Friday, April 04, 2008

Excerpt from The Ghost Trio by Linda Bierds

This excerpt from her poem The Ghost Trio is Bierds at her best: evocative imagery and smooth yet dramatic transitions. The full poem is available here.


The Winter: 1748

A little satin like wind at the door.
My mother slips past in great side hoops,
arced like the ears of elephants
on her head a goat-white wig,
on her cheek a dollop of mole.

She has entered the evening, and I
her room with its hazel light.
Where her wig had rested is a leather head,
a stand, perfect in its shadow but
carrying in fact, where the face should be,
a swath of door. It cups

in its skull-curved closure
clay hair stays, a pouch of wig talc
that snows at random and lends to the table

a neck-shaped ring.
When I reach inside I am frosted,
my hand like a pond in winter, pale
fingers below of leaves or carp.

I have studied a painting from Holland,
where a village adjourns to a frozen river.
Skaters and sleighs, of course, but
ale tents, the musk of chestnuts,

someone thick on a chair with a lap robe.
I do not know what becomes of them
when the flow revisits. Or why
they have moved from their warm hearthstones
to settle there—except that one step

is a method of gliding,
the self for those moments
weightless and preened as my leather companion.
And I do not know if the fish there
have frozen, or wait in some stasis
like flowers. Perhaps they are stunned
by the strange heaven—dotted with

boot soles and chair legs
and are slumped on the mud-rich bottom—
waiting through time for a kind of shimmer,
an image perhaps, something
known and familiar, something

rushing above in their own likeness,
silver and blade-thin at the rim of the world.




Linda Bierds was raised in Anchorage, Alaska. She teaches English and Creative Writing at the University of Washington. Her books include First Hand, The Seconds, and The Profile Makers.


117 Comments:

Blogger Katie said...

That's great, I love winter poems!

Especially Frost's 'Stopping By The Woods On A Snowwy Evening' :o)

3:36 PM  
Blogger kelseroo said...

I like your blog!

3:51 PM  
Blogger Aleta said...

This sums up the "leather head" and the winter scene.

"waiting through time for a kind of shimmer,
an image perhaps, something
known and familiar, something

rushing above in their own likeness"

I love the detail in the poem and how she merges it together in the end. Sometimes we feel the shadow or part of the painting, waiting for life to warm us.

3:51 PM  
Blogger David Arment said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

4:20 PM  
Blogger David Arment said...

I like the poem about the girl form Nantucket. I can't remember it and I don't see it anywhere here.

When I rember it. I will post it...www.freaknoid.blogspot.com

4:21 PM  
Blogger İsmail Cem Gökçek said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

5:59 PM  
Blogger ian gordon said...

You've got the scariest profile picture I've ever seen.

I'm never coming back.

6:59 PM  
Blogger CaptainCraft said...

The poet looks like a school teacher. I wonder why they have that "look"?

8:53 PM  
Blogger copacetic said...

I love your blog.
The poem a day is a wonderful idea.

You should definitely check out Rita Dove. She is an amazing poet.

10:14 PM  
Blogger Yuri Kageyama said...

Hi, blogs _ like yours _ help poets realize we are not alone. If anything, poets are thriving all over the world. Sharing with you poetry from Tokyo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=472kVVGx33E

And thanks!
Yuri Kageyama

http://yuri-kageyama.blogspot.com

10:54 PM  
Blogger Faith said...

This is an amazing blog, truly. I love the Goethe quote. Keep it up!

12:09 AM  
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3:39 AM  
Blogger jyotsana said...

this idea of posting poems is creative. the goethe quote is quite inspirational. i like visiting the blogs of note. theres always something in them.

3:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i like that poem
can i post it in my blog
but i'll put ur link
my blog https://www.memorythis.blogspot.com

5:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i like that poem
can i post it in my blog
but i'll put ur link
my blog http://www.memorythis.blogspot.com

5:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great blog... Regards from Croatia

5:53 AM  
Blogger Carolyn said...

Congrats on being a Blog of Note!

5:54 AM  
Blogger Alexi Frest said...

Nice poem, I like English poetry. This language is so pleasant-sounding.
(And I am glad to find free e-books to download.)

