Blog Christening

I named this poetry website after a line from Mark Strand's poem, Eating Poetry. I am going to include the whole poem here, since it is one of my favorite poems:

Eating Poetry

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.

The librarian does not believe what she sees.
Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.

The poems are gone.
The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.

Their eyeballs roll,
their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.

She does not understand.
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams.

I am a new man,
I snarl at her and bark,
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.

Strand is often considered a surrealist poet. This poem is a great example of that, as evidenced in the very first stanza. I love the creepy and passionate image of ink literally dripping from the poet's mouth as he absorbs and soaks up all the poetry he can get his hands on. I can imagine the feeling that the image represents, when I remember how I felt when I first discovered Emily Dickinson back in high school. I couldn't get enough of her unexpected and rhythmic poetry (good thing she wrote hundreds of poems so that I was never at a loss for new material!). Or when I read the Harry Potter books. I romped with joy, soaking up Harry's adventures, in the dark of my bedroom, with a flashlight under my covers (so Dad wouldn't discover my late-night awakeness).

So that is why I chose the first line of this poem as the namesake for this new poetry pursuit website. Because, albeit digital, this is the place where I can let the ink run from the corners of my mouth.