Today when I was en route, I came across a box of discarded books. The pale green cover and lavender font caught my eye. I found myself staring into the cardboard-box, and at the Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry. Beneath it lay: The Writers Eye, the Stop, Look & Write series – Effective Writing Through Pictures. I don’t typically take things I find on the sidewalk, I just walk on by, but something about today was different. I stopped and looked, and couldn’t resist… Now let me share a treat from the found books with you..
These two tales I tell of myself and the life I led
To its destruction, one dark, one bright: one gathered from
A few gleaming moments-a slice or two of the cake
From where it was perfectly marbled-the other one
Rising from an under-song of despair. In neither
Case is the truth of the story-or the story of
The possibility that either one could be true
Or false at all-of any interest. What matters
Is what they might be good for: the story of a lost
Joy, as a sad anchor to drop below the surface
Of where we keep on going; the other version of
What was, the tale of a hell escaped, easily sounds
Like a noisy breath of wind filling my patched old sails.
The Tales of the Sea
John Hollander
xoxo
Lace & Leather 