This is very bad stuff.
At 09:09 AM 1/31/2001 -0800, Ram Devineni wrote:
>Hello Everyone: Ms. Marilyn Hacker has selected the
>poem which will be read in celebration of the
>"Dialogue Among Civilizations Through Poetry" program
>at the UN, Mt. Everest, Antarctica and the West
>Philippines Sea. The poem is "Planet Earth" by
>Canadian poet P.K. (Patricia Kathleen) Page. The poem
>is taken from Ms Page's collection, "The Hidden Room"
>(in two volumes), published by The Porcupine's Quill
>in 1997. www.sentex.net/~pql . The poem was
>suggested by Susan MacRae.
>
>**********
>
>Planet Earth
>
>It has to be spread out, the skin of this planet,
>has to be ironed, the sea in its whiteness;
>and the hands keep on moving,
>smoothing the holy surfaces.
>
>In Praise of Ironing Pablo Neruda
>
>It has to be loved the way a laundress loves her
>linens,
>the way she moves her hands caressing the fine muslins
>knowing their warp and woof,
>like a lover coaxing, or a mother praising.
>It has to be loved as if it were embroidered
>with flowers and birds and two joined hearts upon it.
>It has to be stretched and stroked.
>It has to be celebrated.
>O this great beloved world and all the creatures in
>it.
><i> It has to be spread out, the skin of this planet.
></i>
>
>The trees must be washed, and the grasses and mosses.
>They have to be polished as if made of green brass.
>The rivers and little streams with their hidden
>cresses
>and pale-coloured pebbles
>and their fool's gold
>must be washed and starched or shined into brightness,
>the sheets of lake water
>smoothed with the hand
>and the foam of the oceans pressed into neatness.
><i> It has to be ironed, the sea in its whiteness.
></i>
>and pleated and goffered, the flower-blue sea
>the protean, wine-dark, grey, green, sea
>with its metres of satin and bolts of brocade.
>And sky - such an 0! overhead - night and day
>must be burnished and rubbed
>by hands that are loving
>so the blue blazons forth
>and the stars keep on shining
>within and above
><i> and the hands keep on moving.</i>
>
>It has to be made bright, the skin of this planet
>till it shines in the sun like gold leaf.
>Archangels then will attend to its metals
>and polish the rods of its rain.
>Seraphim will stop singing hosannas
>to shower it with blessings and blisses and praises
>and, newly in love,
>we must draw it and paint it
>our pencils and brushes and loving caresses
><i> smoothing the holy surfaces.</i>
>
>-- P.K. (Patricia Kathleen) Page
>
>Note: <i> indicates italics
>-----------
>P. K. Page was born in England and brought up on the
>Canadian prairies. She was out of the country for many
>years with her diplomat-husband, Arthur Irwin, and now
>lives in Victoria, British Columbia. She is the author
>of more than a dozen books of poetry, fiction, and
>non-fiction, including three books for children. Among
>other honours, she has won the Governor General's
>Award for poetry for "The Metal and the Flower"
>(1954). She is also a visual artist whose works are
>represented in The National Gallery of Canada and The
>Art Gallery of Ontario.
>
>P. K. Page is an Officer of the "Order of Canada," and
>holds honourary doctorates from four Canadian
>universities. The Winter 1996 number of The Malahat
>Review is a tribute to her life and work.
>
>=====
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