Poetry Monday « Truly Outrageous

Poetry Monday

July 2, 2007 at 10:17 am | In poetry |

Scheherazade
Tell me about the dream where we pull the bodies out of the lake
and dress them in warm clothes again.
How it was late, and no one could sleep, the horses running
Until they forget that they are horses.
It’s not like a tree where the roots have to end somewhere,
it’s more like a song on a policeman’s radio,
how we rolled up the carpet so we could dance, and the days
were bright red, and every time we kissed there was another apple
to slice into pieces.
Look at the light through the windowpane. That means it’s noon, that means
we’re inconsolable.
Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us.
These, our bodies, possessed by light.
Tell me we’ll never get used to it.
– Richard Siken

[Note: I cannot for the life of me get WordPress to respect this poem's use of white space, but I love this poem too much not to post it. Please go here and scroll about a third of the way down to read the poem with correct formatting.]

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If you surround your text with <pre> and </pre> tags, it will preserve all spacing. So, hopefully this works:

Tell me about the dream where we pull the bodies out of the lake
and dress them in warm clothes again.
How it was late, and no one could sleep, the horses running
Until they forget that they are horses.
It’s not like a tree where the roots have to end somewhere,
it’s more like a song on a policeman’s radio,
how we rolled up the carpet so we could dance, and the days
were bright red, and every time we kissed there was another apple
to slice into pieces.
Look at the light through the windowpane. That means it’s noon, that means
we’re inconsolable.
Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us.
These, our bodies, possessed by light.
Tell me we’ll never get used to it.

Comment by Joseph — July 2, 2007 #
Damn you WordPress!

Comment by petitpoussin — July 2, 2007 #
I guess it doesn’t work for comments, but it should work for this post. Whoops!

Comment by Joseph — July 2, 2007 #
If not, maybe <code> works?

Tell me about the dream where we pull the bodies out of the lake and dress them in warm clothes again. How it was late, and no one could sleep, the horses running Until they forget that they are horses. It’s not like a tree where the roots have to end somewhere, it’s more like a song on a policeman’s radio, how we rolled up the carpet so we could dance, and the days were bright red, and every time we kissed there was another apple to slice into pieces. Look at the light through the windowpane. That means it’s noon, that means we’re inconsolable. Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us. These, our bodies, possessed by light. Tell me we’ll never get used to it.

Comment by Joseph — July 2, 2007 #
Urg. Does the <pre> tag work with the post itself?

Comment by Joseph — July 2, 2007 #
It does, but half of the lines are getting cut off because the text won’t fit (at least on Firefox). Damn, damn, damn.

Comment by petitpoussin — July 2, 2007 #
Okay, then try this:

<pre style=”white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: -moz-pre-wrap; white-space: -pre-wrap; white-space: -o-pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;” >

insert poem here

</pre>

Comment by Joseph — July 2, 2007 #
Same thing again! WordPress hates poetry.

Comment by petitpoussin — July 2, 2007 #
I shall revolt against the haters of beautiful, lyrical words on the cyberpage. Poetry-lovers unite in the battle for free use of white space!

Comment by Lrapps — July 6, 2007 #