Just a lovely image, I wish I saw this from my flat window, over pots of tea and many poems.
…that it’s World Poetry Day.
I’m sharing this poem, by Norman MacCaig everywhere:
Toad
Stop looking like a purse. How could a purse
Squeeze under the rickety door and sit,
Full of satisfaction in a man’s house?
You clamber towards me on your four corners –
Right hand, left foot, left hand, right foot.
I love you for being a toad,
For crawling like a Japanese wrestler,
And for not being frightened
I put you in my purse hand not shutting it,
And set you down outside directly under
Every star.
A jewel in your head? Toad,
You’ve put one in mine,
A tiny radiance in a dark place.
I love the smallness of the poem, the way it seems to carry the poet’s voice, his fitting observations, without ever seeming laboured. The jewel-in-the-head refers to a legend that toads have, well, a jewel in their head.
What’s your favourite poem of the moment?
Schietree 