Read to me

I've always been a fan of literature. I don't profess to be the most articulate nor very eloquent in what I say or write. You should see me during class when I'm about to raise a point and fourteen pairs of eyes turn to look at me. I actually sound like I've just learnt English yesterday. But I've always enjoyed the art of words and tis the truth I cannot understand people who don't read.

The only way to read poems or quotes or any form of literature, I feel, should be read out loud. In fact you should read this post out loud :).

Let the words roll out your tongue and feel the depth of its meaning embed and take its own course. When comprehension dawns, become delighted and reread the words again, now reveling in the art and for a moment, feel like your soul was touched.

I watched In Her Shoes the other day and I really enjoyed the way Cameron Diaz read the poem One Art. A very slow and hesitant reader, she attempts to read the poem word by word in the movie. It was in that instance as she tried to enunciate each word of the poem correctly that the true meaning of the words began to formulate and deliver.

So I beseech you, when you read these poems, take your time, read it aloud, and let the meaning fester and hit.

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something everyday.

Accept the fluster of lost door keys,

the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these things will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

This is another poem from the movie, again read by Cameron Diaz to her sister.

I carry your heart with me - E.E. Cummings

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in
my heart) I am never without it (anywhere
I go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)

I fear

No fate (for you are my fate,my sweet) I want
no world (for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you.

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)