Poem of the day-William Carlos Williams

From the National Poetry Foundation.

William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) was a doctor of English and Puerto Rican descent who was born in New Jersey. He was influenced by Keats and Walt Whitman, and later by a friendship with Ezra Pound. This bit was interesting: he felt that Eliot's "The Waste Land" hobbled the freedom of free verse by its use of "classroom English." He acknowledged Eliot's talent but felt threatened by his success. 

Why I like it: I like the rich visual imagery and how it speaks to my own need to sink into things and hide.

The Widow's Lament in Springtime by William Carlos Williams

Sorrow is my own yard

where the new grass

flames as it has flamed

often before but not

with the cold fire

that closes round me this year.

Thirtyfive years

I lived with my husband.

The plumtree is white today

with masses of flowers.

Masses of flowers

load the cherry branches

and color some bushes

yellow and some red

but the grief in my heart

is stronger than they

for though they were my joy

formerly, today I notice them

and turn away forgetting.

Today my son told me

that in the meadows,

at the edge of the heavy woods

in the distance, he saw

trees of white flowers.

I feel that I would like

to go there

and fall into those flowers

and sink into the marsh near them.