Hummingbird Poetry Series
“Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.”
Quote from Carl Sandburg. Series curated by Lynda Bernard.
Hummingbird’s Featured Poem
Symptom Recital
Dorothy Parker
I do not like my state of mind;
I’m bitter, querulous, unkind.
I hate my legs, I hate my hands,
I do not yearn for lovelier lands.
I dread the dawn’s recurrent light;
I hate to go to bed at night.
I snoot at simple, earnest folk.
I cannot take the gentlest joke,
I find no peace in paint or type.
My world is but a lot of tripe.
I’m disillusioned, empty breasted.
For what I think, I’d be arrested.
I am not sick, I am not well.
My quondam dreams are shot to hell.
My soul is crushed, my spirit sore;
I do not like me any more.
I cavil, quarrel, grumble, grouse.
I ponder on the narrow house.
I shudder at the thought of men…
I’m due to fall in love again.
Curator’s Note. Here’s a clever, witty, quick-moving, lightly exaggerated poem that rhymes beautifully. The poet lists all the reasons she hates herself, and has issues with the world.
The last line is like the punch line of a joke, unexpected because of what comes before. Suddenly she signals that she’s ripe for the forces of love. As a cure for boredom? For redemption? Both? The words “I’m due to fall in love again” tell us that she’s been here before - and expects that she’ll be here again.
