GREETINGS POETRY LOVERS

For those of you who remember Rocky and Bullwinkle, you may remember that greeting from the Moose: “Greetings, Poetry Lovers!” It was meant to carry a lot of irony (as did the whole show), but I have loved that line ever since I was a kid.  Now that I’m retired, I love it even more.

 

One of the joys of retirement is that I not only have more time to write poetry, I have more time to READ poetry! Which, of course, helps writing immensely! Especially reading one volume by an author from start to finish.  In the last part of July and the first part of August, I read these works:

 

“Straight Out of View” by Joyce Sutphen

 

“Between Us”, by Margaret Hasse

 

“I” by Toi Derricotte (still working on that big one!)

 

The past week or so, I’ve been reading:

 

“What Falls Away is Always” by Richard Terrill

 

“Idanre and Other Poems” by Wole Soyinka

 

“The Essential Rumi” by Rumi (still working on that one, too!)

 

I didn’t set out to read all women writers at first, nor switch to all men writers later.  I just picked up their books—either because I saw it on my shelf (we’re trying to declutter and organize—still working on that one, too!) or because their book came out, or because I found their book in one of the many little free libraries I pass on my daily walks.

 

Each of these poets has their own style, of course, but each touches on one part of poetry that is essential: mystery.  I won’t try to explain each of their approaches, only to say that each of them take delight in words, take delight in putting them together, and take delight in the mysterious communication between solitary writer and unknown reader.  So I commend them all to you.

 

For those of you who are struggling with writing during this pandemic—or any other times—I leave these words of wisdom from Rumi:

 

“This is how it always is

when I finish a poem.

 

A great silence overcomes me,

and I wonder why I ever thought

to use language.”

 

Be beauty. Be justice. Be poetry. Be silence.

 

Patrick