“Any Fool Can Get Into an Ocean”

Here it is, already more than a week into April and I have done nothing to publicly promote National Poetry Month! Well, it was a busy, crazy start to April, so what can I say? This year I am not attempting to write a poem a day, but I may post some new ones here. I am in more of an editing and submission mode though, so I’ll do some readings here from my YouTube channel in order to promote what others are doing to celebrate the month.

This is my second reading of a poem by Jack Spicer. Read more about him here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/jack-spicer

As for that crazy hair? I have no comment. :/

“Any Fool Can Get Into an Ocean”
By Jack Spicer 1925–1965 Jack Spicer
 
Any fool can get into an ocean   
But it takes a Goddess   
To get out of one.
What’s true of oceans is true, of course,
Of labyrinths and poems. When you start swimming   
Through riptide of rhythms and the metaphor’s seaweed
You need to be a good swimmer or a born Goddess
To get back out of them
Look at the sea otters bobbing wildly
Out in the middle of the poem
They look so eager and peaceful playing out there where the
    water hardly moves
You might get out through all the waves and rocks
Into the middle of the poem to touch them
But when you’ve tried the blessed water long
Enough to want to start backward
That’s when the fun starts
Unless you’re a poet or an otter or something supernatural
You’ll drown, dear. You’ll drown
Any Greek can get you into a labyrinth
But it takes a hero to get out of one
What’s true of labyrinths is true of course
Of love and memory. When you start remembering.

Source: Poetry (July/August 2008).

3 Comments Add yours

  1. Vincent in Ireland says:

    Yeah… what is going on with that hippy-yippy hair style!!!! ;)))

    Liked by 1 person

  2. keatsbabe says:

    Why aren’t you on TV?! Thank you for sharing this one – it’s a really interesting poem. I have been reading more and more contemporary poetry recently (though still love Keats above all others) and some really feels as if it has read my thoughts. Shall check out more of Jack Spicer. x

    Like

  3. sonofwalt says:

    haha, Vincent. I’m following in the ways of your ole pal Ginsberg! 🙂 And thanks, Keatsbabe! You are so sweet to me. With your sense of humor you might enjoy Billy Collins. I just got his latest volume of poems, Horoscopes for the Dead.

    Like

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