And congratulations to Jennifer at Diary of 1! While I did pick Jennifer totally randomly, I'm happy that she won because she posted a poem that her mother wrote, called "Morning." Someday I'll have a fall poetry contest and post my father's poem called, "Kicking Leaves in Mr. Gage's Orchard."
Lots of people wrote to me and said, "I can't write poetry, so I can't enter." Well, actually I didn't ask you all to write a poem for the contest, just to submit a spring poem that you like. But here lies a phenomenon that seems epidemic: people are intimidated by poetry. Certainly, poetry can be intimidating. I think most of us were exposed to a similar canon of poetry in high school. I can remember reading sonnets by Donne and Shakespeare and finding them obtuse. I remember being utterly perplexed by iambic pentameter and trochaic octameter.
But somewhere along the line I fell in love with poetry. It was something inside of me that insisted upon expressing myself through poetry. I loved the sound of words, the cadence of language. Poets could evoke such a range of emotions with such a sparseness of words.
If you haven't read poetry since high school, please try again. This is National Poetry Month. Try visiting one of these sites and browsing. You may find something that touches your soul:
Poetry Foundation
American Life in Poetry
Poets.org
Thanks, everyone, for playing, and congratulations, Jennifer in OR! I'll be sending off a box of Spring Things very soon!
Comments
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - Poetry
Posted by Christina in Oregon
I was wondering if you could suggest a book, or a few books, that I could read to my four year old. Poetry is definitely an overlooked subject for us....since I really know more about just about anything than poetry.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - Wa-hoo!
Posted by Jennifer in OR
Thanks a bunch!! I'll email you with my address...
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - All right you poetry genius!
Posted by bestsister
I have a question. There is a poem I read and loved in University that I have somehow forgotten what/who/where it was. I'm hoping you can help me find it! (Sarah the supersleuth).
So I don't know who it is by or what it is called but the last line is something like:
And in dying to find I have never lived.
Or something close to that...any guesses? I was actually thinking it might have been John Donne because I really loved iambic pentameter and obtuse sonnets :-) however it seems I was wrong.
Just something for you to mull over in your spare time (hee hee).
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by SmallWorld
Christina: I will write a whole blog post just for you on poetry with children!
Best Sister: I did a little searching but came up with nothing! So sorry!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 3rsandahug
Oh, I can't believe I missed your contest after all. It's been too busy around here lately! I'm glad you got some good entries.
Karen
Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by chickadee@afamiliarpath.blogspot.com
yes, all my junk was out of the picture. haven't you been paying attention to all my problem areas?
