Poetry and Life

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month?  Somehow I didn't until this year, but I spend so much time in libraries now that it's hard not to pick up on these things.  I suppose it makes sense-- the first important poem in (semi-) readable English begins with a reference to April, which was also later called the "cruellest month" by T.S. Eliot in the first line of possibly the most famous (and most overrated) poem of our time.  Anyway, in honor of all that, I'm going to NOT post another one of my poems (and split my infinitives with pride-- poets can do that!).  What I am going to post is a list of good poems by much better poets than myself for you to check out if you're interested.  All of these poems should be easy to find online if you don't want to spend your time hanging out in a library like I do.  As a side note though, I do find that reading a poem out of an actual book seems to be more enjoyable than reading off a screen-- don't know why that is exactly, but try it and you'll see!

Starting at the beginning, I want to talk about a longer poem that I referenced in my last post but I feel is too big to include in a list.  Possibly the best free verse poetry I've ever read is found in The Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot.  Yes, The Waste Land is more famous, but the The Four Quartets is better-- and much more encouraging.  Trust me.  I can't recommend it highly enough; it takes a little bit of effort but it's well worth it.  So start there if you can, but if all you have time for is shorter stuff, here is a brief list of some inspiring shorter poems that should make a great jumping-off point into the wide world of poetry (and if you want a much longer list just let me know and I can easily furnish that as well)!

John Donne-- Holy Sonnet 14 (Batter my heart...)
George Herbert-- Redemption
Andrew Marvell-- The Coronet
William Wordsworth-- Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
Percy Shelley-- Ozymandias
John Keats-- Ode to a Nightingale
Emily Dickinson-- "Hope is the thing with feathers"
Gerard Manley Hopkins-- "As Kingfishers catch fire"
Robert Frost-- The Road Not Taken
                    -- Two Tramps in Mud Time
Richard Wilbur-- Hamlen Brook
Mark Strand-- Keeping Things Whole


So there you go.  A closing thought: our modern way of life tends to cause us to miss the beautiful in the midst of the mundane.  I think one of the (many) reasons poetry has such value is that it is intrinsically an appreciation of the beauty God has embedded all over the place in this world.  Reading (and writing) poetry helps me remember to look for the beauty of the world... and then I just start seeing it.  To appreciate the beauty that God has made is a way to worship him, and that's why we're here, no?  Also, we are God's poetry (see Ephesians 2:10-- "workmanship" in that verse is the Greek poiema which is the word we get poem from), so we were made to experience the creative and specific design of beauty because it's who we are!   So enjoy the rest of National Poetry Month... and don't stop there.