Être's Poet Society

Photography: Michelle Daschbach

The wealth of meaning behind a poem is limitless and diverse. The emotions pulled from the shrouded words mean something original to the one experiencing them. Those words are placed in the lives of readers as a way to bring humor, sadness, joy, and faith – or a combination of them all. Poems allow for a reader to expand the usage of one’s imagination by branching off the thoughts of the author. You can put yourself in the mind of the writer and envision what those words mean to you. It is a concept often misunderstood and underappreciated. In a season where we plan and prepare to don a costume for a night and assume another identity, I hope you find a little mental inspiration in the wise words of poets. Here are some of Être’s favorites!

Masks

She had blue skin,

And so did he.

He kept it hid

And so did she.

They searched for blue

Their whole life through,

Then passed right by—

And never knew.

- Shel Silverstein

What the Living Do

“But there are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass,

say, the window of the corner video store, and I'm gripped by a cherishing so deep

for my own blowing hair, chapped face, and unbuttoned coat that I'm speechless:

I am living. I remember you.”

- Marie Howe

I'm nobody! Who are you?

I’m nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?

Then there’s a pair of us — don't tell!

They’d banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!

How public, like a frog

To tell your name the livelong day

To an admiring bog!

- Emily Dickinson

The Republic of Motherhood

“I crossed the border into the Republic of Motherhood

and found it a queendom, a wild queendom.

I handed over my clothes and took its uniform,

its dressing gown and undergarments, a cardigan

soft as a creature, smelling of birth and milk,

and I lay down in Motherhood’s bed, the bed I had made

but could not sleep in, for I was called at once to work

in the factory of Motherhood. The owl shift,

the graveyard shift. Feedingcleaninglovingfeeding.

I walked home, heartsore, through pale streets,

the coins of Motherhood singing in my pockets.”

- Liz Berry

Who am I?

“I am an ever-shifting ocean

pulled back and forth between the tide.

A forever-swinging pendulum,

Not still for long enough to decide.”

- Unknown

We Wear the Mask

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, —

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

- Paul Laurence Dunbar

Finding a Home within Yourself

“I found there were no roots more intimate than those between mind and body.”

- Rupi Kaur

Night Swimming

“The dark water was waiting, so much calmer than the Channel. The close night hugged us. We windmilled our arms, took a deep breath, looked towards town, lit by orange halogen bulbs, as if for a party. We dunked ourselves, made for the submerged Goodwin Sands. We listened to our breath. Put our heads underwater. Black, with night above. We saw the Big Dipper and Orion’s Belt. The sea stilled to a mirror, we became the current.”

- Leo Boix

Dreams

“Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.”

- Langston Hughes

Do you Carrot All for Me?

Do you carrot all for me?

My heart beets for you,

With your turnip nose

And your radish face,

You are a peach.

If we cantaloupe,

Lettuce marry:

Weed make a swell pear.

- Unknown

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

- Robert Frost

State of Siege

“If you must die, I’ll envy even the earth that wraps your body.”

- Albert Camus

Darkness

“I had a dream, which was not all a dream.

The bright sun was extinguish’d,

and the stars

Did wander darkling in the eternal space…”

-George Gordon & Lord Byron

Swan

You do not have to be every woman

who has ever lived. You do not have to be a swan

in flight, a silent movie ballerina cloaked in bioscopic grace,

toes bleeding invisibly into the cups of your shoes.

You do not have to be a Siren in blue satin, every golden strand

in place. You do not have to be luminous as a watch dial

in the quiet dark of these strange days.

You must only be able to breathe in the rain,

to let your face find what it loves, to open your hands

to this spring's snow, to welcome it with heat and light.

You do not have to freeze, green-veined as marble, for lack of touch

Two-thousand miles away, pelicans open their prehistoric mouths

above a turquoise sea, thinking only to solve the equations

of hunger and fish, of what it means to be whole.

Whoever you are, you'll be someone else tomorrow.

Today, you are nestled down in the extraordinary forest

of your own body; a creature warm and quiet, you are already home.

- Lori Howe