My dear friend Sakhmet has informed me that April is National Poetry Month. If you like (and if you enjoy quality poetry), you can celebrate by signing up for Poem-a-Day.
If you're like me, you know you should love that stuff, but secretly you don't. And now I guess it's not so much of a secret. You tried, when you majored in English at the School of the Prophets, to come to appreciate it, but your wild-eyed professors didn't help too much by relating every single poem Dickinson and Coleridge ever wrote to sex. There was one time when Poet Laureate Richard Wilbur came to visit and read from his book, Opposites. You loved that a lot. Probably because it reminded you a little of your favorite poets, even Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss.
Anyway, it's important to try to expand one's horizons (or those of your friends), and so Sakhmet is going to keep sharing, and I'm going to keep trying. In the meantime, I'm thinking of doing my own little Poem-a-Day thing here, in order to be more active in the movement to appreciate mediocre poetry, which doesn't get enough press, in my opinion. (This is not to say that the poets I feature other than myself are mediocre. It refers solely to my own abilities--or lack thereof.) If you'd like to participate, please feel free. The more, the merrier.
Since it's already April 4, and we've missed a few days, I include an archive here.
April 1
Everyone is trying
To come up with pranks
And jokes
To play on unsuspecting Fools.
No poem today.
April 2
by Lola (reproduced without permission)
I think that email is fun
But it makes me shun
My daily resposibilities
With alternate realities
I think of ways to better spend my time
Like thinking up a simple rhyme
Now I have a proposition
That will not make a demolition
Of your daily lives
Although we will stumble into hives
Of unwanted information
Listen to my presentation
Although my time would be better spent
With friends, (that's sincerely meant)
Let us email everyday
To keep the boredom bugs away!
April 3
by Cicada (also reproduced without permission)
A Homework Haiku
Today, I will write
about T. S. Eliot
just five pages more.
April 4
by Me
In the words of Maria Von Trapp (or Julie Andrews), "What will this day be like? I wonder!"
Tuesday,
Blues day,
Pay your dues day,
You offend and someone sues day.
Flu's day,
Ruse day,
Right slow news day,
Some dog stops in yard and poos day.
Booze day,
Lose day,
Please excuse day,
Stinkin' kids have got no clues day.
or
Tuesday!
Tuesday!
Maggie Moo's day!
Sale on shoes day!
Great reviews day!
Baby coos day,
Baby goos day!
Lover woos day,
I can choose day,
Tell yourself you just can't lose day!
Tuesday!
Whose day?
Me and you's day!
6 comments:
I might possibly be crying right now and laughing uncontrollably. That was truly beautiful. Maggie Moos Day, huh? Where can I get me some of that? To my knowledge, they closed down here in Provo... any up in AF? I always get a milkshake made out of the cheesecake ice cream. Sooooo good.
Maggie Moo's A.F. is doing a thriving business. You should come. My personal favorite is the bright blue bubble gum flavor that turns what ever you eliminate over the next several days a lovely neon blue.
My favorite poet is Ogden Nash, a giant among men. Here is one of his classics:
Shake and shake the ketchup bottle.
None'll come; then a lot'll.
In my youth I was also an aspiring poet. Here's one of my poems:
Of all the foods that I have cursed,
Peanut butter is the worst.
It's adhesive when it's single,
So with Jelly it must mingle.
The jelly's purpose is to coat
The peanut butter down your throat.
Since the peanut butter's thick,
Without the Jelly it would stick.
Yummy jelly thus is spread
On the peanut buttered bread.
And the jelly's hardly tasted
When on peanut butter's wasted.
So when you want a sandwich, please
Don't waste jelly, try grilled cheese!
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Poems are not as dumb
as I used to think they were.
.
You have to check out Billy Collins.
"I hate poetry" means I won't read it, and if I do, I'll think it's stupid.
"I appreciate poetry" means I'll read it, and I'll like some of it, and I'll recognize value in it.
"I love poetry" means I'll go out and buy books of poetry and read them for fun.
I appreciate poetry. I even enjoy Billy Collins. A lot. But I'm probably not going to buy any of his books.
It's not you. It's me. But who knows? One day, if you persist, I may go out and start buying poetry and reading it for fun. I bought Richard Wilbur's book, and I also have one of Naomi Shihad Nye's. Of course I have an extensive Dr. Seuss collection, my favorite of which is "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish."
Maybe there's no hope for me. I should just learn English and move to China.
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