With the advance of technology and the ability to publish and print books on-line, the proliferation of books available to the public is somewhat overwhelming. The large anchor book stores at the mall have aisles upon aisles of books on every imaginable subject, but only small sections take up space under the heading "Poetry". Yet this source of reading has brought the world for countless generations an adventure unsurpassed by any other. Novels take time to consume. Text books serve their purpose for whatever you are learning at the time...but poetry is different. A good poem can take only minutes to read, but the composition of the words will linger in your mind and heart for a very long time.
Words from the poets of the past have always been remembered as they were taught to us from grammar school. Contemporary poets have become so diversified that it is hard to decipher their message at times...but they speak their verse in the same few words and most are memorable.
Poetry of late has had a resurgence. Billy Collins, the Poet Laureate of the United States has brought a whole new meaning to the field of poetry. His free verse is profound and so down to earth that the reaction from those who write say, "Man, I should have written that!" It is because he writes about things that we all think about.
Poetry will live on and it indeed is not dead, but we all need to bring to our reading table a book of poems that we once loved and let it rekindle the words that once spoke to our heart. We will save the art of writing verse by remembering what a closeness we felt as we finished a piece and then held the book close to our chest to savour the deliciousness of the adventure we experienced as we delved into the words on each page. Often short and sweet!
The whales and our environment are worth saving, right along side copies of Dickinson and Emerson and Collins, for without words, the beauty of nature lacks the most profound asset of all. Expression of the soul, captured in a few words, placed on paper, bound in a book and read by others with feeling is what will sustain us throughout our lifetime. Keep Poetry alive. Reach for a book today and Read!
