Poetry; Or Yes, Virginia, I am a Girl*

[orange_prose]

When I was younger, I decided I hated poetry. This was partially because I decided at about eight that I would not be girly in any way, shape, or form. I would not like pink, I would not wear dresses, I would not bathe**, and I wouldn't let Mommy brush my hair. People were already calling me a tomboy, so I decided to own it. One of these girly things I had to hate, then, was poetry. And anyway, I wasn't, and still aren't, interested in romance or flowers or most of the things that the stereotypical poem is about.

I discovered Emily Dickinson Junior*** Year, and decided I pretty much just liked her. I haven't though about it much, but one poem I found particularly nice, and it got me thinking about such things. Here it is:


The Snow Man

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

--Wallace Stevens

I got that from here , which I got from Rachel Maddow's Twitter **** and I will make another post about why it matters to me, and add a link to that too. Because this is already too long.

Anyway, I have decided I like poetry. I know you're all***** very excited.



* I like being ambiguous about this on the internet. I have never looked androgynous, myself, and I find it neat.
**Gee, I would why no one liked me? Oh, small!me, how I want to hit you sometimes.
***I am glad I'm not one anymore, since I can't spell that for the life of me. I don't know why, it's not that hard.
****I am a big Rachel Maddow fan.
*****Hardest phrase to write ever , at least this late.