7 Poems responding to 7 Poets

The idea for this blog post came about because of the tremendous encouragement I received from posting a poem dedicated to Mary Oliver on a social media page honoring her.

After reading the works of hundreds of poets, deciding my poems were totally out of sync, and giving up on the genre I’d loved since childhood, I ran across a little book by Mary Oliver with accessible poems I related to so well that I began to write again. Naturally, I wanted to acknowledge her work, which, at the time, used the unique format I mimicked in this poem:

 

Late Night with a Seasoned Poet
            after reading Mary Oliver

I cannot reach you
  at five a.m. when you spring
   awake to watch a summer rose

 fall into a pink-petaled
  lake where fishes bloom.
    I'm not a morning

person unless a winter-
  less night yawns & stretches
    into dawn with jarring songs 

of owls & whippoorwills
  and the charming squeak of
    a bat. Outlined at dusk,

 its soaring silhouette
  intersects the evening
    sky, circling insects

 and other small mysteries
  revealed to me before the
    pink-pollen light recedes.

                                         And then,
                                   everywhere,
                             everywhere,

     black roses blossom: hybrids
   cultivated from a long, wild
growing season of the night.

Mary Sayler, from Living in the Nature Poem and A Gathering of Poems

 

Although he’d unfairly fallen out of favor in the late 20th century, the work of Carl Sandburg drew me, too, because, like Mary Oliver, his poems were accessible and his metaphors apt. For example, his famous fog coming in on cat feet resulted in this response:

Weathering Sandburg 

The fog comes in cat
fur: pale gray Persian
with traffic sounds
rolled into the round
core of a purring rug,
each end opening to
skies of Siamese blue.

Mary Sayler, from A Gathering of Poems

 

As I continued to discover poets whose work I wanted to read more than once, poetry books by Wallace Stevens started to appear on my bookshelves. His intriguing titles and love for Florida (my almost-native-home) evoked this poem:

 

Landscape Loved by Wallace Stevens 

If you could fly over \ yards and yards
of green lace lining the Gulf and Space
Coasts, you would see low-lying bands
of land seeding the sea with pockets blue-
beaded with water, and you’d wonder how
one more word could fit into the shell-
shaped pattern, hemmed with canals, and
not unravel beneath the weight of so many
people pushing the delicate fabric, poking
the intricate design, picking at flaws not
found in winter-bound spools of wool.

Mary Sayler, from Living in the Nature Poem and A Gathering of Poems

 

As a writer and poetry-lover, I’ve often aspired to saying as much as possible in as little space as possible. So, with that in mind, you can guess why Walt Whitman’s longer-than-long poems didn’t initially appeal to me! But then, his poems happened to be the only ones in a bookshop in the beach town where we were vacationing for the weekend. 

Reading this poet-ahead-of-his-times, I discovered the incredible inclusiveness of his poetry. My response to him came right when I’d found I liked reading and writing prose poems (aka paragraph poems), but the impetus for the following poem came when I caught a glimpse of someone who looked like a photo of Whitman.

 

Leaving Walt at the Mall

Coming out of Dunkin’ Donut, I walked right by Walt Whitman without even speaking. You know how he likes to include everyone in a conversation and can go on and on, and I just wanted to get home before my caffeine let down. Later I felt bad about giving him nothing more than a nod, especially since I’m sure his driver’s license expired long ago. He’s been gone for over 100 years now and was almost that old when he died, so I could have at least offered him a ride somewhere, even though, by his very nature, he might not like being confined in this little boxcar of a poem.

Mary Sayler, from A Gathering of Poems

 

Interestingly, a contemporary of Walt’s, Emily Dickinson’s life and poems were almost the exact opposite of his! While he traveled widely and embraced fully almost everything, Emily lived a rather self-contained, reclusive life in New England where her poems resulted from penetrating observations of people. Often this included a breathless approach, dry wit, and the musicality of ballads.

 

Emily Dickinson Dips Ink

The music breaks
crystal.

Shards
strike the page
with spikes and slivers.

Vermont maples
explode
red and gold 
with no syrup
to make the fragments stick.

A dark stare
from a paper-white face
peers
at that bruise beneath
your left rib.

