Everyone needs a shelf of poetry books
Thoughts and poems from National Poetry Month
Early spring flower yellow cup on a saucer tipped to spill out joy
National Poetry Month is almost over, and I don’t have as many poems to show for it as I had hoped. Somehow, my goal of writing one poem a day turned into “hopefully I can write at least one poem this week.” Not that I wasn’t productive as far as poetry goes. I spent lot of time working on the
Weekly Poetry Challenge series, which included sending out two newsletters a week in addition to this one! It was fun, but it took up a lot of my mental space. It also got me reading lots and lots of poetry! Specifically, poetry collections and anthologies.What I like about poetry books is that you can sit and devour them all at once, beginning to end, if you want to. Like a novel. Or you can skip around, sample, reread old favorites or maybe revisit those poems you can’t quite figure out because maybe this time you’ll “get it.” A poetry book is like the food table at a party. Stand and feast if you like, or taste a bit here and there, savoring, letting the flavors linger.
This is why it’s good to have poetry books on your shelves at home. Unlike novels, poetry books can be picked up and enjoyed in snippets. Okay, well, maybe your favorite novels can be too, but it’s not quite the same. A poem is a whole thing on its own, no matter how many companions it has or how few pages it takes up in a volume. A poetry book is a collection of small “wholes.” And a whole shelf of poetry books is a library unto itself!
Every home should have at least one shelf of poetry books because everyone can benefit from reading and rereading poetry. Your poetry shelf should include a good mix not only of the types of poems, but the ages they’re written for. Books of nursery rhymes and nonsense, anthologies of children’s poetry and classic poems, collections of poems by favorite poets, poetry picture books. Short poems, long poems, new poems, old poems, rhyming poems, blank verse. Poems that demand to be read aloud and poems that are best enjoyed quietly. Poems that ponder, that tell a story, that wonder about the world.
There is a world of poetry out there waiting to be discovered (or rediscovered), and it can be overwhelming, but you can start by visiting your local library and bringing some books home for a little taste test. To help, here is a menu of delights that I have recently discovered:
Out There in the Wild: Poems on Nature by Nicola Davies, James Carter, and Dom Conlon, illustrated by Diana Catchpole.
All the Small Poems and Fourteen More by Valerie Worth, with pictures by Natalie Babbitt
Knock at a Star: A Child’s Introduction to Poetry by X.J. Kennedy and Dorothy M. Kennedy
Rose, Where Did You Get That Red? Teaching Great Poetry to Children by Kenneth Koch
A Full Moon is Rising by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Julia Cairns
Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems by Billy Collins
And some old favorites:
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
It’s Raining Pigs and Noodles by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by James Stevenson
Poetry Comics by Grant Snider
Dan McGrew, Sam McGee: The Poems of Robert Service (I think this specific collection is out of print)
Any of these would be a great addition to your home library. Growing your poetry library can be expensive, so it can be slow. But take it one book at a time, and you can always save money (and time) by looking for used copies. Thrifting and yard sales are great options for building your library!
For laughs, here’s a limerick I wrote as part of the Read, Discuss, Do Weekly Poetry Challenge:
There Once Was a Man with a Fish
There once was a man with a fish
who said, “If I had what I wish
this fish would be fried
with chips on the side
and NOT flopping ‘round on my dish!”