Although April is almost over, I wanted to mention National Poetry Month. I love poetry, with its catlike way of settling into your space with never a by-your-leave or may I. Poetry– if you get the right sort, that is– clings to your mind like orange cat hair on a black skirt.
Even the most determinedly posturing Philistine (“I ain’t readin’ none of that there po’try stuff. It’s for gurls.”) can be captured by the magic of just the right words in the right combination in the right place. And that’s what poetry is, neither more nor less. Just words, vividly placed, pinning wild thoughts to tame pages.
If you haven’t yet found the poetry that stirs your soul, sign up for a daily poem e-mail or RSS feed from Poets.org, get the Poetry Foundation‘s iPhone app, or put an anthology in your bathroom. If you read a poem a day, you’ll begin to find the poets that speak to you.
My beloved poets include Gerard Manley Hopkins, Emily Dickinson, George Herbert, William Butler Yeats, and others, and I try to read at least one poem a day. Who are yours?