A Year of Blogging: April 28, 2011

Today is Great Poetry Reading Day. So we aren't talking about reading the poems I wrote as a boy crazy teenager. We're talking about great poems. Of course, that is subjective. What I like you may not like. There is discussion about whether or not a great poem must rhyme. I don't think it needs to. My favorite collection of poems are the Spoon River Anthologies by Edgar Lee Masters. It is a series of short poems, written as epitaphs designed to tell the life of the citizens of Spoon River, a fictional town. We had to read a few of them for English class in high school (seems like it was 11th grade with Mrs. Kavanaugh), and I fell in love with them. The next time we were at the mall, I bought the collection. Reading them you feel like you are being let in on big secrets. It also reminded me of my hometown: everyone keeping secrets that aren't really that secret. I don't read as much poetry as I do fiction. There are two poets who remain my favorite: Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost. Of course, every one knows 'The Road Not Taken' .... 'and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.' While I like that poem, I prefer some of his other works. 'Nothing Golden Can Stay' remains a favorite. I feel a connection to him since he is from New England. He is in fact, buried not far from where I grew up. He's buried in Bennington, about half an hour away from my hometown. I have visited his grave many times. Now that I've spent time telling you about great poems, I have the desire to re-read my anthologies and enjoy the great poems again myself.