Posted in celebration of national poetry month. Have a favorite poem you have read or written? Please email it to frank@mytownmatters.com.
Ars Poetica #100: I Believe by Elizabeth Alexander
Poetry, I tell my students,
is idiosyncratic. Poetry
is where we are ourselves,
(though Sterling Brown said
“Every ‘I’ is a dramatic ‘I'”)
digging in the clam flats
for the shell that snaps,
emptying the proverbial pocketbook.
Poetry is what you find
in the dirt in the corner,
overhear on the bus, God
in the details, the only way
to get from here to there.
Poetry (and now my voice is rising)
is not all love, love, love
and I’m sorry the dog died.
Poetry (here I hear myself loudest)
is the human voice,
and are we not of interest to each other?
At the start of Poetry Month, I thought that I’d likely just delete these posts. Wrong. I found them each of at least some passing interest. Especially the sonnet on Shakespeare’s birthday. But all of them have been good for the soul in some way. Thanks!
That is great to hear Spencer. Thanks