Extra-Ordinary Words
Ordinary Words by Ruth Stone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a book of extraordinary words, as Ruth Stone tries to understated mortality and then accept that it cannot be understood, only accepted. She looks at the “prison” of ordinary usage and grammar, and asks and explore how language can be made to reveal again, not merely conceal. Stone is an under-appreciated poet of the 20th Century who was still vital and relevant into the 21st. This 1999 collection is highly recommended, whether you read poetry on a regular basis or not. As we read, we are the “open-mouthed”:
Vapor, a transient thing, a dervish
seen rising in a whirl of wind,
or brief cloud casting its changing shadow;
though below, the open-mouthed might stand
transfixed by mirage, a visionary oasis.”