April: National Poetry Month

Poetry: the Music of Words

Each year the month of April is set aside as National Poetry Month.

Perhaps this month was chosen as a much needed respite after filing income tax.

In any event, this is the time to celebrate poets and their craft with events usually held throughout the month by the Academy of American Poets and other poetry organizations.

Of course, since we're all staying at home to prevent spreading Corona Virus, we're gathering online instead.

I know what many of you are thinking. Poetry is too highbrow for your taste. Wrong! Poetry is something for everyone, not just those who have a Master of Fine Arts. Believe it or not, it's very much a part of our pop culture. Allow me to explain.

Poetry Defined

Poet's Muse, same for all writers—Imagination

Poetry is drenched with emotion. It speaks of despair and darkness as well as of triumph of the human spirit. It's filled with symbolism or bluntly direct.

You may have slept through some English Lit class where a professor droned on about Byron, Keats, Blake, Elizabeth Barret Browning and others, but what those poets had to say about life and love and lust and turmoil holds up in today's world.

Good poetry reflects the world around it and never becomes obsolete. Let me give you a few classical favorites and a few contemporary ones too.

William Blake

"Tiger, tiger burning bright, in the forest of the night." Is this about a tiger? No, it's about the evil that's manifested in man. Read "The Tiger" and its counterpart "The Lamb."

John Donne

Did you see "About A Boy" starring Hugh Grant? When he quotes, "No man is an island," he's talking about the poem by Donne. In fact, that's what the entire movie is about. Read "No Man Is An Island" for a perspective on human relationships.

William Wordsworth

Feel harried and frazzled by the frantic modern world? Read "The World Is Too Much With Us". Wordsworth identified with that feeling because he felt man was losing the ability to see the Divine in nature.

Lord Byron

This poet gave us "She Walks In Beauty."

"She walks in beauty, like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies."

Penned a couple of centuries ago, this continues to be inspiration for artists, writers, movie makers, and musicians, not to mention for those who fancy themselves in love.

John Keats

Writers feel the desperation that Keats felt when he penned "When I Have Fears."

"When I have fears that I may cease to be / Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain." Ironically, Keats did die young.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Some point to "Locksley Hall" as proof that the Victorian poet held a belief in premonition or perhaps reincarnation. "For I have dipped into the future / far as human eye could see / Saw the vision of the world / and all the wonder that would be."

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Ah, "Sonnets from the Portuguese, Sonnet 43." This soaring ode to deep, abiding love is still used in everything from greeting cards to wedding vows. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways."

Dylan Thomas

As you get older, you begin to appreciate "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night."

"Do not go gentle into that good night / Old age should burn and rave at close of day / Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Contemporary Poets

Poetry still enriches our lives. (http://www.fallsapart.com/) Sherman Alexie's "Reservation Love Song."

"I can meet you / in Springdale buy you beer & take you home / in my one eyed Ford."

Margaret Walker (http://tinyurl.com/ch9w6y): "Dark Blood."

"There were bizarre beginnings in old lands for the making of me."

Another Perspective

All of the above is poetry, but so are the lyrics of a really great song. From a classic like Paul Simon's "Sounds of Silence" with its memorable words: "Hello, darkness, my old friend." to Selena's "I Could Fall In Love" with romantic words like "I could lose my heart tonight...." to Herbert Kretzmer's "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Meserables. "I dreamed a dream in time gone by...."

These unforgettable words were sung most recently by the fabulous Susan Boyle on "Britain's Got Talent" and won the hearts of the world.

Then there's Nickelback's "I Figured You Out" with scathing lyrics by Chad Kroeger.

All of these examples are poetry.

Takeaway Truth

Poetry is ever changing yet always reflective of our world and the human condition.