Why Poetry Matters

Let’s wrap up National Poetry Month with two quotes:
Why Poetry Matters
“…it shows us ourselves by illuminating the interior lives of others. One cannot read a poem without being aware of the poet’s voice – whether loud or barely a whisper – speaking across the distances, time and space. Poems offer a form of refuge. They can comfort us when we grieve or can celebrate joy…And poetry helps us remember – keeping alive the cultural legacy of a people.” Natasha Trethewey – United States Poet Laureate from 2012 – 2014
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It’s Not a Test
“A poem is not a test. Readers of poetry can’t fail. When you read a poem, you can, if you like, cling stubbornly to a ‘wrong’ answer to the question, What does it mean?
Poems aren’t meant to express what can be expressed in everyday language. Like dreams, they come to offer us strange new experiences, or to remind us of those we thought we’d forgotten. They can be understood in the parts of our brain that appreciate sounds, or smell or the experience of awakening and feeling unaccountably anxious.
…Go out in search of poems you like, that can become yours. What they mean to anyone else is irrelevant. They mean what a leaf blowing across the freeway means. They mean what the open eye of a goldfish looking into your eye means. The limitless pleasures of poetry are yours for the taking.” Laura Kasischke – 2012 recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry
Great advice: “The limitless pleasures of poetry are yours for the taking.” Don’t forget it throughout the rest of the year!

The Miracle of Morning

As part of National Poetry Month I would like to introduce you to an exceptional young poet. When I watched the Presidential Inauguration in January I fell in love with Amanda Gorman, who at 22, had the honor of reading her poem, “The Miracle of Morning” for President Biden. She was named the Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles in 2014, and became the first National Youth Poet Laureate three years later. If you want to learn more about this young lady, read the article from Vogue magazine:
Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman on Her Career-Defining Address and Paying Homage to Maya Angelou
By Liam Hess January 20, 2021
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Here is her poem:
The Miracle of Morning
By Amanda Gorman April 2020
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I thought I’d awaken to a world in mourning.
Heavy clouds crowding, a society storming.
But there’s something different on this golden morning.
Something magical in the sunlight, wide and warming.
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I see a dad with a stroller taking a jog.
Across the street, a bright-eyed girl chases her dog.
A grandma on a porch fingers her rosaries.
She grins as her young neighbor brings her groceries.
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While we might feel small, separate, and all alone,
Our people have never been more closely tethered.
The question isn’t if we can weather this unknown,
But how we will weather this unknown together.
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So on this meaningful morn, we mourn and we mend.
Like light, we can’t be broken, even when we bend.
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As one, we will defeat both despair and disease.
We stand with healthcare heroes and all employees;
With families, libraries, waiters, schools, artists;
Businesses, restaurants, and hospitals hit hardest.
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We ignite not in the light, but in lack thereof,
For it is in loss that we truly learn to love.
In this chaos, we will discover clarity.
In suffering, we must find solidarity.
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For it’s our grief that gives us our gratitude,
Shows us how to find hope, if we ever lose it.
So ensure that this ache wasn’t endured in vain:
Do not ignore the pain. Give it purpose. Use it.
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Read children’s books, dance alone to DJ music.
Know that this distance will make our hearts grow fonder.
From these waves of woes our world will emerge stronger.
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We’ll observe how the burdens braved by humankind
Are also the moments that make us humans kind;
Let each morning find us courageous, brought closer;
Heeding the light before the fight is over.
When this ends, we’ll smile sweetly, finally seeing
In testing times, we became the best of beings.

In Celebration of Poetry

April is National Poetry month. It’s a time to find an excuse to read poetry, learn about poetry, and maybe even write one! I love this quote from professor John Keating, played by Robin Williams, in the 1989 film, “Dead Poets Society”: “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
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Did you know that everyone writes poetry? Whether it’s a kindergartner’s “roses are red, violets are blue” attempt, the idea that poetry has to rhyme to be poetry is a misconception. Free form poems can be found in an entry on a teen’s Facebook page pining for a lost love, or especially speeches at memorial services, or a toast at a wedding. Also songs are poems set to music! The next time you hear your favorite song, listen carefully to the “lyrics” and you will be experiencing poetry. (really want to hear great poems, then listen to Bruce Springsteen. The Boss even knows how to create unusual rhymes!).
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I’d like to leave you with these words from Pulitzer Prize winner and first Poet Laureate of the United States, Robert Pen Warren: “The poem…is a little myth of man’s capacity of making life meaningful. And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see – rather, a light by which we may see – and what we see is life” (Saturday Review, march 22, 1958).
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Quote of the week

“Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future, without fear.” –Henry Wadsworth Longfellow