Mary Sayler, from A Gathering of Poems

 

While still enamored with prose poem-writing and intent on discovering poets whose lives and cultures contrasted with my own, I ran across the sensitive, insightful, and soulful poems of Attila Jozsef. In his poem, "The Dog, for instance, the creature and the poet morph into one. Anyway, I hope you will look up his work on the Internet and become familiar with him and, indeed, all the poets honored in this post.

 

Scavengers
   after reading Attila Jozsef by Attila Jozsef

Attila the Hungarian poet, I really love you. Please
believe me before you throw yourself beneath that
train. The fright of flying freight crushes my reading
of your prose poems – poems poised with insight
and odd juxtaposition. I try to rescue the paragraphs
you pose from extermination, reeling as I read. What
can I do but pet The Dog you left behind, ragged and
muddy, ready to avenge your wounds and scavenge
the pieces of God you hid in my upper berth on this
looming train?

Mary Sayler, from A Gathering of Poems

 

A tragic loss for the poetry world and for those who loved him, Jozsef committed suicide in his early thirties. Since this month is being devoted to mental health awareness, perhaps his work will be rediscovered. I hope so.

Around the same time I devoured Jozsef’s poems, the poems of Marin Sorescu provided a delightful diversion. Despite living under unimaginably oppressive conditions, Marin apparently made the decision to write with wit and irony, rather than direct confrontation, which kept his work publishable in his home country and, eventually, here.

 

Sorescu’s Core
in honor of a Romanian poet

Marin, I’ve been staring
at the painting that you did
as a cover for translations
of your poems: a bowl
of fruit, well-suited to design
the colorful plump phrases
pared to sink your teeth
into the pulp of apples,
oranges, lemons, life-sliced
and spiced and eaten with
your hands
behind your back, elbows
akimbo, juice

dripping

      down my chin.

Mary Sayler, from A Gathering of Poems

 

Before publishing this post, I revisited poems by these seven poets, trying to find specific hotlinks to recommend to you. The many options make me plead with you to find and read their poems online!

Well, with five shelves at home devoted to poetry books, this post could go on and on! However, visual problems hinder my reading, writing, and (definitely!) arithmetic as numbers disappear and words or sentences look like they’ve been smashed by a compacter! Nevertheless, my love for poetry hasn’t lessened, so I hope to continue with this blog, albeit irregularly and with occasionally long gaps.

Thanks for bearing with me all these years!

May God bless you and your poetry adventures.

Mary Harwell Sayler ©2022

 

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Playing with Words

 

Every now and then, we’ve talked about the fun of playing with words, but this practice can also bring something unexpected to a poem, surprising, perhaps, both you and your readers.

 

Playing with words can bring connections we hadn’t previously considered.

 

The other day, for instance, my Bible Study group reached the book of Hebrews in our progressive study of the New Testament, and we came to this verse about religious leaders.

“Since he himself is weak in many ways, he is able to be gentle with those who are ignorant and make mistakes,” Hebrews 5:2, Good News Translation (GNT.)                                          

What was true of a compassionate leader then is true now, but the word that caught my attention was “ignorant.” We usually think of that word as being unaware of factual data, but I suddenly became aware of how ignorance also relates to those who ignore God. Carrying that connection further could be the starting place for a religious poem or a devotional article.

 

Using words with various spellings can also start a poem.

 

For example, most of us prefer “peace of mind” over “piece of mind,” but a single poem with both spellings could be insightful or become a rant!

 

Reading a dictionary has evoked many a poem for many a well-known poet!

 

If you were a mechanic or carpenter, wouldn’t you want every useful tool for your trade? For poets and writers, that “tool box” contains a regular dictionary, poetry dictionary, and handbook on grammar. That’s the bare minimum to bear. Judeo-Christian poets and writers would surely want at least one translation of the Bible, while academics need a manual of style.

 

Speaking of academics, I’d never given thought to the word “academic” or “academia” until I opened a dictionary to the A’s and read about Akademos, the legendary Athenian hero of the Trojan Wars. His association with Helen of Troy and also the school grounds where Plato likely taught gave me the impetus for this poem.

 

 

Writing The Academian Myth

 

Helen wrote history

without royalties,

inspiration

without musing

over musicals or poems.

 

Helen wrote mystery,

adventure,

romance and lively letters

loosely leafed

on wind.

 

When Akademos heard

where Helen had been hidden,

he played the instrument

for her release from unwritten

mortal codes and, hence,

her capture

in immortal odes, which

spoke volumes.

