National Poetry Month--Happy Easter!

(photo by prkos flickr.com/photos/prkos/1162124205/)

Today, Christians around the globe proclaim, "Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!" Nineteenth century English poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins put it more eloquently:

GOD'S GRANDEUR

THE world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs --
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.


(photo by Untitled Blue, www.flickr.com/photos/untitlism/2547423465/)

Two centuries earlier, British metaphysical poet John Donne addressed death this way:

Death Be Not Proud

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.


(photo by Pink Dispatcher flickr.com/photos/98529529@N00/254011128)

Early 20th-century Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, asserts the continuation of life in "And Death Shall Have No Dominion."

And death shall have no dominion. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!

National Poetry Month--Easter Vigil

(photo by Simon Lo http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Candlelight_Vigil_for_June_4_Massacre_2007_-_002.JPG)


Easter Vigil, also called Holy Saturday, is a time of waiting. Jesus' disciples waited in fear and suspense. Jesus was crucified--would they be next? Jesus said he would return, but how could that be? The Psalmist foreshadowed this wait and encourages in his poetry:

Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.

Read the entire Psalm here.

Boris Pasternak, best known for writing Dr. Zhivago, ends his poem "In Holy Week":

At midnight man and beast fall dumb
On hearing springtime's revelation:
Once weather clears, then just as soon
Can death itself be overcome
By the power of Resurrection.

Read the whole poem and others here.


(photo by Jeffrey Maxwell http://www.world66.com/southamerica/peru/lima/lib/gallery/showimage?pic=southamerica/peru/lima/in_line_waiting_fo)

We spend much of our lives waiting--waiting to be old enough to drive, to vote. Waiting to find the right mate, job, dwelling. Waiting for spring, vacation, supper. Or simply waiting in line at the store, the bank, the theater, the doctor's office.

The poem "I am Waiting" tells what Lawrence Ferlinghetti is waiting for.

What are you waiting for?

National Poetry Month--Good Friday

(photo by Dennis Tang www.flickr.com/photos/tangysd/3348460359/)

George Herbert was born April 3, 1593, in Wales. He was a scholar, an orator, a politician, and a priest in the Church of England, but it is for his poetry that he is remembered today. Influenced by John Donne, his poems use unusual shapes and unique comparisons to make their statements.

REDEMPTION

by George Herbert

Having been tenant long to a rich Lord,
Not thriving, I resolved to be bold,
And make a suit unto him, to afford
A new small-rented lease, and cancel th’ old.

In heaven at his manor I him sought:
They told me there, that he was lately gone
About some land, which he had dearly bought
Long since on earth, to take possession.

I straight return’d, and knowing his great birth,
Sought him accordingly in great resorts;
In cities, theaters, gardens, parks, and courts:
At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth

Of thieves and murderers: there I him espied,
Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, and died.




Here are the final lines from John Masefield's dramatic poem, "Good Friday":

MADMAN. Only a penny, a penny,
Lilies brighter than any,
Lilies whiter than snow. [He feels that he is
alone.]
Beautiful lilies grow
Wherever the truth so sweet
Has trodden with bloody feet,
Has stood with a bloody brow.
Friend, it is over now,
The passion, the sweat, the pains,
Only the truth remains. [He lays lilies down.]
I cannot see what others see;
Wisdom alone is kind to me,
Wisdom that comes from Agony.
Wisdom that lives in the pure skies,
The untouched star, the spirit's eyes;
O Beauty, touch me, make me wise.
CURTAIN.

More Good Friday poems are found at As Iron Sharpens Iron. Do you know of others? If so, send them my way.

April--National Poetry Month!

To poet T.S. Eliot, "April is the cruellest month" (The Waste Land). To the Academy of American Poets, April is the poetic month. Let the celebration begin!

Since April 1 is April Fool's Day, here is a poem for kids by Kenn Nesbitt about April Fool's pranks.

A different kind of fool is described in the adult poem "I'm a Fool to Love You" by Cornelius Eady. Hear him read it to get the poem's full effect.

I'm going to try to post very frequently this month to share all things poetic--no foolin'!

The Easter Egg, Jan Brett's New Book

(photo by Butterfly Sha www.flickr.com/photos/butterflysha/129107480/)

Jan Brett is back in her bus, touring the country to spread the word about her new book, The Easter Egg.

Brett knew from the time she was in kindergarten that she wanted to be an illustrator! She understands that not everyone realizes their talents at such a young age, and wrote and illustrated The Easter Egg to explore that theme. Enjoy this forty-second video about the book:
or click here for a three-minute version.

Read my blog post about Jan Brett's 2008 visit to South Dakota and this article about The Easter Egg from the Casper Journal.

Happy Easter!

Brave & Bold Women: National Women's History Month

Frida Kahlo by OliverAlex www.flickr.com/photos/oliveralex/1715378245/ Creative Commons license

To continue celebrating National Women's History Month, I'll send you to Pat Mora's blog, Bookjoy, where she gives a few examples of books about brave, bold women. Do you agree that the women she chose were brave and bold?


Over at Children's Book Review, Bianca Schulze chose 5 Kids' Books that Celebrate Women and Empower Girls. What do you think about her choices?


Cleopatra statue photo by Tiffany Silva www.flickr.com/photos/tiffanysilva/3035481904/ Creative Commons license


To dig even deeper, here's a link from Encyclopaedia Britannica that lists 300 women who changed the world. Who is not on this list that should be? Who would you leave off?

What woman--historical, contemporary, or fictional--has had a lasting positive impression on you?

Mother and Daughter on a Swing by Robert Walker MacBeth, 1895

A Swarm of WASPs: WWII Female Pilots

What subject could be more appropriate for National Women's History Month?


When the WASP program ended, these women were forgotten. Never formally part of the Armed Forces, they received no benefits or recognition--until Wednesday, March 10, when they were awarded the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor. For more about the medal, click here.

My dad's sister, Helen Anderson Severson, one of these pacesetters, was one of the 38 killed in crashes. Helen began her WASP training in Sweetwater, Texas, in April 1943. Her plane, a UC-78, went down in a field near Big Springs, Texas, in August 1943, during a training flight, killing Helen, classmate Peggy Seip, and their instructor, Mr. Atwood. The cause of the crash was determined to be structural failure.

More about the 38 who gave their lives in service is found here.
In her book Flying for Her Country, Amy Goodpaster Strebe writes about a WASP's memory of losing her friends, Helen and Peggy. After that accident, mortality sank in for the WASPs at that base. The book quotes Ann Baumbgartner Carl: "We could fail. We could die. Yet, we secretly felt 'it won't happen to me'...many of the women turned to their God--who for them was indeed their 'co-pilot.'"

PBS did an excellent documentary, Fly Girls, on this part of our history, showing the rigors, joys, dangers, and importance of what these women did.

Here's to these daring women and the model they set for the rest of us!