Liminal Poetry

[lillibet]

For Sunday's service we've been asked to bring with us to church "a poem that speaks to your soul at this boundary time between the holidays and the New Year."

The only thing that's coming to mind is "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" and I'm thinking something a little less popular, perhaps.

Anyone have a favorite poem on boundaries, interstices, liminal spaces to share?

Comments

[kathrynt.livejournal.com]

How about Mending Wall, also by Frost?

[cz_unit]

Oddly enough "There will come soft rains" by Sarah Teasdale is one of my favorites for the bleak winter. Things end, new things come, life moves on.

C

[eclecticavatar.livejournal.com]

http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/poetry/2010/01/07/winter-landscape-with-rooks

It's a little too dark, being Plath, of course, but it's a lovely image of winter and the feeling you get when you're down and out.

Here are a few other really nice ones, but more "winter" in general: http://www.dictionary-poems.com/poem-of-the-day-like-brooms-of-steel-by-emily-dickinson

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16632

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19313

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15506

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15745

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16151

[eclecticavatar.livejournal.com]

Ooh, or another nice Longfellow: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21247

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"?

http://www.bigeye.com/donotgo.htm

[dpolicar]

My favorite poet in this space is Frost.

Mending Wall is probably my favorite poem about boundaries, though it doesn't really seem to apply to the specific context.

Acquainted with the Night speaks to me of much of what is alienating about, among other things, "the holidays"... but, again, probably not the space you're going for.

I've always thought of Desert Places as a companion piece to Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening, so it might work for you. It's pretty unrelenting, though.

My favorite poem about interstices is actually my own, which is a little embarrassing to admit to, but there it is.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

That's easy. Desiderata.

I've loved it all of my life. And I try to live by it, even now. It speaks to my soul all year round.

'The Road Not Taken' is one that comes to mind at this time of year. But that one's a bit obvious, no?

[artaxastra.livejournal.com]

Crossing the Bar, by Tennyson is one of my favorites!

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

The very end of Renascence by Edna St. Vincent Millay reaches out and grabs me by the heart.

The world stands out on either side
No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky,—
No higher than the soul is high.
The heart can push the sea and land
Farther away on either hand;
The soul can split the sky in two,
And let the face of God shine through.
But East and West will pinch the heart
That can not keep them pushed apart;
And he whose soul is flat—the sky
Will cave in on him by and by.

In my own worldview, it's less God and more "grace", but still.