 

Mary Harwell Sayler from A Poet’s Guide to Writing Poetry

If you have a topic you’d like to see discussed in a future post or a comment about your own play-times with words, let's hear from you in the Comments section below.

 

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Placing rhymes

In traditional verse, rhymes usually take place at the end of a line and are, therefore, called end-rhyme in end-line rhyme position.  Poets use that pattern so often, we assume end-rhyme appeals to poetry readers too, but, despite its popularity, it does have its drawbacks. 

One problem can be a jingle-jangle effect that’s especially jarring when lines come to an abrupt halt. In light forms, such as limericks or other humorous verse, jingles can be effective, but in serious verse, heavy end-line rhymes can ruin a tone or mood.

 

To soften the jingle-jangle jolt of rhymes, try these techniques:

 

• Build up an echo, internally within the lines, by choosing words with similar vowel sounds.

 

• Let "liquids" flow in the consonants you select – for instance, rhymes containing l, m, n, r. (If you say those letters aloud, you'll hear their flow.)

 

• Drop the syllabic stress at the end of lines by using rhymes that have a down-beat or a last syllable without any emphasis.

 

• Try alliteration within the lines to soften the end-line rhyming sounds.

 

• Use enjambment.

 

For more on enjambment, see the previous post, “Enjambment and rhyme placement tone down jangling rhymes.”

 

For more on alliteration, see "Using Alliteration for Sound Echoes and for Fun."

For other aspects of poetry, type the word you want into the box that says "Search this blog" at the top right of the page. 

©2021, Mary Harwell Sayler, from her book, A Poet’s Guide to Writing Poetry

 

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Let's Talk Poetry

April begins National Poetry Month – the perfect time to discuss questions we might have about poetry reading and/or writing. 

Consider these questions, for example, then respond in the Comments section below:

 

• What do I hope to gain from the poems I read?
• What do I most want my poems to give to my readers?
• Why does poetry even matter to me?
• Do formal poems or conversational ones appeal to me the most?
• Which poetry technique do I like best: fresh comparisons, musicality, exquisitely expressed phrases, unexpected insights, or _______?
• What types or forms of poetry do I especially like?

 

If you want to expand your poetry-writing options, A Poet’s Guide to Writing Poetry: in Free Verse and Traditional Forms will surely help!

 

National Poetry Month also brings a good time talk about our concerns as poets. For example:

 

• How do I find poetry publishing markets?
• Is it a good idea to self-publish a poetry book?
• How do I know for sure if I’m even a poet?

 

If you scroll through the posts on this blog or type a key word into the Search box, you might find previous discussions that relate to where you are now. Regardless, post your responses to the above questions and/or other poetry questions you’d like to ask in the Comments box below. And have a happy NaPoMo! 

 

©2021, Mary Harwell Sayler, poet, A Gathering of Poems

 

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A Little Book On Form by Robert Hass

A Little Book on Form: An Exploration Into The Formal Imagination Of Poetry, which HarperCollins kindly sent me to review, is the culmination of years of studying, teaching, and writing poetry done by Robert Hass. Besides being a former U.S. Poet Laureate, he’s also won a National Book Award and a Pulitzer for poetry.

That information alone lets us know we can surely learn something about poetry from this book, and, since it’s still National Poetry Month, it’s an ideal time to begin.

Although my bookshelves testify to scores of well-written books about poetry from accomplished poets, this book differs in that it doesn’t just discuss the exterior architecture of poems but what forms the form – as in, what causes its formation, resulting in form?

In the opening chapter, for instance, Hass calls attention to the one-line poem, rarely found in English, but common in the “…haiku, a one-line form with a three-part prosodic structure, (which) usually consists of two images. And so you’ll notice that inside what is apparently a single line, there is a play of one, two, or three elements, balanced or unbalanced in various ways that are expressive in relation to what the poem is saying.”

The poet then gives ten examples in English translations of Basho, such as “First snow falling on a half-finished bridge,” which presents the first picture in the early snow and the second in an incompleted bridge. See! We haven’t even gotten beyond the first chapter, and I’ve already learned something!

I’d never given thought to the two images occurring in haiku, but if you’re writing haiku, as I often do, that’s very good to know! Looking over haiku I’ve written, I see each has two images, but now that I know to look for this when I revise, I can.

