Guest blogger Tim Ward -- a poet and poetry lover here in Baltimore -- is having computer problems.
I am posting Tim's source poem, even though he was unable to send a post. Tim's choice holds significance for many people -- both poets and laypersons. I invite you to leave a comment about e.e. cummings' "[Buffalo Bill's]" in the hope that, when Tim gets back online, he'll have your feedback on the poem to engage with.
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| Tim Ward (left), friend, and The Word Pimp at the Baltimore Book Festival |
I had always told my mom I would try to write my stories and poems, so when she died in 2006, I decided to honor my own and her wishes.
In high school, I first became acquainted with e.e. cummings and figured if it was OK to write that like for e.e., then it was a good way for me to begin.
I seem to thrive with short poems of my own grammar, and get lost in longer verses.
[Buffalo Bill 's]
From Laura:
How many readers remember the thrill, the drop in your stomach, the first time you read this poem? In poetry, we often talk about the turn, when a poem moves in a new and surprising direction. I think reading "[Buffalo Bill's]" was the first time I really understood the power of a turn.
Buffalo Bill 's
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
Jesus
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death
From Laura:
How many readers remember the thrill, the drop in your stomach, the first time you read this poem? In poetry, we often talk about the turn, when a poem moves in a new and surprising direction. I think reading "[Buffalo Bill's]" was the first time I really understood the power of a turn.
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| e.e. cummings From the Language Arts Place |
Please leave a message for Tim or feedback about this poem in the comments.
Watch and listen to a waltz inspired by cummings' poem here:
Previous posts in this series:
Laura Shovan on "This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams
Dylan Bargteil on "On Moral Leadership as a Political Dilemma" by June Jordan
J. C. Elkin on "Hannibal Clim" (author unknown)
Diane Mayr on a haiku by Basho
Jone MacCulloch on "We Are Waiting (a pantoum)" by Joyce Sidman
Mary Bargteil on Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot
Jacqueline Jules on "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes
Pamela Murray Winters on "The Land of Counterpane" by Robert Louis Stevenson
Dennis Kirschbaum on "Rain" by Robert Louis Stevenson
Janet Fagal on "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by William Butler Yeats
Janet Fagal on "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by William Butler Yeats
Linda Baie on "The Way It Is" by William Stafford
Pat Valdata on "Sea Fever" by John Masefield
Shirley Brewer on "The Singers" by Eavan Boland
Renee LaTulippe on "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath
Ann Bracken on "The Well of Grief" by David Whyte
Margaret Simon on "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver
