FOR THE LOVE OF RUSSIAN POETRY

Have I mentioned that I've been on something of an ice-y, cold-life kick, ever since reading THE WHITE DARKNESS this past spring?

It's like this frostbitten world is chasing me -- and it's beginning to emerge in my poems.

Which is why I want to share some Russian poetry with you today, by Anna Akhmatova, whom I just discovered in the book we read for book club (We meet tomorrow night! Woohoo! I've missed you gals!) WINTER GARDEN by Kristin Hannah. Each section of the book opens with an excerpt. I'm in love:

All is for you: the daily prayer,
The sleepless heat at night,
And of my verses, the white
Flock, and of my eyes, the blue fire.
 
-- from the poem "I Don't Know if You're Alive or Dead"

 And raspberry-colored bonfires bloom,
Like roses, in the snow.

--from the poem "How Can You Bear to Look at the Neva"





Along the hard crust of deep snows,
To the secret, white house of yours,
So gentle and quiet – we both
Are walking, in silence half-lost.
And sweeter than all songs, sung ever,
Are this dream, becoming the truth,
Entwined twigs’ a-nodding with favor,
The light ring of your silver spurs... 

-- from the poem "Along the hard crust of deep snows..." 

But listen, I am warning you
I'm living for the very last time.
Not as a swallow, nor a maple,
Not as a reed, nor as a star,
Not as spring water,
Nor as the toll of bells…

-- from the poem "But Listen, I am warning you" 

For more great poetry, visit Tabatha (who shared an original poem by Eva, sister to Jack of Beanstalk fame. So creative!) for Poetry Friday Roundup!