David Ferry Awarded 2011 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize

David Ferry Awarded 2011 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize

Award recognizes lifetime accomplishment with $100,000 prize

April 12th, 2011

CHICAGO — The Poetry Foundation is pleased to announce that poet David Ferry has won the 2011 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.

Presented annually to a living US poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is one of the most prestigious awards given to American poets. At $100,000, it is also one of the nation’s largest literary prizes. Established in 1986, the prize is sponsored and administered by the Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine.

April 12th, 2011 - David Ferry Awarded 2011 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize : The Poetry Foundation

Courtesy

David Ferry

 

It is an afternoon toward the end of August:   

Autumnal weather, cool following on,   

And riding in, after the heat of summer,   

Into the empty afternoon shade and light,

The shade full of light without any thickness at all;

You can see right through and right down into the depth   

Of the light and shade of the afternoon; there isn’t   

Any weight of the summer pressing down.

In the backyard of the house next door there’s a kid,   

Maybe eleven or twelve, and a young man,

Visitors at the house whom I don’t know,

The house in which the sound of some kind of party,

Perhaps even a wedding, is going on.

Somehow you can tell from the tone of their voices   

That they don’t know each other very well—

Two guests at the party, one of them, maybe,

A friend of the bride or groom, the other the son

Or the younger brother, maybe, of somebody there.   

A couple of blocks away the wash of traffic

Dimly sounds, as if we were near the ocean.

They’re shooting baskets, amiably and mildly.

The noise of the basketball, though startlingly louder   

Than the voices of the two of them as they play,   

Is peaceable as can be, something like meter.

The earnest voice of the kid, girlish and manly,

And the voice of the young man, carefully playing the game   

Of having a grown-up conversation with him:

I can tell the young man is teaching the boy by example,

The easy way he dribbles the ball and passes it   

Back with a single gesture of wrist to make it   

Easy for the kid to be in synch;

Giving and taking, perfectly understood. 

Courtesy by David Ferry : The Poetry Foundation [poem]

I'm gonna send a little rain your way…..

And why, might you ask?  How should this offering be received?  I guess that depends upon your perspective.  I imagine that most people have been inculcated into the “rain is bad” thought  train because of nursery songs and rhymes like “ It’s raining, it’s pouring the old man is snoring” and “rain rain, go away, come again another day.”  A quick search of the Poetry Foundation yields 1,070 poems about rain, a majority of them waxing poetic (pun intended) on the negative aspects of rain.

I am on the “I love the rain" thought train. 

Rain drops from the sky

leave behind puddles that now

reflect its glory.

And thankfully so are others, like Langston Hughes. 

April Rain Song
~~by Langston Hughes

Let the rain kiss you.

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.

Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.

The rain makes running pools in the gutter.

The rain plays a little sleep-song on our roof at night—

And I love the rain.

Here he is reading this poem.  

  
Rain creates nature’s best playground toy.  I have many memories of my children running outside in rain storms to stomp in the puddles and generally run around getting soaking wet.  In fact, if the weather permitted, bathing suits were donned and out they went!  I have what I imagine is a fairly universal picture of my daughter in her yellow rain boots, her yellow slicker with the hood up and an umbrella running around in the small pond-sized puddle that would form during each rainstorm at the bottom of the driveway. So for those times, this particular memory and the ones to come.  An ode to rain:

Puddles left by rain

are my playground inviting

me to jump right in

 
*April Rain Song by Langston Hughes : The Poetry Foundation [poem] : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry.

"There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature." ~ Jane Austen

And you've got to have friends.....
These words remind me how important friends are in my own  journey. I have relied upon my friends to pick me up when I am down as well as support and encourage me. I have tried (and hopefully succeeded) to do the same for them.  What kind of love is this?  How is it to be defined?  A quick Google search of "love" delivers About 4,180,000,000 results.  A daunting number of hits. Clearly, this is a topic that many have plumbed.  Despite this fact, I will add my two cents to the myriad theories and beliefs already stated.  

I like Wikipedia's definition of love as “an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion and affection.” I am wondering whether love is a thread in this tapestry or the canvas upon which the tapestry can be woven.  Here is the gist, "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage," (Laozi)  I have always been aware of the essential role my friends play in my life and how the love from those relationships sustains me. So here is a tribute to love, "a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion and affection."

I think because it is spring and because life around me has that air of rebirth I have been more cognizant of the interactions of those around me.  Those tender moments between friends.  I am seeing those acts of human kindness, compassion and affection; and, by this I mean not just observing them, but taking them in and letting them reach some inner part of my being.  Today I witnessed a woman place her hands firmly and lovingly on the shoulders of a young woman in a wheel chair and I saw how that small gesture made that young woman feel. I also witnessed an older girl take a five year old under her wing, sending her reaffirming glances.  


These past few weeks, it is as if Mary Oliver has been journeying with me,

reminding me to be a witness to these moments. 

"Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it."

~Mary Oliver

Since all poetry remembers when it was sung (Borges), a few lyrics from Alanis Morissette’s, "You Owe Me Nothing In Return."

I'll give you countless amounts of outright acceptance if you want it
I will give you encouragement to choose the path that you want if you need it
You can speak of anger and doubts your fears and freak outs and I'll hold it
You can share your so-called shame filled accounts of times in your life and I won't judge it
(and there are no strings attached to it)

You owe me nothing for giving the love that I give
You owe me nothing for caring the way that I have
I give you thanks for receiving it's my privilege
And you owe me nothing in return

And a few quotes for good measure.....

“I'm treating you as a friend asking you to share my present minuses in the hope that I can ask you to share my future pluses.”
Katherine Mansfield

"Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place."
~Zora Neal Hurston

~"Where there is love there is life. "
Mohandas Gandhi