shoes,
Impartially protective, though
Perhaps suspicious of Toulouse.
Here dozes one against the wall,
Disposed upon a funeral chair.
A Degas dancer pirouettes
Upon the parting of his hair.
See how she spins! The grace is there,
But strain as well is plain to see.
Degas loved the two together:
Beauty joined to energy.
Edgar Degas purchased once
A fine El Greco, which he kept
Against the wall beside his bed
To hang his pants on while he slept.

The Only Museum

By Ben Purkert

 

by this point you must be hungry

for God not the real thing only

flecks of gold paint the marble bust

of a half-bull half-man

today I took a visit to the only

museum and every last gallery was

packed with snow I mean this

literally the whole place

frozen I didn’t stay long

I was worried about melting

the art I touched my eyes lightly

to each flake and when I left

the museum I believed a bit more

in God the strangest thing was

I never shivered I knew love

the whole time

Truth is not the secret of a few

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

'Truth is not the secret of a few

yet

you would maybe think so

the way some

librarians

and cultural ambassadors and

especially museum directors

act

you'd think they had a corner

on it

the way they

walk around shaking

their high heads and

looking as if they never

went to the bath

room or anything

But I wouldn't blame them

if I were you

They say the Spiritual is best conceived

in abstract terms

and then too

walking around in museums always makes me

want to

'sit down'

I always feel so

constipated

in those

high altitudes

Map of museums all over the world (interactive map)

   

Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community—

              (Next week Sumana’s Midweek Motif will be ~ Glory.)
 

When you think about it, department stores are kind of like museums. Andy Warhol
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/museums

When you think about it, department stores are kind of like museums. Andy Warhol
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/museums

When you think about it, department stores are kind of like museums. Andy Warhol
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/museums

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ The World Is A Beautiful Place

 “The mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.”— Milton

SOURCE

“Mathematics has beauty and romance. It’s not a boring place to be, the mathematical world. It’s an extraordinary place; it’s worth spending time there.”— Marcus du Sautoy

Midweek Motif ~ The World Is A Beautiful Place

The world is a beautiful place is the title and the first line of one of the poems of Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Whether the world is truly beautiful or not so depends on an individual’s perspectives of the world. It’s an open ended line.

Either support or invalidate it. Be sarcastic if you please J

The world might refer to the planet of ours. It might be our own home or a place we love. A person might become our world or books. When everything is going right anything has the chance of becoming our world.

What if when it’s not so?

Our Motif for today is: The World Is A Beautiful Place:

The World Is A Beautiful Place

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't mind happiness
not always being
so very much fun
if you don't mind a touch of hell
now and then
just when everything is fine
because even in heaven
they don't sing
all the time

The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't mind some people dying
all the time
or maybe only starving
some of the time
which isn't half bad
if it isn't you

Oh the world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't much mind
a few dead minds
in the higher places
or a bomb or two
now and then
in your upturned faces
or such other improprieties
as our Name Brand society
is prey to
with its men of distinction
and its men of extinction
and its priests
and other patrolmen

and its various segregations
and congressional investigations
and other constipations
that our fool flesh
is heir to

Yes the world is the best place of all
for a lot of such things as 
making the fun scene
and making the love scene
and making the sad scene
and singing low songs and having inspirations
and walking around
looking at everything
and smelling flowers
and goosing statues
and even thinking
and kissing people and
making babies and wearing pants

and waving hats and
dancing
and going swimming in rivers
on picnics
in the middle of the summer
and just generally
'living it up' 
Yes
but then right in the middle of it 
comes the smiling

mortician 

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 ~ "What if?")

I Wish I'd Written This

Seascape  With Sun and Eagle

By Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Freer
than most birds
an eagle flies up
over San Francisco
freer than most places
soars high up
floats and glides high up
in the still
open spaces

flown from the mountains
floated down
far over ocean
where the sunset has begun
a mirror of itself

He sails high over
turning and turning
where seaplanes might turn
where warplanes might burn

He wheels about burning
in the red sun
climbs and glides
and doubles back upon himself
now over ocean
now over land
high over pinwheels suck in sand
where a rollercoaster used to stand

soaring eagle setting sun
All that is left of our wilderness 

Someone reported on facebook the other day that the amiable beat poet and founder of City Lights bookshop, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, had died at 94. However none of the online encyclopedias seems to have got on to it yet, though they are usually prompt, and I can't find a news report — so I rather doubt it. I did find a report that he had died last year at 93, but this cannot be so, as surely the encyclopedias would have caught up by now. I also saw a strong assertion that he died in 1997 at the age of 78, but I think we can discount that one — his last book of poems was published in 2012. Whatever the facts, he's clearly one of those who lives until he dies.

I was tempted to post his Somewhere During Eternity today, because he is famous as a beat poet and it's in beat language, and because this is Good Friday and the poem is about Jesus and the crucifixion. (On the face of it that poem might seem anti-Christian, but I think it's quite the opposite, albeit ironic.) 

But after all, this above is the Ferlinghetti poem I'd most wish to have written, for its message and its beauty. The setting is San Francisco, and my only experience of that city is a wonderful afternoon between planes in 1998, but its truths would apply anywhere (sadly).

His output is prodigious, and you can find a full bibliography in the Wikipedia article, which is worth reading in full. There are two pages of his books available for purchase at Amazon, and you can read more of his poems here. You'll see that his work, whilst having a recognisable voice, is versatile in style.

Did I mention that he's my favourite beat poet, Ginsberg notwithstanding? (Well, sometimes I think Corso was my favourite instead. But that's another story and perhaps another post.) I never met Mr Ferlinghetti, nor had any communication with him — so how can I describe him as amiable? That's an impression I've formed from reading what others say about him. He seems to be a thoroughly nice bloke. There is no doubt he has done a lot in his long life to help other poets and further the cause of poetry, and has lived true to his lights.

Poems and photos used in ‘I Wish I’d Written This’ remain the property of the copyright holders (usually their authors).