If You Are a Dreamer, Come In....

If you are a dreamer, come in.
If you are a dreamer,
A wisher, a liar,
A hoper, a prayer,
A magic bean buyer. 
If You're a pretender,
Come sit by my fire,
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin. 
Come in!  Come in! 

So opens one of my most treasured collections of poems by Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends.  Silverstein is a master of irony, humor, exaggeration, eccentricity, fable, and words.  Sometimes his poems make me laugh until I hurt.  Sometimes, I am filled with warm recollection of thoughts and perceptions long past.  Sometimes, I am unexpectedly confronted with truth.

April is National Poetry Month.  I thought I would celebrate by inviting you to experience some of the poetry that has captured me.  It is a daunting task because I have such an emotional connection to the subject.  I know I will forget someone, and then I will feel I have betrayed a friend.  But, there will be other days and other posts, and I will make it up to the neglected poets therein.

Poetry has been part of my life for as long as I can remember.  One whole book in our Childcraft collection was devoted to Poems and Rhymes.  I practically memorized the book.  I remember "The Purple Cow", "The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat", "Sing a Song of Sixpence", "The Owl and the Pussycat", and so many others.  I can still see the illustrations that accompanied each.  They provided an important rhythm in my life.  They transported me to places and times completely foreign, but also celebrated that which was most familiar.  As I have grown older, the words of poets have helped me sort things out.  They have helped me celebrate and mourn.  They have made me more fully alive.  And for all this, I am grateful.

Soren Kierkegaard said, "A poet is an unhappy being whose heart is torn by secret sufferings, but whose lips are so strangely formed that when the sighs and the cries escape them, they sound like beautiful music..."  This is what I experience when I read the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke.  Rilke voices the very cries of my heart as if he were writing from deep inside me.  Yet, the words he writes are so artful, so lovely; filled with healing balm.

John Keats said, "Poetry...should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts and appear almost a remembrance."  Elizabeth Barrett Browning writes words that are more profound and beautiful than I can imagine crafting, but they do feel familiar and intimate.  Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson write of the most ordinary circumstances in phrases, and with insights, that are anything but ordinary.

Wallace Stevens said, "A poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a woman."  Charles Baudelaire was a student of the world...of people...of life.  In his poetry, I see attention to the most minute detail, I see the insight born of diligent study, I see intrigue, fascination, and wonder.

Thomas Gray said, "Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn."  I find breathing thoughts and burning words in the Psalms of David and in the Song of Solomon.  This is not G rated reading.  This is earthy and raw.  This is anger and wrestling and fear and passion and love and anguish and desire and longing.  What emotion have I ever experienced that does not have a voice in one of these books?

"What's in a name?  A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."  But, if the name is Shakespeare, the name means a story well told.  It means penetrating to the heart of the matter in an economy of language that is precise and vivid, tender yet potent, dramatic but sweet.  No one has ever handled the English language quite like Shakespeare.

Agghhh!  I am realizing I will go on forever if I do not just force myself to stop.  Let me conclude by offering you two poetry collections that are fabulous.  The first is simply titled, Good Poems by Garrison Keillor.  It is a lovely collection.  You will laugh and cry and remember and reflect and dream with these poems.  If you are unsure about poetry and whether it has a place in your life, start here.  I can't imagine that you will not find something that captivates you here.

A Child's Introduction to Poetry is a beautiful way to invite your children into the wonderful world of poetry.  They will discover the difference between a lyric, a haiku, a sonnet, a limerick and a villanelle.  They will interact with the words of Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, W. H. Auden, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, and so many others.  A nice bonus is that there is an accompanying CD recording of several of the poems. 

If poetry has somehow eluded you; if you don't understand what all the fuss is about, I implore you to give it another go.  Pick up one of the collections above.  Scan the index for a title that intrigues you.  Read the poem.  Then, read it again.  Read it tomorrow, and the next day.  See if the words do not begin to knit themselves into your mind...and heart.  This is my wish for you.