What we write instinctively without knowing becomes more useful when we do know. With the knowledge of a technique or the words to describe it, we’re more aware and then equipped to incorporate the information into our work – not during the writing process so much as when we revise.

Take the number “three” again, for example. In chapter three, Hass says:

“Two often regarded as an aspect of one, so that with three number as such, the many, begins. And is infinite. Oddness. Not divisible. So that – trinity, for example – mystery begins here.”

During the years in which this book came together, the poet often jotted notes to himself in quick phrases, many of which he scattered throughout these pages. This unique aspect of the book lets us in on his actual thoughts in real time as though we’re passionately engaged in the discussion.

Similarly, Haas’ explanations of forms include more than the “what” but also the “why” or “how.” In a discussion of “Three-Line Stanzas,” for example, the poet says this about the uncommonly used three-line verse, the triplet:

“There is something of imbalance and excess in threes. Especially where rhyme is concerned. About two-based forms something hovers of natural complementarities: binary systems, the bi-lateral symmetries in nature, male and female, lover and beloved. Hence the closing down of two-based rhyme. It seems to secure a completion and emphasizes at once the orderliness of rhyme....”

A passage in a much later chapter “How To Scan A Poem” picks up that thread of orderliness and emphasis in these words:

“Often you will hear what feel like strong irregular emphases in metrical poems. The irregularities are strong, because once a pattern is established, you notice departures from the pattern. So, of course, poets learned that one of the best ways to get emphasis is to establish a meter and then vary it.”

But, how can poets establish a meter unless they know what meter is, why it works as it does, and what it can accomplish?

How can poets emphasize anything in their poems if all parts have the same treatment or monotonous tone?

And, how can poets establish a meter unless they know what meter is, why it works as it does, and what it can accomplish? You can play it by ear and rely on a sense of musicality – as long as nothing goes wrong! If it does, it’s difficult to shape up something nameless.

This book names names. It talks about sonnets and sestinas, genre and georgics, organic form and prose poems. Much more than what might be found in a poetry dictionary, however, this highly recommended book invites us to accompany the poet on “An Exploration Into The Formal Imagination Of Poetry.”

If you care to join Robert Hass and me in this adventure, you’ll find entry through the clickable Amazon ad below.

Mary Harwell Sayler, © 2017, poet-writer reviewer


A Little Book on Form: An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry, hardback



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From the New World: Poems 1976-2014 by Jorie Graham

In the highest realm of poets and poetry, Jorie Graham and her poems are gorgeous. Even if you don’t understand a single line, you know you’re in the presence of something extraordinary – something worthy of three or more readings to “get” what’s too often apparent in poems from the start. So, when I learned of the latest book, From the New World: Poems 1976-2014, I eagerly awaited my review copy, kindly sent to me by the publisher, Ecco Press.

When the book arrived, however, I froze. Like, who am I to comment on the work of any Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, much less this one! Some time ago, in fact, a friend asked why I keep on reading and re-reading Graham’s work when I was often frustrated by my lack of understanding. I said I felt I could learn something important, which is a good enough reason anytime, but especially during NaPoMo (National Poetry Month.) However, a more precise response to why I read Jorie Graham’s poetry is, “How can I not?”

If you’re a poet who likes to eat, sleep, and breathe poetry, you know what I mean. But then, maybe you don’t, and thus far, I’ve done nothing to entice you, so let’s remedy that!

Mid-way into the first verse of the first poem, “Tennessee June,” for example, you’ll find these exquisite lines:

“…Imagine
your mind wandering without its logic,
your body the sides of a riverbed giving in.
In it, no world can survive
having more than its neighbors;
in it, the pressure to become forever less is the pressure
to take forevermore
to get there….”

If you want to understand the poems of Jorie Graham, those lines might pull you under, but if you want to experience her work with its sensitive insights, acute observations, and highly intelligent thought patterns, try going with the flow of that river and enjoying its depths and possibilities for change. You might even catch a reflection of the poet herself.

But then, the next poem reminds us that we’re all “Strangers” – to one another, to our surroundings, to ourselves. For example:

“The vigor of our way
is separateness,
the infinite finding itself strange
among the many….”

Such lines might be considered flat statements were there not so many curves! But this poem, as typically happens in Graham's work, includes images as fresh as the tulips who “change tense/ too quickly” and as startling as the starlings who “keep trying/ to thread the eyes/ of steeples.”

