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To a Daughter Leaving Home
Linda Pastan

When i taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels,
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
the hair flapping
behind you like a
handkerchief waving
goodbye.


My Son the Man
Sharon Olds

Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider,
the way Houdini would expand his body
while people were putting him in chains. It seems
no time since I would help him put on his sleeper,
guide his claves into the shadowy interior,
zip him up and toss him up and
catch his weight. I cannot imagine him
no longer a child, and I know I must get ready,
get over my fear of men now my son
is going to be one. This was not
what I had in mind when he pressed up through me like a
sealed trunk through the ice of the Hudson,
snapped the padlock, unsnaked the chains,
appeared in my arms. Now he looks at me
the way Houdini studied a box
to learn the way out, then smiled and let himself be manacled.



上英美诗选的课时最怕老师谈一些很难懂的诗, 尤其是整首诗都是运用metaphor, allegory或 understatement, 有时allusion也不好懂, 再加上我没办法理解的议题的时候, 就会觉得很难过...因为我的level就到这里而已, 没办法理解更多了 LOL

不过, 关于亲情方面的真的很能打动我. 也许因为老师都有儿子女儿, 所以当他以一个父亲的角度谈这两首诗的时候, 完全真情流露下所讲的话都很有力量和吸引力, 让全班同学投入他的分享当中.

第一首诗, 在他解释的那短短20分钟里, 我热泪盈眶. 老师说以前就是他教他女儿骑脚车的, 所以当初读这首诗也分外感动. 老师只是不断在爆自己女儿的糗事, 然后不断地取笑自己的女儿, 可是, 我感受到的是那份温馨. 所以说嘛, 如果不是一般人所贴近的议题或是曾经有过的悸动, 一首诗对一个无关痛痒的人来说就不那么美也不那么动人了.

题外话, 高中时念过Emily Dickinson的诗, 她大部分都是在谈生死议题, 有些真的不是一般的难懂, 不过还是有我看得懂的也感觉很不错的 lol 有空再来分享~~