APRIL IS NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

I love poetry.  The title deserves all caps. Who is your favorite poet? Do you have a favorite poem?  LRACW also has a poetry contest you can enter at our Writers Conference. The deadline for entries is April 22.   Come on, get writing.  

It is my goal to read and write poetry every day during April.  Since Haiku is one of my favorite forms, I like to sit on the patio and write about what I observe in my own back yard.  Here's one I really like... it just makes me smile:

The bird ate the worm

Stretched it right out of the ground

Early bird, late worm

There now, didn't that make you smile.  Poetry should be enjoyable. And another:

Icicles hang steep

Water trapped in frozen form

Winter's jagged teeth

You can find all kinds of poetry online. You don't even have to buy the books.  Joyce Kilmer's poem, Trees is so lovely I carry it around with me. 

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree. 

I was in Michigan one summer and some of us decided to go on a tour of several Victorian homes. They were wonderful.  Well maintained. Beautifully furnished.  Made you want to just sit and read awhile.  But at the last house I stepped out onto the back porch, and there, in the back yard, was the most magnificent, majestic tree I've ever seen.  They told us it was a  live oak tree, about 200 years old, and it was coming to the end of its lifespan.  I'm not sure, but I imagine Joyce Kilmer saw a tree that affected her the same way as this live oak affected me.  My thought at that time was that anyone can build a house, but only God can make a tree.  

And lets not forget about the poetry in the Bible:  in Psalms.  Find it. Read it.  Let it speak to your heart as living poetry does.  

Find and read a poem a day.  Then find someone to share it with.  

Keep reading.  Keep writing