Roses are red
Violets are blue
They don’t have to rhyme
But we like when they do…
That’s right folks, it’s
NATIONAL POETRY DAY!
Today we celebrate poetry, that branch of writing that serves no practical purpose and breaks every rule of grammar, syntax and logic.
No wonder we so love our poetry.
Poems release us from the mundane and invite us into the world of word-painting, creating impressions and imparting insight with lilting rhymes, meandering flights of wistful words, fractured narratives or elliptical suggestions, our passports to the Land of Joy & Wonder.
Sometimes their meaning is clear, sometimes elusive, but a poem always takes us somewhere else, to a state of some mystical and magical “otherness” unique to the human experience. Subject matter? Limited only by your imagination. Form? You decide.
Poetic license allows poets to express their thoughts as they will, and make up words where none will do. William Shakespeare made up tons of words and phrases we still use today, Lewis Carroll went to town with “The Jabberwocky,” and Dr. Seuss and Mother Goose still introduce nonsense verse that makes perverse sense to our little ones, generation after generation.
Whether it is free-form, odes, epos, iambic pentameter, narrative verse, love poems, haikus, song lyrics or limericks, there are poems that touch every heart, and make every spirit soar. Under Milkwood, anyone?
•Suggested Activities: Spreading the word