PoemHunter.com   
The Geranium by Kate Northrop   
Participate in our survey Search:
Search Poems, Poets, Quotations and Lyrics   
Home Poets Poems Lyrics Quotations Music Forum Member Area Poetry E-Books
 
Kate Northrop
8 poems of Kate Northrop
click to download
Poet's Page  Poems  Comments   Stats  
 
<< prev. poem Poems by Kate Northrop : 6 / 8 next poem >>
  
  The Geranium

User Rating:

5.4 /10
(28 votes)



  How can you stand it—looking at things?
For example, the geranium

out on the patio, the single pink
blossom in the sun? Or stand the sunlight
moving through it,

illuminating, holding the flower open like a high
clear note, an ecstatic
widening

which arrives, arrives. What
do you dowith it? While the shrubs and the lowest
overhanging leaves

lift slightly in the wind, the blossom

doesn't move. It's the object
of affection, and this is how
it hurts you:

by holding the note open—

Past the front of the apartment, traffic goes by:
one truck, then another

comes on, disappears. And I have

the blossom in my vision—
sunlight, like vision,
making clear the tiniest

hidden veins. I don't know why
I should be here, alive

and having to see this, this bright thing
living in time

or have to see it later, at the end
of the afternoon, when the sun's

lower, its light diagonal across the pot,
its light then pulling away
across the mossed brick

like a wave, only slower,
slower. The blossom is still pink,
but no longer

brilliant. I'll go back
into the kitchen. But you, are you stronger than I? Can you
stay in love with it? Make promises,

marry it? Are you so sure
of your position in the world?


Kate Northrop

Submitted Date Monday, January 13, 2003



Read poems about / on: pink, flower, sun, light, wind, world

<< prev. poem Poems by Kate Northrop : 6 / 8 next poem >>
 
  Comments about this poem (The Geranium by Kate Northrop )

There is no comment submitted by members..

 
PoemHunter.com Updates

02.17.2012/ Modern Poem of The Day
'Traveling Through The Dark' by William Stafford

02.16.2012/ Poem of The Day from a Member
'The Idea Of An Idea' by Salema Khatun

'Narrating the Arab Spring' Conference
Cairo University February 18-20 2012

02.16.2012/ Modern Poem of The Day
'Legend' by Harold Hart Crane

Happy Birthday Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov!
(1866–1949) Russian poet and playwright

 
 
  Top 500 Poems

  1. Phenomenal Woman
    Maya Angelou
  2. Still I Rise
    Maya Angelou
  3. If You Forget Me
    Pablo Neruda
  4. Dreams
    Langston Hughes
  5. The Road Not Taken
    Robert Frost
  6. Annabel Lee
    Edgar Allan Poe
  7. I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You
    Pablo Neruda
  8. If
    Rudyard Kipling
  9. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
    Maya Angelou
  10. A Dream Within A Dream
    Edgar Allan Poe
The complete list of Top 500 Poems >>
 
 

(c) Poems are the property of their respective owners. All information has been reproduced here for educational and informational purposes to benefit site visitors, and is provided at no charge..  About Us | Copyright notice | Privacy statement | Help
2/17/2012 8:52:32 AM. #.# You Are Here: The Geranium by Kate Northrop

Home | Poets | Poems | Free Poetry eBooks | Contests | Sites | Submit a Poem | Manage Your Poems | Game Gar | Oyun | Contact Us

Christmas Poems | Love Poems | Pablo Neruda | Death Poems | Sad Poems | Birthday Poems | Wedding Poems | Nature Poems | Sorry Poems 

[Hata Bildir]