6:13 AM  
Blogger Sara said...

I really like your blog. Would you like to see mine, and maybe comment?

blogofarealgirl.blogspot.com

-Sara

8:38 AM  
Blogger Ally said...

This is a really deep poem, I liked the preveiw so much that I went on and read the whole thing.
Wow. It was great :)!

9:49 AM  
Blogger Sunshine said...

Great idea...love, love, love the poetry. Would love to have a link for you on my blog...:)

10:27 AM  
Blogger Soto said...

Hi,

Great poem!
And your consistence is remarkable.

Have a look at a strange poem by Henley at www.on-wealth-attraction.blogspot.com

I found it full of insights.

11:12 AM  
Blogger twinkle teaches said...

What an awesome blog!!! Congrats on being a Blog of Note!

11:45 AM  
Blogger the basu said...

hey fantastic poem...blog's definitely notable-enjoyed it..do only poets of international reckoning get represented here???

12:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you for that poem. It really put me in the room with her mother's wig stand. Chilling. I'll be back.
www.appraisemyart.blogspot.com

12:56 PM  
Blogger librabrunnetevegetarian said...

Wow winter is cold but at the same time it is like a white wonderland.
http://librabrunnetevegetarian.blogspot.com

2:02 PM  
Blogger Claudia Brown-Mosley said...

That was very nice

2:45 PM  
Blogger Selena said...

This is great, I'm taking a poetry class this quarter and need to read outside of class, so I'll be checking back daily!

2:59 PM  
Blogger raihan said...

i like your blog! great poems! mine is also poems, but it's still new, a blog of 2 months old :)

3:03 PM  
Blogger raihan said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

3:03 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

awesome..i loved it. I am actually an amateur poet/writer myself. I hope to one day be published.

4:22 PM  
Blogger Alexi Frest said...

Alisha: It is great if your works are published... but be careful, book publishers are not always decent folks. I do not say everyone of them treat authors unfairly, but there are quite a few...
So do not forget: Your poems, writings are not something what you must pass off on some publishers - they are valuable. Take care of them.

4:41 PM  
Blogger Ramosforest.Environment said...

Beautiful.
Congraulations.

5:35 PM  
Blogger Alexi Frest said...

I worked for book publishers and my best friend is one - and I happen to know that she always gets in hard fistfights with rivals who try to lessen her success (from lies to sues, stealing ideas and characters, etc.)
That's why I got angry when I heard that a so-called fan tries to publish a new HP lexicon against Joanne Rowling's will (it is something that my friend's rivals did, too).
It is an offensive way to find success. (It is an understatement that the British authoress and her publisher - Bloomsburry - is not pleased with this "fan".)
And there are so many similar cases...

5:41 PM  
Blogger Oberon said...

.....no....i'm stalking you.....and.....i'm crushing your head, i'm crushing your head....lol.

5:43 PM  
Blogger Sucharita Sarkar said...

what a lovely and brave idea - to use the web to retrieve poetry from the margins (where it is often sadly relegated) and bring it back to the centre of our lives (where it deserves to be).
i like your eclectic choice of poems (i spent a lot of time on reading as many of them as i could) - a multiple-moods, time-and-space-straddling selection.
can i add you blog to my list of favourites in my own (albeit prosaic) blog?

6:04 PM  
Blogger ***Zan said...

Poetry is the greatest. :DD This is the best blog ever. XDD

7:20 PM  
Blogger One Letter At a Time said...

Thank you for blogging on this. I think any blog promoting poetry is wonderful. I never think there will be enough. The poems you've selected are beautiful. Thank you!

Jon

One Letter at a time

9:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I to am a poet. Now I have one posted, Octogenarian, u r all invited. Oh just read the poem, the rest is off limits

11:28 PM  
Blogger A said...

I like the poem its very good and has lots of good imagery. I also like that its a winter poem. It all comes together nicely in the end.

11:38 PM  
Blogger Philippians said...

Thank you for posting lots of great poems, it's always good to enrich your knowledge about poetry.

4:31 AM  
Blogger Azara Feroz Sayed said...

