A Touch of Frost

Bad poetry is like a clanging bell or a persistent case of tinnitus.

It is perpetually annoying.

Good poetry slows down the spinning gears in our brains,

and offers a moment for quiet and reflection.

But great poetry,  great poetry admits the spirit to a peaceful place,

one that exists somewhere in the spaces between raindrops or snowflakes.

I especially like the writings of Gibran, Tagore, Thoreau, and Robert Frost,

mainly because they seem to understand better than most 

the silent and enduring nexus between nature and spirit.

January 29th, just yesterday, was the 50th anniversary of Robert Frost's death.

I'm not sure which I find more disquieting, that he's gone,

or that he's been gone fifty years now 

but I was around to see him on television during the Kennedy presidency.

Photo Credit:  Associated Press

Anyway, today's a good day to celebrate Frost's poetic gifts

by revisiting some of his verses.

One of his better known is "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

which contains the following lines, 

the last two said to have been often quoted by President John Kennedy

at the end of his campaign speeches:

Source:  http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20540

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep ...

photo courtesy of morguefile.com

Another Frost poem, "War Thoughts at Home" was written in 1918 during WWI 

and discovered in 2006 in the cover of a friend's book,

part of a collection donated to the University of Virginia.

Although the poem is steeped in melancholy and overtones of regret,

the beginning stanzas give a glimpse into a quiet winter day:

On the backside of the house

Where it wears no paint to the weather

And so shows most its age,

Suddenly blue jays rage

And flash in blue feather.

It is late in an afternoon

More gray with snow to fall

Than white with fallen snow

When it is blue jay or crow

Or no bird at all.

source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6174131 

Photo: South Loch Ness Escape, Loch Ness Blog
http://lochnesswelcome.blogspot.com/2008/02/aspenwood-cottage-in-snow.html

By far, my favorite Frost poem is one lesser known,

kind of a poetic "road less traveled."

It's called "Asking for Roses."
I've shared these lines before, but I like them so much, I'm including them again.
The words are deeply meaningful for me,
but I leave it to each reader to measure the words for themselves:

A flower unplucked is but left to the falling,

and nothing is gained by not gathering roses ...

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