http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/03/my-mississippi-spring/ A blog from the Poetry Foundation where contemporary poets debate classic and contemporary poetry from America and around the world. Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:21:24 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/03/my-mississippi-spring/#comment-8346 Travis Nichols Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:36:31 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=1317#comment-8346 This is a welcome post, Camille. Thank you. When I was seventeen I went down to Georgia for the first time in March, and I nearly lost my mind in the fecundity. This is a welcome post, Camille. Thank you. When I was seventeen I went down to Georgia for the first time in March, and I nearly lost my mind in the fecundity.

]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/03/my-mississippi-spring/#comment-8242 Annie Finch Sat, 28 Mar 2009 09:12:57 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=1317#comment-8242 What a lovely post, Camille, both visually and poetically. I hope you were greeted by the full magnificence of spring just as you hoped. I was reading in Kansas the same night, and compared to Maine, where spring is measured mostly by the excitement of snow melting at last, the Kansas spring seemed raging, with a big riot of birdsong over a few tentative blossoms. I can only imagine the lushness of Mississippi last Friday—three different versions of spring, and each so dramatic in its own way! Thank you enthusiastically for the Spencer poem. It is SUCH a tour-de-force! I love the double-syllable rhymes, one in each stanza, and the athletic lyricism of the alliteration-- I can't think of another poet who puts your tongue and mouth through such paces: Here canopied reaches of dogwood and hazel, Beech tree and redbud fine-laced in vines, Fleet clapping rills by lush fern and basil, Drain blue hills to lowlands scented with pines . . . Very satisfying. Annie What a lovely post, Camille, both visually and poetically. I hope you were greeted by the full magnificence of spring just as you hoped. I was reading in Kansas the same night, and compared to Maine, where spring is measured mostly by the excitement of snow melting at last, the Kansas spring seemed raging, with a big riot of birdsong over a few tentative blossoms. I can only imagine the lushness of Mississippi last Friday—three different versions of spring, and each so dramatic in its own way!
Thank you enthusiastically for the Spencer poem. It is SUCH a tour-de-force! I love the double-syllable rhymes, one in each stanza, and the athletic lyricism of the alliteration– I can’t think of another poet who puts your tongue and mouth through such paces:
Here canopied reaches of dogwood and hazel,
Beech tree and redbud fine-laced in vines,
Fleet clapping rills by lush fern and basil,
Drain blue hills to lowlands scented with pines . . .
Very satisfying.
Annie

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