I found the Goethe comment interesting. In the book 'brain building' akin to body builidng Marilyn Vos Savant (women with highest IQ) mentioned that one of the ways to increase our comprehension is to read poems - reading the same poem many times to see how many different meanings, perspectives come out of it - As she suggested, I got from the library 'The vikings book of poetry of the English Speaking world' (before investing I like to make sure it is not my one-week impulse) and started on the example she gave the example of reading the 'On a Grecian Urn' by John Keats - going to a museum or library to see what a Greceian Urn looks like and re-reading it. I am sticking on to it. I read Gitanjali by Tagore recently. Your blog is going to help me look at a poem for a week. It worked out really well for me. As they say, you see what you look for! I will try to link your blog to mine - never done before!

8:42 AM  
Blogger BoyKidlat said...

pretty good blog! very informative at the same time entertaining.makes me want to write more poems the more I read this blog. ill link this blog up.

9:18 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://sufipoems.blogspot.com

a blog represented all Sufi world please visit one times.

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9:18 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Helo, I reely lighk your sight. Po-uhms make migh day.

9:24 AM  
Blogger asdianafghjkl; said...

winter poems during springtime = awesome.

11:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Some neat language, but the content is dry and, well, meaningless. Feels like an affected experiment with words.

12:42 PM  
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Blogger modernage008 said...

this poem is very good.

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3:59 PM  
Blogger S. B. said...

very good.^^

www.socialnodiva.blogspot.com

4:04 PM  
Blogger Alexi Frest said...

I like English literature (now I read classics to learn more). And English language is so pleasant-sounding and lyric.

4:58 PM  
Blogger Luke said...

Thank you for sharing this!

5:12 PM  
Blogger Terina said...

I was raised in Palmer Alaska. I am going home after three years in Hell (Phoenix AZ) I like your poem.

5:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just joined Blogger and was delighted to find this blog. There is so much junk on the internet that it is refreshing to find something this worthwhile and lovely.

9:01 PM  
Blogger Mary L said...

I love the poem and the concept of a poem a day. April is national poetry month too!!! :) P.S. I added a link to my blog.

9:39 PM  
Blogger Mohan Kumar D said...

Keep up the Good Work
Please do visit mine as i am new to this blog.

1:02 AM  
Blogger OBT said...

Hey, congrats on getting on the blogs of note, and on the collection of great poems. Just thought that something of this artistic value can be spiced up with a more personal template. My recommendation is this the CoolingFall (template no. 53). Browse more at my blog:

http://www.ourblogtemplates.com/

Thanks and great effort. I know now where to look for poems.

1:57 AM  
Blogger Misty Moncur said...

This is a poem for poets. I was inclined to agree with "anonymous" that the content was "dry and, well, meaningless," but I read it through about ten times, and I don't think this poem is even about winter. What I don't understand is what the restrictions on females in her society have to do with the fish waiting for something famliar. Can anyone tell me?

3:15 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey! what a nasty poems!

www.my-amazing-life-awesoome.blogspot.com

3:26 AM  
Blogger mixer said...

different opinion

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

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5:04 AM  
Blogger 0000000000 said...

I have always appreciated a poem that appeals to all the senses.

9:54 AM  
Blogger Savannah said...

Wow, that was really great.
Thanks for posting.

10:04 AM  
Blogger Veronica Aldous said...

nice stuff- please visit my poetry blog at
www.magicpaintbox.blogspot.com

12:45 PM  
Blogger K said...

I love this poem. It is one of the best I have read.

1:27 PM  
Blogger High Power Rocketry said...

: )

1:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Key blog!!!

6:37 PM  
Blogger Ryann Renee said...

hey. i love this site. its really great. i love poems and literature. thanks for the great site.

take a look at mine please,
www.toptensfromdriedoutpens.com

thanks.

8:58 PM  
Blogger Kalkoholism said...

Great idea Poem of the Week!
I think have awesome poem too! :D You should publish it and it's called Scarlet. (http://kalkoholism.blogspot.com/2007/09/scarlet.html )

10:52 PM  
Blogger kavdse said...

I like your poem.Actually read more in Marathi .But some time i read English.Poem which told us our mind which is very sensitive.

3:05 AM  
Blogger Stefen said...

