On Poetry

A friend of mine decided to do a poetry challenge on Facebook, which is that someone gives you a poet and you share a poem you love/like by them. She was given Silverstein, and posted “Hug O’ War.” I liked her post and so she gave me a poet to post. Now, I know some poetry, but nearly as much as I would like. I like some Thoreau, Cummings, Whitman, Dickinson. And I know Poe, Frost, and Shakespeare, of course, along with others we had to learn/read in school. And I love Shel Silverstein, as most who’ve been children in this recent era do.

I have a book of Dickinson and a book of Thoreau at home, and love occasionally taking time to just sit and slowly read through some of their pages, letting the words seep in. I have, of course, read much Shakespeare thanks to school and being part of drama departments.

For the challenge, I was given E.E. Cummings.

I thought it’d be hard to find one I liked, and I even started to search Google to read through some and pick one out. Then I remembered I keep this one on me most of the time. I saw it about a year ago somewhere online, and it is so perfect. It is a redirect, a prayer of thanksgiving, a recognition of the amazing world around me, and a reminder of how amazing each day is. It is my favorite by him. Even though I haven't read all there is from him, I find it hard to imagine this one being displaced.

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

Even if you don't love it like I do, don't you find it encouraging?

I think poetry is one of the best things for expressing emotion. Not that other types of writing can't or don't do that, but poetry seems to capture the way my mind thinks in lines that sometimes seem (or are) disconnected while still communicating an overall direction of emotion(s). I love that each line can be an independent thought, or that it can intersect with others to make a larger thought, depending on how it's written and how you're thinking. In the poem above I love the parenthetical phrases that are like the unspoken thoughts in the mind of the writer. I love how it flows and includes questions and an epiphany. The honesty, and wonder, and amazement.

Inspiring and uplifting.