Peter Meinke – Poet

 

Peter Meinke – Poet

 

I was surprised to see how many of my poems were influenced by art, music, science and movies (of course, I’m 86 ).
I’ve got dozens.

Here are 4 poems, one each from the above activities. 

I put little notes on them to clarify (maybe).

Talk of the Paintings

Sitting in a museum one day, I had the thought that color is a property of light at different wave lengths, so when the lights go out, the colors pack up and leave, and the paintings can relax.

Minuet in G

One day I came across an old book of classical music from far back in my days of piano lessons.  One page was folded over—Bethoven’s Minuet in G—which led me back to those days in Brooklyn when I was a young boy reluctantly practicing the piano while my friends played outside. 

Hermann Ludwig

Two of our children are scientists, and we’ve often talked about the similarities of science and poetry.  I don’t really know what an inverse square is, but I tried to write this poem in a very square and symmetrical shape; our kids were surprised I knew about Helmholtz, and I told them I was attracted because his name is a perfect trochaic iambic pentameter line.

Greta Garbo Poem #25

One summer, we went to a celebration of Garbo movies, and saw 5 or 6 of them in a row, after which I felt I knew her very well, which resulted in this poem.

Peter Meinke is the Poet Laureate of Florida.
Find out more at poetryfoundation.org/poets/peter-meinke

 

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