Poet and Didn't Know It: April is National Poetry Month

I just read several blog postings about the amazing activities poetry organizations are conducting to celebrate National Poetry Month--which is this month. And that’s groovy, because as a songwriter, as a writer, as a reader – I dig poetry.

When I was in high school I actually filled up a whole diary of poems. Not my own stuff though, which wasn’t worthy. No, I copied, by hand, my favourite, real live/dead poets', poems into a single bound, blue diary (indexed by first line, no less – can you tell I was destined to be a librarian??). I still have it on my bookshelf and skim the neat print on occasion.

I guess poetry has always been a thing for me. Now, I’m not going to say that I peruse a couplet daily, but I do go on poetry binges. I usually return to a few that I consider my favourites – my go to poetry beats if you will. I thought I’d share them. They’re short, they’re classics – part of the reason I love’m. Any errors in punctuation, formatting, etc….are, like, so my fault.

At the Last: Robert Louis Stevenson

She cometh no more:
Time, too is dead.
The last tide is led
From the last shore.
Eternity…
What is Eternity?
But the sea coming,
The sea going,
For evermore.

You Fit Into Me: Margaret Atwood

You fit into me
Like a hook into an eye

A fish hook
An open eye

The Living Hand: John Keats

This living hand, now warm and capable
Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold
And in the icy silence of the tomb,
So haunt the days and chill they dreaming nights
That thou wouldst wish thine own heart dry of blood.
So in my veins red life might stream again,
And thou be conscience – calmed – see here it is –
I hold it towards you.

Reflections on Ice-breaking: Ogden Nash

Candy
Is dandy.
But liquor
Is quicker.

Reverses: Maya Angelou

How often must we
Butt to head
Mind to ass
Flank to nuts
Cock to elbow
Hip to toe
Soul to shoulder
Confront ourselves
In our past.

For more information about National Poetry Month activities, try these sites:

http://www.poets.org/
http://poets.ca/