Monday, April 5, 2010

Very First Post

Thanks to the influence of a close friend of mine, I have decided to start my very first blog. It's a little late, considering I'm already 20 years old and blogs have been prevalent throughout my teenage years. However, I felt no compulsion to start a blog, until now. There is no great purpose behind this blog. I'm not writing to inform, inspire or ignite. This is purely a selfish act. I'm writing to improve my literary skills and to keep my creativity flowing. The name of this blog is inspired by a poem by one of my favorite poets, Wislawa Szymborska. She is a Polish poet, who I enjoy reading in the original text, as well as in English. For the sake of those who may come across this site, I'll put up the English translation. I like her poetry because it is simple, unpretentious, and honest. I feel like it is very much influenced by stream of consciousness, but unlike other writers using the same technique, she still keeps the literature entertaining. The reason why I chose this poem as my blog title is because I know that majority of people won't ever read this. In fact, I may be the only person to ever read this blog and that is perfectly fine.
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Some like poetry

Some--

that means not all.

Not even the majority of all but the minority.

Not counting the schools, where one must,

and the poets themselves, there will be perhaps two in a thousand.

Like--

but one also likes chicken noodle soup,

one likes compliments and the color blue, one likes an old scarf,

one likes to prove one's point,

one likes to pet a dog.


Poetry--

but what sort of thing is poetry?

More than one shaky answer

has been given to this question.

But I do not know and do not know and clutch on to it,

as to a saving bannister.

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This is obviously not my work but Szymborska's and the translation is by Joanna Trzeciak. Her English translations are quite good and can be found at http://www.pan.net/trzeciak/. I suggest that those unfamiliar with Szymborska's poetry to check them out!

*Noir


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