April is the cruelest month, according to T.S. Eliot, but take a walk in Maryland in April, and you'll find it hard to agree. Beauty, not cruelty, was on display when I visited Annapolis last week. For National Poetry Month I will talk about some of my favorite poets, and some contemporary poets I think readers might like. My love of poetry goes back to childhood, when I loved the sound of rhyme and rhythm in Mother Goose and other infant delights. At eight I decided that I would be a poet ("that's nice dear," said my mother, "why don't you go to your room and practice now?"). I wrote the usual adolescent angsty stuff; in college I discovered Eliot, Wallace Stevens, e.e. cummings, and Elizabeth Bishop. Later on it was Rilke. I love shorter poems because I love to have the lines in my head, and I have a few poems sort of memorized. For some National Poetry Month activities, check out www.poets.org. One of my favorite activities is "Poem in Your Pocket Day" on April 29th. Wouldn't it be cool if everyone walked around with poems in their pockets all the time?
Monday, April 5, 2010
National Poetry Month
April is the cruelest month, according to T.S. Eliot, but take a walk in Maryland in April, and you'll find it hard to agree. Beauty, not cruelty, was on display when I visited Annapolis last week. For National Poetry Month I will talk about some of my favorite poets, and some contemporary poets I think readers might like. My love of poetry goes back to childhood, when I loved the sound of rhyme and rhythm in Mother Goose and other infant delights. At eight I decided that I would be a poet ("that's nice dear," said my mother, "why don't you go to your room and practice now?"). I wrote the usual adolescent angsty stuff; in college I discovered Eliot, Wallace Stevens, e.e. cummings, and Elizabeth Bishop. Later on it was Rilke. I love shorter poems because I love to have the lines in my head, and I have a few poems sort of memorized. For some National Poetry Month activities, check out www.poets.org. One of my favorite activities is "Poem in Your Pocket Day" on April 29th. Wouldn't it be cool if everyone walked around with poems in their pockets all the time?
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2 comments:
I love Annapolis in springtime. I'm biased, because I grew up there... but I love it. Glad you found it beautiful, not cruel. Love the Poem in Your Pocket idea.
Maryland is glorious in the springtime, and I came right when everything was in bloom...
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