Poetry Forum

April is National Poetry Month, so in honor of this, my school has decided to participate in "Poem in Your Pocket" day on Wednesday, April 9th.  "Poem in Your Pocket" day is intended to celebrate the versatility and inspiration of poetry by encouraging all of us (students, staff and administration) to carry a poem in our pockets to share with friends, classmates, co-workers, and family. 

So, in honor of this momentous occasion, what poem would be in YOUR pocket?

My choice:

"He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" by William Butler Yeats

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

You have inspired me. I'm going to give each of my students a little poem to carry in their pockets. I might even have my French class translate one. Thanks for the idea!

Very cool!

I would carry "The Snake" by D.H. Lawrence (a wonderful poem about the true beauty of nature) and "That did I always love" by Emily Dickinson. 

Hmm, a pocket poem. It needs to be short, for I have very small pockets. So I think a sonnet from mr. cummings will have to be my choice:

it may not always be so; and i say
that if your lips, which i have loved, should touch
another's, and your dear strong fingers clutch
his heart, as mine in time not far away;
if on another's face your sweet hair lay
in such a silence as i know, or such
great writhing words as, uttering overmuch,
stand helplessly before the spirit at bay;

if this should be, i say if this should be --
you of my heart, send me a little word;
that i may go unto him, and take his hands,
saying, Accept all happiness from me.
Then shall i turn my face, and hear one bird
sing terribly afar in the lost lands.