If you think you’ve heard those lines before, you probably have since this collection consists of several poems selected from each of eleven previously published books before closing with new poems. But, if you’ve never read Graham’s poetry, having poems representative of her work collected in one volume makes an excellent place to start – not only for the sweeping, all-encompassing view but for the life these poems take on when combined and arranged as they have been.

We could talk about that. We could talk about what the poems mean, and if you want such assessments by numerous poets and poetry students, you’ll find explications on the Internet. To relish the taste of Jorie Graham’s poetry, however, I recommend you simply enjoy the play of words, the sound echoes, the complexities of thought, then give yourself over to the experience of each poem.

When I began to do this, I discovered a spirit of wonder, a sense of breathlessness, a stream of consciousness that engaged me with its musicality and lush imagery. I also found connections arising from the disconnected and reorientation from various disorientations lit on by a highly active mind.

Because we’re now well into National Poetry Month and because my review copy has been with me too long without response, I’ll stop here for now with the hope you’ll let me know in the Comments below how you approach the poems of Jorie Graham. Then, when I’ve had time to read and absorb each poem a few more times, I hope we’ll chat again about this major poet and what makes her poetry so memorable and her new book so important to read and recommend as I do now.

©2015, Mary Harwell Sayler, writer and reviewer, has 3 books of poems in print: Living in the Nature Poem published by Hiraeth Press and Beach Songs & Wood Chimes (for children) and Outside Eden, published by Kelsay Books.


From the New World: Poems 1976-2014, Hardcover



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Techniques in Bible Poetry

The Bible knows poetry! Regardless of the translation, most newer printings emphasize poetic lines with a typesetting format that clearly shows the poetic intent.

The King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, of course, has always had a rhythmic cadence that makes poetry obvious, but its translation into the classical English form of iambic pentameter (aka 5 upbeat feet per line) does not necessarily carry the tune heard by the original biblical poets.

In Hebrew texts, a rhythmic beat usually consists of 3 to 4 beats per line with heightened language found in Wisdom Writings and the books of The Prophets. In addition, some Psalms use poetic forms such as the acrostic where the first letter of each line spells a word down the page or an alphabet poem where the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet begins the next line. For instance, Psalm 119 has an intricate pattern of eight-line stanzas for each of the 22 letters in the Hebraic alphabet, from Aleph to Taw.

Also, in the original languages of Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic, poetic passages sometimes included amusing wordplays or puns that unfortunately got lost in translation. So, a better-known feature of Bible poetry translates well as parallelism, which means that one line contrasts, compares, repeats, or completes one or more other lines. The subsequent lines then expand or clarify the meaning of the opening line.

For example, Proverbs 8:1 says:

Does not wisdom call,
does not understanding raise her voice?

In Isaiah 41:10, God speaks poetically through the prophet to say:

Fear not, for I am with you.
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

Similarly, in Matthew 11:30, Jesus poetically promises:

Come to me, all who labor
and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you,
and learn from me,
for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.

Each line builds on the one prior in a poetically repetitive way, so it's not surprising that people often refer to Holy Scriptures as “Bible verses,” which obviously suggests poetry! Some readers might be surprised, though, to find that Bible poems are not saccharine nor always upbeat.

In such books as Job, Psalms, and Ecclesiastes, biblical poets wrote in and through their fear, anger, envy, complaint, worry, pride, and other emotions.

For example, Psalm 6:1 says:

O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger!
Chasten me not in your wrath.

And, surely, most Bible readers have felt the chill of Psalm 22 spoken by Christ on the cross:

My God! My God!
Why have you forsaken me?

Some say Jesus knew His followers would know how that Psalm ends – with praise to God – and, therefore, would take courage. Without that outcry though, the beautiful poetry, insights, and faith in the 23rd Psalm might seem less credible in bringing biblical truths and the ongoing assurance of God’s redeeming love.

© 2013, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved. For more on writing from a religious perspective, visit the Christian Poets and Writers blog and join the group by that name on Facebook.

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Enjambment and rhyme placement tone down jangling rhymes

Rhyming poetry often gets criticized for bringing readers to a full stop at the end of a line where words loudly jingle-jangle. The effect works well in nursery rhymes and humorous verse as reverberations add to the sense of play, levity, and humor, but in serious poetry, jingles seem to annoy free verse lovers and poetry critics!

