A stolen idea

In honor of National Poetry Month, Ahab at If I Ran The Zoo decided to share a favorite poem. He invited others to do the same in the comments there, but the poem I thought of is a little long so I thought I'd just make a post of it here.

I'm still going to excerpt it, BTW, because in its entirety it's four pages long. But here's a selected version of

What Nina Answered

HE: Just the two of us together,
Okay? We could go
Through the fresh and pleasant weather
In the cool glow

Of the blue morning, washed in
The wine of day...
When all the love-struck forest
Quivers, bleeds

From each branch; clear drops tremble,
Bright buds blow,
Everything opens and vibrates;
All things grow.
[...]
Madly in love with the country,
You sprinkle about
Like shining champagne bubbles
Your crazy laugh:

Laughing at me, and I'd be brutal
And I'd grab your hair
Like this-how beautiful,
Oh!-In the air
[...]
Just the two of us together,
Our voices joined,
Slowly we'd wander farther
Into the wood...

Then, like the girl in the fairy tale
You'd start to faint;
You'd tell me to carry you
With half a wink...

I'd carry you quivering
Beneath a tree;
A bird nearby is whistling:
"Who loves to lie with me..."
[...]
What things we'll see, my darling,
In those farms,
By those bright fires sparkling
In dark windowpanes!
[...]
I love you! Come! Come for
A beautiful walk!
You will come, won't you? What's more...

SHE: And be late for work?

--Rimbaud

If you have any favorite poems of your own you'd like to share, please feel free to do so either in your own blogs (but please let me know) or in the comments.

BTW, the reason that comic cover's there: There was a time when Shade was, IMO, one of the best, coolest and greatest comics around (it crashed and burned at the end, but that's not important right now).

Peter Milligan's writing was an influence on my own, and I realized in retrospect that the series had indirect connections with my own piece My Girlfriend's Boyfriend.

But that's not important right now either.

It's a series that predated Vertigo, but changed over to become part of that line. One of the best run of issues after the changeover was called "Season In Hell," inspired by but not based on Rimbaud's book, and that's how I discovered the writer.

The cover at left is part of that run. I thought it made for a nice touch.