Tags: loving of art, writing of art, sharing of art, repetition, quatrain, rhetoric, ekphrastic
I really like the clear message this poem conveys, and it adds to it all that this poem is likely in part inspired by a line from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” from Blades of Grass: “A blade of grass is the journeywork of the stars”. Rather poetic, yes?
A Blade of Grass
Brian Patten
You ask for a poem.
I offer you a blade of grass.
You say it is not good enough.
You ask for a poem.
I say this blade of grass will do.
It has dressed itself in frost,
It is more immediate
Than any image of my making.
You say it is not a poem,
It is a blade of grass and grass
Is not quite good enough.
I offer you a blade of grass.
You are indignant.
You say it is too easy to offer grass.
It is absurd.
Anyone can offer a blade of grass.
You ask for a poem.
And so I write you a tragedy about
How a blade of grass
Becomes more and more difficult to offer,
And about how as you grow older
A blade of grass
Becomes more difficult to accept.
The mostly consistent quatrain structure of this poem and the repetition of lines and words and sentiments help to convey the back and forth discourse that is occuring in the poem (and through the poem itself). By taking us through the journey with him, Patten creates an ekphrastic effect of sorts, since we are indeed experiencing the art and the enoughness of this here poem as we read it. Again, the argument is pretty straightforward, mostly saying that things need not be complex and hard-wrought to be of value. Really, things not need be anything in particular or fit any form or expectation to be beautiful and worthy. I really like this sentiment and used it to a similar but slightly different end in the next poem in the series.