World Poetry Day
Today, March 21, 2024, is World Poetry Day, and the theme is “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.” I like this theme because every one of us is writing because of an author or poet somewhere whose words touched us at a pivotal time in our lives.
For those of you who truly know me, you understand that poetry is first and foremost among my writing passions. Sure, I write essays and am – eventually – going to finish the memoir I’ve been writing, but poetry has been the driving force since I first set pen to paper.
I wrote my first poem very early, before I understood much beyond the concept of rhyme.
“I had a dog. His friend was a frog. They sat on a log.”
There you go. I felt the need to write poetry before I knew the name for it.
These days, I venture to guess that my work is little more sophisticated, but “Frog on a Log” is an instant classic. I have a high standard to maintain.
Thinking back to the giants upon whose shoulders I stand, so many poets and authors come to my mind. I’ve written about my early exposure to Tennyson and Shakespeare and Poe, but there are too many influences to name in this small space. Still, if I had to narrow my focus to my top three favorite poems that shaped the writer I was destined to become, I would have to include:
Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath
Hamlet’s famous soliloquy by William Shakespeare
It’s obvious that all three poems, although each written in a different century, have a similar powerful thread running through them. That glimmer in the darkness always captures me.
Do you have any reading recommendations of poems that impacted you?
Tell me in the comments.