海角大神

It is abundantly clear that our readers love poetry. After the Monitor鈥檚 staff shared poems they鈥檝e carried with them over the years, readers enthusiastically accepted the invitation to send in their own favorite published poems by recognized poets, along with what the poems have meant to them. The replies were heartwarming.

Thanks to those who wrote in.聽

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My boyfriend and I, ages 5 and 6 in 1944, buried my favorite A.A. Milne book, 鈥淣ow We Are Six,鈥� in a shoebox purloined from my mother, in a hole in the iris bed. The purpose was to create a time capsule with the book and other favorite items to be dug up in 10 years! I鈥檓 81 and still have the book. Peter is gone, but I鈥檓 still here and remember those times. I still love poetry and those times.

Jean Macomber
Napa, California

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I volunteer for Wheeled Meals, which delivers meals to seniors. After reading the article 鈥淧oems on Wheels鈥� in the Monitor, I received permission to send out a poem of the week in the Monday menu envelopes. I write out the poems on notecards and choose short but meaningful poems (Emily Dickinson never lets me down). Our poetry program began the week we could no longer enter homes to drop off the meals and visit briefly. The poems became our human touch, left with the coolers of food outside people鈥檚 homes. One of my regulars leaves Post-it notes expressing her appreciation of the 鈥渦plift鈥� and another leaves us her own 鈥減oem of the week.鈥�

Here鈥檚 the last stanza of my favorite poem, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

Let us, then, be up and doing,
聽 聽With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
聽 聽Learn to labor and to wait.

Jean Blechschmidt
Bowling Green, Ohio

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I love聽聽by Ogden Nash because it is about something so universally exasperating, even if you鈥檙e staying in a hotel! And Nash just turns that exasperation on its head with ever-so-precious and much needed light-heartedness!

Elizabeth Mata
Elsah, Illinois

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by George Herbert (1590-1630) uses simple words and a conversational tone to evoke the essence of man鈥檚 relationship to his God. I often contrast this poem with 鈥淏atter My Heart鈥� by Herbert鈥檚 contemporary and rival John Donne, which evokes a relationship between God and man so different that it鈥檚 hard to believe these two men practiced the same religion. I definitely prefer Herbert鈥檚 God.

Eric Klieber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio

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My enormous thanks to the Monitor staff for generously hosting this gathering of so many old friends, and some new. I could not pull myself away. I finally left. Then returned. Two poems that I deeply love came to mind as I read. Lucille Clifton鈥檚 came to my attention a number of years ago during a challenging time, like a powerful promise. And Wislawa Szymborska鈥檚 poem, makes me smile. The final line reads: 鈥淭his experiment must be completed. And it will.鈥澛�

Kay Weed
Aurora, New York

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A poem I turn to often for comfort and reassurance is W.S. Merwin鈥檚 It鈥檚 a concrete poem in that the words on the page are shaped like the wing of a bird. But what attracts me to the poem is its simple and powerful directness. Like haiku, it uses nature to provide spiritual insight. The morning light comes on but brings with it a weight. The poem doesn鈥檛 define this weight, but I often think if it as the weight of the day we all face: the relentless obligations to jobs, caring for the people in our lives, and now, with the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping family safe while still providing food and other necessities. But like a kind of grace, that weight is lifted, even if only momentarily, in the flight of birds.

Michael T. Young
Jersey City, New Jersey

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The pandemic had me feeling overwhelmed and anxious. How would I ever get through months of social isolation, restrictions, and shortages? A line from by Joyce Kilmer came back to me, reminding me that I didn鈥檛 have to get through it all at once. No matter how long or hard the road, all I had to do was keep going step by step. The lantern and its light would always be with me. Wherever I was, I would not be in darkness. 聽

Virginia Povraznik
Ridgway, Pennsylvania

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I love by Godfrey John because it is so timeless and reassuring.

I also enjoy聽聽by Ben Jonson because I鈥檝e always known that my best friends were books, since I learned to read at the age of four.聽My mother read 鈥淭he Story of Ferdinand鈥� and 鈥淭he Little Engine that Could鈥� aloud to me until I memorized them, and then I put the words together with the print in the books. 聽聽

When I would know thee, ... my thought looks
Upon thy well-made choice of friends, and books;
Then do I love thee, and behold thy ends
In making thy friends books, and thy books friends...

Carolyn Nagusky
Salida, Colorado

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My choice is by A.E. Housman. It is easy to memorize and keeps me mindful of the need to treasure the moments of beauty all around us. The enduring cycle of the seasons gives me hope that this pandemic will pass and we will have found an inner strength to cope with whatever life brings us.

Verna Colliver
Lansdale Pennsylvania

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Ibadan is the largest city in West Africa by land size, and it is located in Oyo state, in the western part of Nigeria. The poem聽 by聽John Pepper Clark聽captures the essence of this large sprawling city in just 19 words. The words are strung together just so. The beauty and aptness move me as only good poetry can.

Moji Anjorin-Solanke George
Boston, Massachusetts

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When I was a first-year student at Sydney Girls High School in Australia, I used by Leigh Hunt in a speech contest. Although I didn鈥檛 win, as that honor was usually reserved for older students, it didn鈥檛 really matter. The poem had such meaning for me then and still does many decades later, due to the spiritual light it sheds.

Auriel Wyndham Livezey
Lake Forest, California

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I wanted to suggest by Billy Collins, which is one of my favorites and so apropos for now.

Virginia Woodeson
London

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I enjoy anything by Mary Oliver but I have by Rumi on my refrigerator. I remember the first time I read this poem I was jolted, shocked to realize that even in tough times there is always good.

Debby Morrison
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

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I took the time to memorize by Robert Frost during our snowy winter up here on the shore of Lake Ontario. I like the image of the lone traveler on his horse, being pulled into nature. But then the promises of life move him more as he readies himself to return homeward. I also like the idea that thoughts can lead us and we are not totally at the mercy of random microbes.

Sharon Brunner
Rochester, New York