To retain your rhymes but tone them down, a couple of workable options depend on how you break the lines.

1. Change the placement of rhyming pairs from end-line rhymes to internal rhymes. Making this happen is just like it sounds. i.e., Move lines around until the rhyming words appear inside a line, rather than at the end. Here’s an example from my Speaking Peach chapbook:


Accent
by Mary Harwell Sayler

Maybe it's my low voice, slow drawl, or way
of saying, "Y'all," (meaning, of course, a choice
of two or more individuals), but for some reason,

most people – male or female – think I need
some help. "Here let me do that for you," they
say, just trying to be kind. Most of the time,

I do not mind the opportunity to be cradled,
even coddled, by bolder folk than I –
those who feel best when they assist, but
perhaps I should resist the temptation

to be babied, even though I must persist
in a voice too hushed to sound insistent.


If you read the poem aloud, you’ll hear the rhymes – hopefully echoing without jangling – within the lines and also within some of the words – for example, voice/choice, way/say, drawl/y’all, assist/resist/persist/insistent.


2. Use enjambment to soften the ring of rhymes. This technique lets you place rhymes at the end of the lines for couplets or other traditional forms such as sonnets or villanelles that have a distinctive rhyme scheme pattern. Instead of coming to a full stop on each end-line rhyme, however, you keep the sentence going onto the next line or beyond. As an example of enjambment, here’s a poem from my Winning the Wars chapbook.


Postcard after the Scene
by Mary Harwell Sayler

In straight lines strung with golden light, the sun-
washed houses make a pleasing sight – the ones

still left, that is. Some stores stay open if they can:
sidewalk café, hair dresser, and vegetable stand,

but what I’ve seen seems pitiful and bleak.
Someone said five officers were killed last week

by a rifle. I didn’t hear the gun explode,
but I saw stone-silent shadows as we rode

through town in trucks. Our camp sits on a hill,
overlooking a village: so beautiful before blood spilled.


In that poem, “can” and “bleak” come to a full stop, but for the other lines, enjambment wraps the sentence around a rhyme before slowing down to a softened sound.

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© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved.

 
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Poets who shaped poetry provide good reading for NaPoMo and beyond

This last day of National Poetry Month can begin a new or renewed commitment to poetic excellence in your own work as you resolve to read some of our most influential poets before the next NaPoMo. At first that may sound a little like a homework chore, but if you’re beyond the public school years, you might be as surprised as I was when I re-read and totally got those “Say what?” poems from high school days.

Since my favorite example gave me the shock of understanding and actually liking the once-baffling poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” let’s start with Pru’s poet-maker.

T.S. Eliot – Recently reviewed in The New York Times, this Nobel Prize poet reflected less than noble views as a man of the times who recorded what he saw. A long list of still-familiar quotations may give you a truer perspective of his perspective, but regardless, notice the brilliant metaphors in Prufrock, then read the poem aloud to hear the amazing musicality. Also, contemplate the multiple meanings in another must-read, “Journey of the Magi.” If you like Eliot’s poems, as I do, you might want to check out his essays on poetry too.

Ezra Pound – A friend of Eliot, but frankly not mine, this controversial figure and founder of the Imagist movement wrote essays about poetry, got arrested for his fascistic views, and was eventually declared insane. Acclaimed though he continues to be, I never connected with Pound or his poetry, yet he wrote one of my all-time favorite poems in two exquisite lines, “In a Station of the Metro.”

Robert Frost – Despite a whirl of poetic movements moving around him, Robert Frost kept writing in traditional forms and meter, winning four Pulitzers in the process. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” reminds me to say that most people warmed to Frost, whose poems these are we think we know, but if you read his work again and aloud, you might be surprised how the possibilities for interpretation continue to snowball.

Gerard Manley Hopkins – This inventor of tightly compressed “sprung rhythm” became a Jesuit priest who wrote religious poetry of high literary quality that continues to be appreciated today. For example, “Windhover” orchestrates a symphony of sound echoes, and “God’s Grandeur” pictures the shining of shook foil, but my favorite is the insightful, quietly sensitive response to a young child in “Spring and Fall.”

