Monday, December 03, 2012

Monday Poetry Stretch - Opposites

I picked up a couple of books  by Richard Wilbur at our fabulous used bookstore last week. One was THE POEMS OF RICHARD WILBUR (1947), and the other was MORE OPPOSITES (1991). Here's a bit of info from the jacket flap of the latter.
"Richard Wilbur, his wife, and their four children used to play a rather unusual game around the dinner table. One member of the family would suggest a word, and then everyone would join in a lively quarrel about its proper opposite." 
Wilbur's first book based on this game, OPPOSITES, was published in 1973. The poems in both volumes are a bit nutty, thoroughly entertaining, and downright clever. Here's one from MORE OPPOSITES.

The opposite of kite, I'd say,
Is yo-yo. On a breezy day
You take your kite and let it rise
Upon its string into the skies,
And then you pull it down with ease
(Unless it crashes in the trees).
yo-yo, though, drops down, and then
You quickly bring it up again
By pulling deftly on the string
(If you can work the blasted thing).

Here's a nice video of Wilbur reading a number of opposite poems.
So, your challenge for the week is to write on opposites. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll share the results in time for Poetry Friday.