POETRY FRIDAY: Possibilities (A List Poem)

Here is a poem entitled Possibilities, which was written by one of my favorite poets, Wislawa Szymborska. She received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. Possibilities is a good example of a list poem.


Possibilities
by Wislawa Symboraska

I prefer movies.
I prefer cats.
I prefer the oaks along the Warta.
I prefer Dickens to Dostoyevsky.
I prefer myself liking people
to myself loving mankind.
I prefer keeping a needle and thread on hand, just in case.
I prefer the color green.
I prefer not to maintain
that reason is to blame for everything.
I prefer exceptions.I prefer to leave early.
I prefer talking to doctors about something else.
I prefer the old fine-lined illustrations.
I prefer the absurdity of writing poems
to the absurdity of not writing poems.
I prefer, where love's concerned, nonspecific anniversaries
that can be celebrated every day.
I prefer moralists
who promise me nothing.

You can read the rest of Szymborska’s poem here.

What are your preferences? Maybe some of you might like to try writing a list poem like Szymborska’s Possibilities???


For Wild Rose Reader, I composed a cento using the titles of children’s books written by African American authors or about the African American experience in honor of Black History Month.

Kelly has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Big A, little a.