Three posts ago I gave you a video of Elizabeth Gilbert on TED
where she mentioned the genius of a certain Ruth Stone which
I obviously looked up on you tube out of curiosity.
What I found was a rare gem in the world of poetry.
She is a unique pearl where words magically pour out from her mouth.
There is a book on Amazon called What love comes to.
One can leaf through the first few pages.
A writer Sharon Olds describes her talent beautifully so I will
elaborate no further.
Meanwhile, enjoy this piece of heaven 🙂
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Uploaded on May 21, 2009
Ruth Stone is a true American original. Now aged 93, she is still writing poetry of extraordinary variety and radiance. Pamela Robertson-Pearce filmed her in Vermont in September 2008. Ruth is almost blind but knows many of her poems by heart, and recites (or sings) several poems in this short film (prompted occasionally by editor Neil Astley). Born in Virginia in 1915, she has lived in rural Vermont for much of her life. In 1959, after her husband committed suicide, she had to raise three daughters alone, all the time writing what she called her love poems, all written to a dead man who forced her to ‘reside in limbo’ with her daughters. The poems are all from her recent retrospective WHAT LOVE COMES TO: NEW & SELECTED POEMS: ‘In an Iridescent Time’, ‘Orchard’, ‘The Talking Fish’, ‘The Excuse’, ‘Advice’, ‘I Have Three Daughters’ (which she sings), ‘Mantra’ and ‘The Season’. The poems are included here by permission of her publishers Copper Canyon Press in the US and Bloodaxe Books in the UK. For more details, see: http://www.bloodaxebooks.com/titlepage.asp?isbn=1852248416
ArtPoetry&Literature 