I am large, I contain multitudes.

[asimplechord]

I've totally ignored the fact that April is National Poetry Month. I originally planned to post links or quotes from some of my favorite poems every day, but since today is the 11th, and I haven't posted any yet... well, yeah. Slacker, me.

Instead, here are some links to my favorite poems.

The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost. Yes, I know it's a cliche, and everybody who goes to secondary school in the US reads this poem in high school. Doesn't make it resonate less. I tell my story ages since, having stepped back from the road less traveled.

What? *waves at icon* You were expecting Mending Walls? :)

Auden's September 1, 1939. Not much has changed in the intervening years.

Barbara, by Jacques Prevert, and its translation into English. I think it loses something, TBH. And here is someone reading it (yay for Wikipedia!). Not as good as the version that I had on vinyl once upon a time, but Prevert's poetry really is meant to be heard, not read.

Matthew Arnold's The Buried Life

Still I Rise. Yeah, another one that is often read in literature and women's studies classes. I like all of Maya Angelou's poetry, really. Hard to pick just one.

Whitman's Song of Myself. How can you not love a poet who sees redemption in baseball? And who uses the phrase "barbaric yawp"?

*studiously ignores Oh Captain! My Captain!*

And just 'cause no list is complete without it, Billy-boy's Sonnet 130. (I have an mp3 of this spoken by Alan Rickman. I think he could read the phone book and I'd listen, but this? Makes me all quivery. If I could hear him reciting Whitman, I'd probably collapse in a puddle of goo.)

Eliot, Ginsberg, Heaney and Thomas in another post before the end of the month, I promise. :) Maybe some Baudelaire too.

Comments

National Poetry Month

[koshweasley.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know there was such a thing. Excellent.

Re: National Poetry Month

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Probably gets more attention in schools and such.

Your fest post is up, if you want to track it for comments. :)

Re: National Poetry Month

[koshweasley.livejournal.com]

Okay, now I'm nervous. I see you've changed your header again. I like it, bright and cheerful.

[ariadne1.livejournal.com]

YAWP! :)

Thanks for the reminder... I'd forgotten too!

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

Welcome! It seemed like the perfect opportunity to stop and look at stuff I haven't read in a while. :)

[why-me-why-not.livejournal.com]

Dude, I totally forgot it was national poetry month! Thanks for the reminder!

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

What's your favorite poem? Read any more TS Eliot lately?

[why-me-why-not.livejournal.com]

95% of my books are in storage and I can't get to them. Including my TS Eliot, which makes me sad. My favorite poem:

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow by Helen Steiner Rice

Yesterday's dead, tomorrow's unborn
So there's nothing to fear and nothing to mourn
For all that is past and all that has been
Can never return to be lived once again
And what lies ahead or the things that will be
Are still in God's hands so it's not up to me
To live in the future that's is God's great unknown
For the past and the present God claims for His own
So all I need do is to live for today
And trust God to show me the truth and the way
For it's only the memory of things that have been
And expecting tomorrow to bring trouble again
That fills my today, which God wants to bless
With uncertain fears and borrowed distress
For all I need live for is this one little minute
For life's here and now and eternity's in it.

[chiralove.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Thanks for all the links! :)

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! Some of it's not, you know, unusual or anything. But pretty. And I forget about poetry until I'm reminded by something like this. :)