John Ciardi was an American poet, writer, etymologist, editor and translator. For a time in the US, he was known as Mr Poet, though it was his translating work that possibly gained him the highest acclaim with his interpretation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy.

Feeling that poetry was somehow inaccessible to the masses, in his own work Ciardi strived to open it up to people of all ages, and he created the guide How Does a Poem Mean? to help anyone understand the basic elements of poetry. 

Among Ciardi’s works, his poetry collection This Strangest Everything was recorded by Spoken Arts.

Listen to Ciardi as he reads On Leaving The Party After Having Been Possibly Brilliant for Certainly Too Long on YouTube.

On leaving the party after having been possibly brilliant for certainly too long
John Ciardi

Where's the magician fast as his own trick?
the balancer as light as what he does
on ropes and air? All curtains fall too quick,
all lights go out too soon. And then what was 
magic and weightless must reset its traps,
feed the real rabbit, and take off its tights.
I've had enough bright chippies and old chaps
for any man's collection of brittle nights.
I'm smiled out, talked out, quipped out, socialized
so far from any being, I need the weight
of mortal silences to get realized
back into myself. It's late. It's always late.
It's time I looked back in from outer space
and faced the mirror I still have to face.

Writing

As referenced in his biography on the Poetry Foundation website, Ciardi once wrote: “The poet cannot know where he is going: he must take direction from the poem itself.“

Try this: Choose a starting point for a short poetic journey – it could be a word, a thought, a feeling, a place – then just see where it takes you. Allow your starting point to guide you, with each step informing the next without consideration for any final destination.

We’d love to see what you come up with, if you’d like to share.

Photo by Cullan Smith on Unsplash