When I was young--really young, like 11 or 12--I discovered a volume of Sara Teasdale's poetry at the Bethel Park Public Library. Gosh, I loved those poems...so much that I read them over and over and over again. Out loud, to myself, to the tree in the backyard, to my best friend. I even copied them by hand in my journal.
Teasdale was this cool woman & amazing poet who wrote all about love and longing, romance, kissing and moons, being misunderstood, girlhood, womanhood...all the right stuff for a middle-school girl hitting puberty.
At that point in my life, I already knew I was a writer so for a while Teasdale served as a guide, a guru, but mostly she was the first female poet I'd heard of who wasn't Emily Dickinson (though I loved her, too). I needed her...a woman poet who wasn't afraid to express herself.
"Feel!" she shouted in her quiet, 19th-century way.
One of my favorites?
Here ya go...
Advice to a GirlNo one worth possessing
Can be quite possessed;
Lay that on your heart,
My young angry dear;
This truth, this hard and precious stone,
Lay it on your hot cheek,
Let it hide your tear.
Hold it like a crystal
When you are alone
And gaze in the depths of the icy stone.
Long, look long and you will be blessed:
No one worth possessing
Can be quite possessed.
Beautiful poem and story. "Lay it on your hot cheek, Let it hide your tear." Oh, that's good.
Cheers,
SLC
Posted by: Spencer L. Casey | February 11, 2010 at 08:08 PM