Emily Dickinson – Reclusive for reasons people still speculate about, the real Em comes through her recently published letters and the museum that honors her. Numerous websites post her poems too, but as you read her work, listen for the music of a traditional ballad form and look for dashes of punctuation that show her dash of thought.

Walt Whitman – Known as a liberator of free verse in America, Whitman liberated lines of poetry and lines of thought in the expansive, inclusive lists or catalogs in his poems, many of which can be found on the Internet. Like Pound and other well-known poets who invented or re-invented poetic forms and styles, Whitman self-published his early work, including a slim volume that kept growing and growing as Leaves of Grass.

This list could keep growing, too, but not begin to touch the hundreds, indeed, thousands of years of great poets who greatly influenced poetry – poets such as Horace, Sappho, Basho, Aristotle, Petrarch, Shakespeare, Donne, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Yeats, and Auden. Hopefully, you’ll read them all!

If you already have a favorite, you’re once again invited to add the name of an influential poet or poem in the Comments section below.


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(c) 2011, Mary Harwell Sayler

Poets and poems to celebrate during National Poetry Month

Poets often ask each other about their favorite poets or poems, so here’s a list of personal Favs with hotlinks to poems for studying or just reading to enjoy. Feel free to add your favorites in the Comments section below.

Mary Oliver – The insightful and observant nature poetry of this Pulitzer Prize-winning poet drew me back into reading and writing poetry after years of writing almost everything except poems!

Charles Wright – Another Pulitzer Prize winner who weaves amazing metaphors and insight into exquisite free verse, this contemporary poet initially interested me because he was born in my native state of Tennessee, but his work appeals to a wide, global audience.

Donald Justice – This 20th Century Pulitzer poet had a home tie to Florida, where I’ve lived for years, but I especially enjoyed the insight into people and relationships often shown in his traditional poetry and free verse.

Pablo Neruda – Surrealist poetry, political poems, and odes of joy distinguish the Nobel Prize-winning poems of this 20th century poet, originally named Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, from Chile.

Billy Collins – A winner of numerous prestigious prizes, this former U.S. Poet Laureate has won a non-poetry-reading public with skillfully written humorous poetry, noted for asking such questions as why the farmer’s wife cut off mice-tails with a carving knife.

Maya Angelou – Loved by the general public, this former nightclub singer, actress, activist, and highly versatile poet has also written song lyrics, picture books for children, a Pulitzer-nominated screenplay, and a poem for President Clinton’s 1993 Inaugural.

Jorie Graham – The brilliant, insightful poems of this Pulitzer Prize-winning poet may require multiple readings if you approach her poems, as I first did, from a mind-brain that goes for comprehension, but if you read her poems aloud as an experience, you’ll feel the poetry and perhaps keep coming back for more.

Richard Wilbur – A veteran of WWII, this veteran poet has won more than one Pulitzer and pretty much every major award for poetry. More amazing, though, has been his ongoing dedication to writing traditional metered poetry during the ongoing reign of free verse.

Mary Ann Hoberman – Children’s Poet Laureate writes books for kids and lively poems with humor and bounce.



(c) 2011, Mary Harwell Sayler

National Poetry Month and the 3 Rs

NaPoMo reminds us of three R’s important to poets, not just in April but throughout the year: Reading, ‘Riting, and, you do the ‘Rithmatic to know it’s also time for Revising.

Read Poetry
To become a serious poet become a great lover of poetry.
Enjoy poems more and more as you learn how to read a poem.
Support poetry! Buy poetry books and journals.
Borrow poetry anthologies from your public library.
Study classical and contemporary poems on the Internet.
Investigate Poetry Resources in an earlier article on The Poetry Editor blog.

Write Poetry
Write a poem a day until May.
Research an interesting topic.
Remember a happy/ sad/ scary time.
Describe an event and how it made you feel.
Write a poem to recall a favorite person/ pet/ holiday.
Focus on something in your home or outside your window.
Let thoughts flow without editing, revising, or censoring yourself.
Put these poems aside.

Revise Poems
Each day of NaPoMo, revise an older poem that doesn’t seem quite finished.
Read the poem aloud. Listen for any jolts or flaws in sound or sense.
Ease the process of revising as you get a new vision for each re-vision.
Use this checklist for Editing, Revising, and Otherwise Improving Your Poems.


Have a Happy National Poetry Month! And keep the NaPoMo momentum going all year long.

(c) 2011, Mary Sayler