Look, I know everyone’s got way too much junk mail clogging their inboxes. Far be it from me to suggest adding to the daily wafts of e-ffluvia. I must unsubscribe to about five unwanted e-mail lists a day, and I still have enough spam to see me through to spring.
But here’s one daily e-mail I always look forward to (along with the 5-string banjo list, and Scuttlebutt, about boats getting thrashed in mid-ocean): it’s a poem-a-day sent out by About.com and chosen by Simran Khurana. Who is she? Does she actually exist? Here’s a photo of her from the site:
I’m am crazy about her. It’s like poetic philocaption. I just love that she sends me poetry—really good poetry!—every day. And she will send it to you, too!
It’s classic stuff: Yeats, Frost, Stevenson, Dickinson—all public domain, of course, and all worth a look. I’m constantly surprised to find a classic poem that I really didn’t know that well or that I hadn’t thought of in a long time.
Here is Frost’s “The Lockless Door,” which Simran sent me last week. It’s a killer. Anyone want to venture a guess as to what’s going on in this poem? I’ve got some ideas, but, man, this thing is mysterious. It just keeps opening up.
The Lockless Door
It went many years,
But at last came a knock,
And I thought of the door
With no lock to lock.
I blew out the light,
I tip-toed the floor,
And raised both hands
In prayer to the door.
But the knock came again
My window was wide;
I climbed on the sill
And descended outside.
Back over the sill
I bade a "Come in"
To whoever the knock
At the door may have been.
So at a knock
I emptied my cage
To hide in the world
And alter with age.