A Month . . . of Poetry

Welcome to April!  Home of April Fools' Day, baseball's opening day, the conclusion of March Madness (Yeah.  I know.), Tax Day, and all those April showers.

Also . . . National Poetry Month.

Join me this month - each Friday - for a bit of poetry -- with a bonus poem on Thursday, April 21 (because Poem in Your Pocket Day).

Today's installment . . . 

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Poem to First Love
by Matthew Yeager

To have been told “I love you” by you could well be, for me,
the highlight of my life, the best feeling, the best peak
on my feeling graph, in the way that the Chrysler building
might not be the tallest building in the NY sky but is
the best, the most exquisitely spired, or the way that
Hank Aaron’s career home-run total is not the highest
but the best, the one that signifies the purest greatness.
So improbable! To have met you at all and then
to have been told in your soft young voice so soon
after meeting you: “I love you.” And I felt the mystery
of being that you, of being a you and being
loved, and what I was, instantly, was someone
who could be told “I love you” by someone like you.
I was, in that moment, new; you were 19; I was 22;
you were impulsive; I was there in front of you, with a future
that hadn’t yet been burned for fuel; I had energy;
you had beauty; and your eyes were a pale blue,
and they backed what you said with all they hadn’t seen,
and they were the least ambitious eyes I’d known,
the least calculating, and when you spoke and when
they shone, perhaps you saw the feeling you caused.
Perhaps you saw too that the feeling would stay.

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Want to expose yourself to a bit of poetry this month?  Sign up for Poem-a-Day and start each day with a digital poem.  (New, contemporary poets during the week; classic poems on the weekend.)  The wonderful poem I shared today?  It was yesterday's Poem-a-Day!

And get ready.  Share a poem on April 21 - Poem in Your Pocket day.

Enjoy your weekend!  (Poetry rocks.)

Comments

[AsKatKnits]

Thanks for the Poem-a-day info! It will pair well with Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac and provide me some additional things for my daily meditation! xoxo

[Carole]

I love this sort of poem. Thanks for sharing and pushing me to enjoy poetry in spite of my resistance.

[margene]

I'm going to have to get organized enough to post poems, as I want to join you! I think I'll start passing poems around in anticipation of Poem in Your Pocket Day. I enjoyed this poem and, for some reason, I could see my parents in that moment.

[Patty]

What Carole said! :-) xo

[Bonny]

I'm so glad you're doing this! I don't always "get" poems, but when I do, they're pretty powerful. I can always count on you to expose me to new poets and poetry; thank you for sharing and teaching me new things!

[Sue N]

How lovely thanks for sharing this.

[Gale Zucker (she shoots sheep shots)]

This is wonderful! I don't read enough poetry and maybe I should sign up-- the one you posted was such a gift.

[Mary]

love. and look forward to reading more new-to-me pieces...thank you for sharing!

[Maureen]

I seldom read poetry...except Mary Oliver...thanks for pushing me in a new direction. Thanks also for the Merchant and Mills reference as I, also, am itching to do some sewing beyond dresses for my seven year old granddaughter.