Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest segment to be offered by your local pub—Pretzels and Bullfights. The name’s Chris Galford, and while some of you might remember me from the photo segments of the former One Stop Poetry, I’m pleased to say I’ll now be your host today.

So I’m sure you’re wondering—what is Pretzels and Bullfights? It’s dVerse’s tribute to the poets of the past. This, and every other Monday night, I’ll be pulling a different literary gem from the bookshelves for your viewing pleasure (bet you didn’t expect a pub to come equipped with a library did you?). These will include great works by numerous classic poets—both known and unknown (with same going for their works). Some will be personal favorites. Some won’t. What stirs their presence here is the beauty and power of their words.

We welcome your discussions in the comment section of the posts, and your commentary on the poets and the works presented.

To that end, however, I fully recognize that I cannot hunt down every work, no matter how dedicated I am to our little bookshelves. For that reason, we here at dVerse would like to extend to you all an offer I hope many of you will take us up on: if there is a particular poem you would like to see showcased, from one of the immortalized poetic greats of years past, please send us an e-mail with the poem, the poet, and a brief explanation of why you feel it merits the spotlight. (In the subject line, please begin with the mark “P&B:” so we know what it’s regarding!)

We would like to accommodate our readers’ interests, and so to see what poems and poets resonate with you—well, it is our pleasure. And more importantly, it helps to build this community we’re all a part of.

Now without further adieu, let’s kick this segment off now shall we? You all must be getting rowdy penned up at the pub doors.

Today, we begin Pretzels and Bullfights with a work by American poet Walt Whitman: “O Me! O Life!”

O ME! O life!… of the questions of these recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish;
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more
faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever
renew’d;
Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;
Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.

That you are here—that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.

~~~

Hello everyone, Brian here. We are excited to have Chris join our team and add a new element to the pub. I look forward to dusting off the books that line our shelves and re-tasting the poets that have come before us or maybe even a few that still walk among us.

Each Monday, at the end of Chris’ post we will be playing a little Pub Game of dVerse trivia. We will ask three questions of the previous week and you email the answers to us at dversepoets@gmail.com . For six weeks we will keep a points total and then award a winner.

This week, we will just practice to help you get the feel for what the questions may be like:

1. Who brought their puppy to OpenLinkNight?

2. Name 1 poet that joined us for the first time this week.

3. What important insight did Oceangirl add to Gay’s excellent teaching on pantoum?

Send your answers to dversepoets@gmail.com and as always, have an incredible day.