A Decade by Amy Lowell and Euphoria by Lily King

 

This lady must surely be reading poetry.

I've only recently begun reading Amy Lowell's poems and I'm totally intrigued with her.  I got a free Kindle book of her poetry online ("Men, Women and Ghosts") and it only whet my appetite for more.  Her poems are sensual and oh, so earthy.  If you've never read her, I highly recommend that you do.  And here's how I discovered her writing:

I've been reading an amazing novel, "Euphoria" by Lily King, and, in it, the main character quotes from the first poem below, "A Decade", which put me on the hunt for more of Lowell's work.  I got the book on CD from the library (and later bought a hard copy) and have listened to it twice all the way through.  The reader has a luscious voice and the story is utterly & totally compelling.  xo

So many books, so little time.....

A Decade
By Amy Lowell

When you came, you were like red wine and honey,
and the taste of you burnt my mouth with its sweetness.
Now you are like morning bread,
smooth and pleasant.
I hardly taste you at all for I know your savour,
but I am completely nourished.

Published in 1919

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Vespers
By Amy Lowell

Last night, at sunset,
the foxgloves were like tall altar candles.
Could I have lifted you to the roof of the greenhouse, my Dear,
I should have understood their burning.

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In A Garden
By Amy Lowell

Gushing from the mouths of stone men
to spread at ease under the sky
in granite-lipped basins,
where iris dabble their feet
and rustle to a passing wind,
the water fills the garden with its rushing,
in the midst of the quiet of close-clipped lawns.

Damp smell the ferns in tunnels of stone,
where trickle and splash the fountains,
marble fountains, yellowed with much water.

Splashing down moss-tarnished steps
it falls, the water;
and the air is throbbing with it.
With its gurgling and running.
with its leaping, and deep, cool murmur.

And I wished for night and you.
I wanted to see you in the swimming-pool,
white and shining in the silver-flecked water.
While the moon rode over the garden,
high in the arch of night,
and the scent of the lilacs was heavy with stillness.

Night, and the water, and you in your whiteness, bathing!

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