In an essay called "On Reading Poetry," the late Kenneth Koch wrote:

Suppose you want to get an experience into words so that it is permanently there, as it would be in a painting—so that every time you read what you wrote, you reexperienced it. Suppose you want to say something so that it is right and beautiful—even though you may not understand exactly why. Or suppose words excite you—the way stone excites a sculptor—and inspire you to use them in a new way. And that for these or other reasons you like writing because of the way it makes you think or because of what it helps you to understand. These are some of the reasons poets write poetry.

Today's episode of the Knopf Poetry Podcast features Mark Strand reading Kenneth Koch's poem "Permanently," and the text is below.

Podcast: Listen to a recording of Mark Strand reading "Permanently"
click to download »

Permanently

One day the Nouns were clustered in the street.
An Adjective walked by, with her dark beauty.
The Nouns were struck, moved, changed.
The next day a Verb drove up, and created the Sentence.

Each Sentence says one thing—for example, "Although it was a dark rainy
    day when the Adjective walked by, I shall remember the pure and sweet
    expression on her face until the day I perish from the green, effective earth."
Or, "Will you please close the window, Andrew?"
Or, for example, "Thank you, the pink pot of flowers on the window sill
    has changed color recently to a light yellow, due to the heat from the
    boiler factory which exists nearby."

In the springtime the Sentences and the Nouns lay silently on the grass.
A lonely Conjunction here and there would call, "And! But!"
But the Adjective did not emerge.

As the Adjective is lost in the sentence,
So I am lost in your eyes, ears, nose, and throat—
You have enchanted me with a single kiss
Which can never be undone
Until the destruction of language.

KEEP CLICKING: About THE COLLECTED POEMS OF KENNETH KOCH About Kenneth Koch Continue reading "On Reading Poetry" Discuss today's poem in the Knopf Poetry Forum