Donna+Survillo

="Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature but the measure can be acquired by art." - Thomas Hardy =



The Storm (Memory Poem)
Donna Survillo Apples; rose red; soaked from the storm Thunder crashes as the rain falls faster. It was only meant to be a shower - But this, my dear, this is a hurricane. The winds are strong and uncontrollable. Rain pours as your drowning in it's depth. Thunder. Lightening. Silence. It starts to die down. The rain dries, clouds fade from the skies. The sun comes out and the white flags go up.**
 * The rain falls down

Where I Belong (Ode)
Donna Survillo Lub-dub Lub-dub Lub-dub That's the sound of our hearts When we lay close together Your arm draped around me My head nestled on your chest Our eyes are heavy It's late in the night Thoughts peregrinate deep inside 'I never thought we'd get this far' 'I never thought you'd be the one' 'I never thought I'd be laying here with you' Thoughts confine Eyes close Asleep in your arms Asleep where I belong.**
 * Lub-dub

The Old You (Sonnet)
Donna Survillo Your soft and gentle touch is now long gone. Feelings subside. An open gap. Can't see why your sentiments, your feelings are gone.
 * We are so far from what we used to be.

Just come and save me from all of this pain. My life is nothing without you in it Stop messing around; tired of this game Volare is my line so I'll live it.

Either take my hand and fly, or just leave You were once someone I totally knew But now you're different; tired of grieve. Don't leave me here empty just tell me who;

Who are you? Where is the old you I know? Please just bring him back, cause I love him so.**

A thought from the poet: Donna Survillo
Most of my poems come from situations in my life that happen and I have strong feelings about. They talk about a specific person I have in mind at the time and things that may be going on in my life as well. I think of things that could represent my feelings and what’s going on through other ways so they don’t all sound the same. For example, in “The Storm,” I talk about a huge fight that wasn’t supposed to happen, but it did. The rain represents tears and the apples represent cheeks, red from crying. The lightening and thunder represent anger and yelling and then there’s silence. The crying (rain) stops and the white flags, which are frequently used as a symbol of surrender, go up. This shows the fight is over and everything is calm again. The reason why I chose the context of this poem such as using weather to represent what I was feeling at the time was because it was raining and I had a lot on my mind then. I began to realize how similar storms were to fights between two people and then I wrote “The Storm,” which is my favorite poem of the three.

A Myth of Devotion
Louise Glück

he built for her a duplicate of earth, everything the same, down to the meadow, but with a bed added.** because it would be hard on a young girl to go so quickly from bright light to utter darkness** first as the shadows of fluttering leaves. Then moon, then stars. Then no moon, no stars. Let Persephone get used to it slowly. In the end, he thought, she'd find it comforting.** except there was love here. Doesn't everyone want love?** building a world, watching Persephone in the meadow. Persephone, a smeller, a taster. If you have one appetite, he thought, you have them all.** the beloved body, compass, polestar, to hear the quiet breathing that says //I am alive//, that means also you are alive, because you hear me, you are here with me. And when one turns, the other turns—** looking at the world he had constructed for Persephone. It never crossed his mind that there'd be no more smelling here, certainly no more eating.** These things he couldn't imagine; no lover ever imagines them.** First he thinks: //The New Hell//. Then: //The Garden//. In the end, he decides to name it //Persephone's Girlhood//.** behind the bed. He takes her in his arms. He wants to say //I love you, nothing can hurt you//** this is a lie, so he says in the end //you're dead, nothing can hurt you// which seems to him a more promising beginning, more true.**
 * When Hades decided he loved this girl
 * Everything the same, including sunlight,
 * Gradually, he thought, he'd introduce the night,
 * A replica of earth
 * He waited many years,
 * Doesn't everyone want to feel in the night
 * That's what he felt, the lord of darkness,
 * Guilt? Terror? The fear of love?
 * He dreams, he wonders what to call this place.
 * A soft light rising above the level meadow,
 * but he thinks

= =

Vespers
Louise Glück

use of earth, anticipating some return on investment. I must report failure in my assignment, principally regarding the tomato plants. I think I should not be encouraged to grow tomatoes. Or, if I am, you should withhold the heavy rains, the cold nights that come so often here, while other regions get twelve weeks of summer. All this belongs to you: on the other hand, I planted the seeds, I watched the first shoots like wings tearing the soil, and it was my heart broken by the blight, the black spot so quickly multiplying in the rows. I doubt you have a heart, in our understanding of that term. You who do not discriminate between the dead and the living, who are, in consequence, immune to foreshadowing, you may not know how much terror we bear, the spotted leaf, the red leaves of the maple falling even in August, in early darkness: I am responsible for these vines.**
 * In your extended absence, you permit me

The Red Poppy
Louise Glück

is not having a mind. Feelings: oh, I have those; they govern me. I have a lord in heaven called the sun, and open for him, showing him the fire of my own heart, fire like his presence. What could such glory be if not a heart? Oh my brothers and sisters, were you like me once, long ago, before you were human? Did you permit yourselves to open once, who would never open again? Because in truth I am speaking now the way you do. I speak because I am shattered.**
 * The great thing

Analysis of Louise Glück & her poems:
In the poem, //A Myth of Devotion//, Louise Glück paints a picture for us. She tells us about Hades, the god of the dead, falling in love with a girl. He wants to give everything to this girl but she's from a completely different world than he is and everything is different where he is from. He figures that since she likes the light and beauty of her world, why wouldn't she like the darkness and sorrow of the underworld? Glück says, "If you have one appetite, he thought, you have them all." He wants to tell her that he loves her, but he knows he'd be lying to her. So he tells her that she's dead and since she is dead, nothing can hurt her, hoping that she sees it as a new beginning, believing that nothing is going to harm her.

Glück's poem, //The Red Poppy//, she talks about not having a mind, she has feelings that control her, but she has no mind. She doesn't have to think for herself and she doesn't have to make hard decisions about things in her life that would be hard to choose. She just hast to feel these things. Everything would be so much easier, in her eyes, if everything could be dealt with through feelings. Glück says, "I speak because I am shattered." She tells us about a feeling she has; a feeling of brokenness. Glück writes to us, expressing her feelings of brokenness and tells us that things would be easier if she were able to just deal with the feelings, not the logic of it.

Overall, Glück's poems are mainly about having strong feelings and not being able to get what you want, no matter how bad you want it. She provides us with a lot of symbolization where she brings us these strong feelings through personification or even through myths such as the famous Greek myth, //Hades Takes a Wife// (http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/a/mythslegends_2.htm). But no matter what way she presents it to her readers, she manages to get the point across. It may take a bit of research, but in the end, the picture of Glück's poems are crystal clear.

About the Poet: Louise Glück
Louise Glück was born in New York City, NY in 1943 (age 67). She was raised on Long Island, NY. Glück has written and published a lot of books;many which have received prizes.

(http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/82)