Through one of my favorite book bloggers, Maud Newton, I discovered this: Coudal Partners, a company the purpose of which is hard to discern even after extensively searching its site, is asking people to read short poems into an answering machine. Then it’s posting the audio files to its web site. A good idea, methinks.
Go here to listen, and to find out how to contribute.
I think I’ll call tonight, but what to read, what to read? Probably “When You Are Old” by Yeats, a longtime favorite of mine:
When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face among a crowd of stars.
It’s either that or, to throw them a curveball, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” by Stevie Wonder:
“I’ve done a lot of foolish things that I really didn’t mean.”
Tell it, Stevie.
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