From Garrison Keillor's magnificent collection of poems, Good Poems for Hard Time:
"Poetry is a necessity as simple as the need to be touched and similarly a need that is hard to enunciate. The intense vision and high spirits and moral grandeur are simply needed lest we drift through our days consumed by clothing options and hair styling and whether to have the soup or the salad.
The meaning of poetry is to give courage..."
"Forget everything you ever read about poetry...poetry is the last preserve of honest speech and the outspoken heart."
"Poetry is about driving the nail into the pine, killing the chicken, mowing grass, putting luggage into the car, gratitude for food, the laughter of a little girl, about our common life."
Some of my favorite books of poetry:
And since I see that these are all written by men, I add this to my amazon cart:
Sources for National Poetry Month:
This post from Mental Multivitamin has great ideas and links.
The New York Times offers plenty of ideas of how to celebrate this month.
Semicolon is always a great source for all things literary.
The Writer's Almanac ("poems, prose and literary history from Garrison Keillor") will gladly send you a daily email. Sign up here.
3 comments:
I bought Garrison's collection of poems at a bookstore in the Minneapolis airport. It seemed the right thing to do, and even...poetical to buy his book so near his home town.
Then I read the introduction.
And wept.
In the airport.
With strangers all around.
I can't imagine a soul alive who would not enjoy Billy Collins.
His CD is fun to listen to any month of the year.
Thank you, thank M-MV, for the reminder. I've got some great poems to pull out of my pocket.
Carol,
I read the introduction in Borders and cried. Glad to know I am not the only one. I read it aloud last night to John and Madelaine. It was the perfect addition to a weary Friday night.
DI
On my list. I love Keillor. Halfway through my Lenten reread of Island of the World. Perhaps more moving the second time through.
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