Welcome to where I am, where my kitchen's always messy, a pot's (or a poet) always about to boil over, a dog is always begging to be fed. Drafts of poems on the counter. Windows filled with leaves. Wind. Clouds moving over the mountains. If you like poetry, books, and music--especially dog howls when a siren unwinds down the hill-- you'll like it here.


MY NEW AUTHOR'S SITE, KATHRYNSTRIPLINGBYER.COM, THAT I MYSELF SET UP THROUGH WEEBLY.COM, IS NOW UP. I HAD FUN CREATING THIS SITE AND WOULD RECOMMEND WEEBLY.COM TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN SETTING UP A WEBSITE. I INVITE YOU TO VISIT MY NEW SITE TO KEEP UP WITH EVENTS RELATED TO MY NEW BOOK.


MY NC POET LAUREATE BLOG, MY LAUREATE'S LASSO, WILL REMAIN UP AS AN ARCHIVE OF NC POETS, GRADES K-INFINITY! I INVITE YOU TO VISIT WHEN YOU FEEL THE NEED TO READ SOME GOOD POEMS.

VISIT MY NEW BLOG, MOUNTAIN WOMAN, WHERE YOU WILL FIND UPDATES ON WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MY KITCHEN, IN THE ENVIRONMENT, IN MY IMAGINATION, IN MY GARDEN, AND AMONG MY MOUNTAIN WOMEN FRIENDS.




Monday, June 30, 2008

Verde for Vicki

When I read Vicki Lane's blog post today (vickilanemysteries.blogspot.com), I recalled a poem I'd read at my alma mater Wesleyan College, in Macon, Ga. I told the graduates that when I was a senior, I'd written a weekly column titled Caustic Cogitations. Some of my comments in those columns disturbed a few faculty members, one of whom wrote to scold me by saying that I would come to regret "my salad days when I was green in judgment." (from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra) I assured the graduates that I did not regret my green days at all and I hoped they never would regret theirs either.
Then I read this poem.



Coraggio
-for the class of 2006, Wesleyan College, May 13, 2006

"Verde, que te quiero verde."
--Federico Garcia Lorca

When the soprano rehearsing
Traviata's impassioned "Sempre Libera"
missed yet another high E-
flat, the conductor looked up from his baton
and challenged, Coraggio, Madam, Coraggio!

Courage!
What better word
could I offer as you take your leave
of this place that has gathered you
into its sisterhood?

Sometimes I still hear its voices
exhorting me: don't you forget
how you sat on the grass
outside Wortham dorm,
smoking too many cigarettes,

longing to find your way
into that poem you recited in Spanish class,
Lorca's verde viento that blew
through the classroom
like wings roused from slumber.

Forty years later I've come back
to say, simply, always be ready to welcome
the green, all that's verde within you.
Have the courage of your corazón,
have esperanza,

a little French insouciance.
You know what I mean,
flair and attitude, flinging your purple
shawls over your shoulders!
That green wind I wanted

to follow is right here,
today, on the thirteenth of May,
so cup it awhile in your fingers
and listen: your voice,
the breath of it lifting its brave canción.

~ Kathryn Stripling Byer, Class of 1966

2 comments:

Vicki Lane said...

What a wonderful thing to hear at commencement! The last graduation I attended featured a very knowledgeable fella, talking about styrofoam.

And how interesting to find that you too are a Lorca fan! CORDOBA is another of my favorites.

I'm going to have to go looking through my old books -- I seem to remember really liking Juan Ramon Jimenez too (may have that name wrong) Anyway -- thanks for posting your lovely poem!

Susan M. Bell said...

I'm trying to picture someone talking about styrofoam at a commencement. Odd...

Had to give a speech at a commencement years ago. Was not told this until about 2 1/2 weeks before hand. Few days later, I was informed that one of the people I would be speaking in front of was keynote speaker Sharyn McCrumb. Very intimidating. (She was very nice, though.)