Bedecked by Victoria Redel
I read this one in 180 More. Perhaps I wish to post it tonight because I watched Wilde starring Stephen Fry and thought it was amazing and heartbreaking all at once.
Bedecked
By Victoria Redel
Tell me it’s wrong the scarlet nails my son sports or the toy
store rings he clusters four jewels to each finger.
He’s bedecked. I see the other mothers looking at the star
choker, the rhinestone strand he fastens over a sock.
Sometimes I help him find sparkle clip-ons when he says
sticker earrings look too fake.
Tell me I should teach him it’s wrong to love the glitter that a
boy’s only a boy who’d love a truck with a remote that revs,
battery slamming into corners or Hot Wheels loop-de-looping
off tracks into the tub.
Then tell me it’s fine—really—maybe even a good thing—a boy
who’s got some girl to him,
and I’m right for the days he wears a pink shirt on the seesaw in
the park.
Tell me what you need to tell me but keep far away from my son
who still loves a beautiful thing not for what it means—
this way or that—but for the way facets set off prisms and
prisms spin up everywhere
and from his own jeweled body he’s cast rainbows—made every
shining true color.
Now try to tell me—man or woman—your heart was ever once
that brave.
Who are you?
I’m sorry for sounding so upfront, but I’ve just become so curious. Your blog is the first tab of the Bookmarks Bar on my web browser. I go to it practically every other day, and I’m always posting the links to Facebook, or printing them out to tack on my wall. I’m an English major at the University of Florida, and I have aspirations of one day becoming a writer. I’ve been taking creative writing courses for about a year now, and I’m always at your page, looking for inspiration.
Are you a student? Older? Do you write? Do you teach? You seem like you would. I’m sorry if this sounds weird… It’s just that you seem so interesting.
Thank you for the comment. I’m flattered, though I must point out that I just post other people’s work and they are far more interesting than I am. Though I love poetry and literature, I am a chemist by trade. The last English class I took (nearly 10 years ago as an undergraduate) was children’s literature (for fun, and it was). I don’t write much aside from e-mails and the occasional blog post. I’ve only ever taught Sunday school and chemistry.
Yes, well, I do realize you only are just reposting other poets. But this list you’ve got here, it’s incredible. I don’t know of any other site that has as many poems as you do (or, to be truthful, I just haven’t felt the need to look anyplace else). I mean, you post, what, every day? Every two days? Even once a week would be a feat in my books. I don’t nearly have that kind of dedication and religiousness in my life.
And are you kidding? This makes you incredibly interesting. The people I hold in the highest esteem are those who are as much as or even more so of a bibliophile than I am. Honestly, if I meet a girl and she tells me she loves books, that’s like half the battle right there.
I think you should write. I don’t know you, and you don’t know me, but you obviously know poetry.
As of now, my favorite modern poet is Billy Collins. A few weeks ago I stumbled across a video of him reading some of his poems live to an audience at a university, and, after being asked a question about writing, he stated that the best lesson for writing poetry is to simply READ poetry.
Using that logic, I believe that you probably have some of the best potential out there for being a very, very good poet.
Astound all of your blog readers one day by posting up something YOU’VE written. Or hell, you don’t even have to show anyone. Just keep it hidden away in a journal or something. Heh. That’s mostly what I do.
Again, I apologize for being so forward. I guess, just think of this as a bit of humble, well-meaning advice from a fan: I think you should give writing a try.
corey
P.S. http://fora.tv/2008/04/07/A_Selection_of_Poems_by_Billy_Collins#fullprogram