Booklr Questions – Do you read Poetry?
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Do you read Poetry?
I don’t go out of my way to purchase or read poetry, but I do enjoy it on occasion. IAs a child it was Shel Silverstein who gave me a connection to poetry. And the opening poem in Where the Sidewalk Ends still connects with me today.
The Invitation
If you are a dreamer come in,
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hop-er, a pray-er, a magic-bean-buyer…
If you’re a pretender, come site by my fire
For we have some flax golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!-Shel Silverstein
Another way poetry came into my life was through my grandmother, who wrote poetry. She even had a few of her poems published in anthologies. There is one that my mom still pulls out at Thanksgiving every year called Thank You. I enjoy it, especially the first couple of lines.
Thank You
Leave a’whirling in the wind,
Fall has come and gone again;
Thank you Lord for season’s change.
Thank you for all the harvest brings
And for the multitude of unseen little things.-Ruby Rumble
I think I enjoy the rhyming and the word flow in that first stanza more than anything. That’s why I enjoy poets like Shel Silverstein and authors like Dr. Seuss so much. It’s also why I find myself wanting to listen to poetry instead of reading it. It leads me to slam poetry.
Do you enjoy poetry? That kind of poetry sticks with you?
I used to read a lot of poetry, particularly aloud, to my mum. We had a copy of The Best Loved Poems of the American People that was one of my favourite books as a kid. Then I fell in love with Shakespeare; his sonnets are fantastic. Did you know you can read them from the bottom up, and they still make sense? And then of course John Donne. Those are the ones that really stick with me.
I’ll have to try that with a sonnet when I get home. That’s super fun. I’ve not heard of John Donne, so I’ll be sure to check him out.
Donne is known as a “metaphyisical poet.” Meaning he uses a “conceit” (ie metaphor) from the physical world to talk about emotions etc. Holy Sonnet 11 is one of my favourites. I always read poetry aloud in my tutoring sessions, as it makes more sense that way…and I can’t read that one without tearing up.