Uhm... You are a poem fanatic or something?

I’m not good at poem haha...

3:59 AM  
Blogger Sourav said...

Nice poem added, i like these seasonal poems, me too have poems here but written by me and my friends.

Poems and Quotes

Please review my friends :)

7:22 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

nice poem...hope you could visit mine too...

7:22 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i love it!!

10:47 AM  
Blogger Enjoying that first cigar... said...

Sure, spring is just beginning and you have to go bring winter back around. ;o)

11:32 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm drawn to people who have such a gift for crafting with language. The rhythms are lovely, images evocative and moving. She's a find - thanks.

(Unfortunate, your juvenile posters.)

1:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

zbeebleb@regis.edu

2:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

nice blog... loved the poetry selection!!! :)

3:27 PM  
Blogger Jane Hamilton said...

congrats on blog of note! great goethe quote!.... are you really Dwight???!!!

2:48 AM  
Blogger lifehabit said...

nice one :-)

4:06 AM  
Blogger mysterystar said...

i just lve it

5:46 AM  
Blogger Azara Feroz Sayed said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

8:31 AM  
Blogger Azara Feroz Sayed said...

A novice to poetry like me can enjoy it by using the reading guide http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/feature.guidebook.html?id=178020

8:34 AM  
Blogger Phantom said...

I'm a trying hard poet.. I should spend more time reading her poems and learn from her :P

9:52 AM  
Blogger Bay Martin said...

This is a classic webspot. Hope you include some poems of Rudyard Kipling, Shelley, Keats, Poe, Frost, Longfellow, and many other great romatic poets.

1:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

awesome

5:47 PM  
Blogger Singapore Dividend Collector said...

love this blog.
interesting read indeed
pikey

10:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi. I like what you’ve done with the place. A nice retreat for poet lovers. How would you feel about setting up a small network within a network? I link to your site, you link to mine and we create a linked group of like minded individuals. A good idea?

11:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gud One.

12:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice blog!!!

7:53 AM  
Blogger Manuela said...

This is a great blog - I'll put a link on my blog for a while, at http://todaythismoment.blogspot.com/

How about more contemporary world poetry, not only English?

9:22 AM  
Blogger Mike said...

This is such a creative blog, why couldn't i think of something like this. I will be back every week.

10:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was absolutely delighted to have stumbled upon your page on going to "next blog". I am new to Blogger (from another site, to difficult for readers to navigate) and I hope you don't mind my taking the liberty to introduce myself. I have added a link to your page on mine, and I look forward to reading more of yours in the days to come; you are welcome to browse at my page too.
http://owlnights.blogspot.com/
Best wishes,
Wordcrafter.

6:14 PM  
Blogger Sam. said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

7:28 PM  
Blogger Sam. said...

Cool poem. Hey, check out
www.s-in-s.blogspot.com
they have good poems there.

7:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This poet's use of language is itself like 'A little satin like wind at the door.' I love the quiet tone she evokes with her words ... especially lines like: 'She has entered the evening, and I
her room with its hazel light.' I've never read Bierds' work before ... thanks for the intro!

9:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

nice))

9:49 PM  
Blogger Diane Dehler said...

Thanks for the introduction to this interesting poet. Congrats on your blog of note thing.

3:19 AM  
Blogger Beatrice V said...

I was absolutely delighted to stumble upon your page, as I am new to Blogger, I have added your link to my page, that I may return often to read your postings. Congratulations for such wonderful page.
I write poetry, your are most welcome to browse at my page too:

http://owlnights.blogspot.com/

Best wishes,

wordcrafter

4:17 AM  
Blogger Pranks said...

Its amazing....

hey people check out
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and see if you can abstain yourself frm commenting on it.

6:30 AM  
Blogger The Right Foot said...

Very nice.

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Blogger Unknown said...

Nice Blog :)

10:16 AM  
Blogger K.C. said...

I have always said that I wished that I was a poet so that I could say what I was feeling. This poem was a perfect example. I could feel what Bierds was able to get across. Thank you so much for this blog. K.C.

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Blogger PUNNADA said...

wow !! nice blog

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Blogger TAX said...

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