Sarah's Poetry Corner

At 15 I had a thing for sonnets. Memorized a number of them. The usual...
Let me not to the marriage of true minds.....
When in disgrace with fortune and mens eyes...
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day.....

In case you are wondering, yes, I can still say them all.
I can also still say "Marco Comes Late" by Dr. Seuss, which I memorized in 6th grade for a competition.

I can say it with feeling.

Now- my taste runs to Old Poetry. Christina Rossetti, William Blake, the Bard, George MacDonald, Keats, Byron, you know the type. I would browse through Barnes and Noble (as we called it in the Pre-Children days, now it's Barnes and NoBooks. Thank you Emma.) and just be stumped. I'd read them all, and there were no new old poets being discovered. So I kinda let it fall by the wayside. Bearing children can have that effect.

But then.

Bill and I were in Somewhere, Georgia (there's a big mall there, oh Duluth) for our anniversary, and found this book.

Good Poems
selected and introduced by Garrison Keillor.

I am a GK fan. He has some killer short stories. Like snort-anything-you-have-just-consumed-out-of-your-nose funny. I recommend "Zeus the Lutheran."
This book so accurately titled-- (as you can see from my short story rec. the man has quite a title-choosing knack.)
We read it through dinner.
We read it in the jaccuzzi. (loudly)
We read it in the morning, and on the way home.
We laughed, we cried.
I discovered some things.
(a) I still like poetry. (b) There are some fantastic modern authors who actually punctuate and capitalize things. (c) Bill's a good reader. I point, and he reads. (d) I have to memorize something in order to get it right.

Here's the one I memorized- my favorite poem:

The Orange
by Wendy Cope

At lunchtime I bought a huge orange-
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave-
They got quarters and I had a half.

And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It's new.

The rest of my day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I'm glad I exist.