Calloo! Callay!
From the Academy of American Poets Website:
"The idea is simple: select a poem you love during National Poetry Month then carry it with you to share with co-workers, family, and friends (on April 29th)."
There are links on the site to local events celebrating the day.
Like all of us I have friends who will get funny little smiles on their faces and devilish glints in their eyes at the phrase "poem in your pocket"... but I don't care.
Since I'm such an exuberant poem sharer, maybe I'll fish out my old cargo pants today.
I just received this poem in a birthday card from a dear friend. (Thanks Gayla!) So this is one of the poems in my pocket. Its by none other than the always gorgeous Hafiz.
Come, let's scatter roses and pour wine in the glass;
we'll shatter heaven's roof and lay a new foundation.
If sorrow raises armies to shed the blood of lovers,
I'll join with the wine bearer so we can overthrow them.
With a sweet string at hand, play a sweet song, my friend,
so we can clap and sing a song and lose our heads in dancing.
What's the poem in your pocket today? It'll make my day if you share it here in the comments.
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3 comments:
What a fabulous holiday! Didn't know it was Poem in Your Pocket Day!
I just read your blog post now, at the end of the day, so didn't have an opportunity to put a poem in my pocket.
But it inspires me to tell the little girl I tutor tomorrow about poem in your pocket day - I think she will get a kick out of this - and ask her what her favorite poem is. It inspires me because I am making a gift for her for the end of the year - a collection of my favorite poems, and I'm also planning on writing a poem for her and including it in the collection (though this hasn't been as easy as I thought it would be - because I'm trying to write it in rhyme!)
I just found this great website
http://www.favoritepoem.org/
Check out Katherine Mechling ("a fifth grader") reading Roethke, "The Sloth"!
There are so many poems, my pockets are not big enough! However, here is one I just discovered today - and love!
The Trees
Philip Larkin
The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.
Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.
Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
Adore the Philip Larkin poem. It expresses something I've been trying to articulate so beautifully.
"Their greenness is a kind of grief"... Ah.
Can't wait to check out favoritepoem.org! Thanks for the link.
Hi, Kate. You left a message on my review of the Mitchell Gita recently. Wanted to make sure you're aware this online discussion on Elephant Journal: "Gita Talk"
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