These are responses to poems I chose from the poetry anthology. These are the poems that I feel are the most provocative and stimulating:

Stone - Poem by Charles Simic

Go inside a stone
That would be my way.
Let somebody else become a dove
Or gnash with a tiger's tooth.
I am happy to be a stone.

From the outside the stone is a riddle:
No one knows how to answer it.
Yet within, it must be cool and quiet
Even though a cow steps on it full weight,
Even though a child throws it in a river;
The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed
To the river bottom
Where the fishes come to knock on it
And listen.

I have seen sparks fly out
When two stones are rubbed,
So perhaps it is not dark inside after all;
Perhaps there is a moon shining
From somewhere, as though behind a hill—
Just enough light to make out
The strange writings, the star-charts
On the inner walls.

Steve's Response:

This is a very interesting allegory for the nature of the universe. Imagine that we are inside a stone, the entire universe that is. I love the part about the outside of the stone being a riddle that no one knows how to answer. Even when a cow steps with it's full weight on the stone , or a child skips the stone accost the pond, the inside of the stone is still calm and quiet, as if nothing that is going on outside has any effect on the inside of the stone. I am happy to be a stone as well