Monday, March 17, 2008

Some Like Poetry

Some -
thus not all. Not even the majority of all but the minority.
Not counting schools, where one has to,
and the poets themselves,
there might be two people per thousand.

Like -
but one also likes chicken soup with noodles,
one likes compliments and the color blue,
one likes an old scarf,
one likes having the upper hand,
one likes stroking a dog.

Poetry -
but what is poetry.
Many shaky answers
have been given to this question.
But I don't know and don't know and hold on to it
like to a sustaining railing.

Wislawa Szymborska
translated by
Regina Grol

1 comment:

Val said...

The best definition of poetry I ever found was in the poem "Ars Poetica," by Vicente Huidobro, as translated by David M. Guss. I enjoyed this poem as well. Poetry is indeed only appreciated by a select few.