A friend of mine wrote a poem for Drake and my 10th Wedding Anniversary. We've been going through our remaining 'stuff', and I ran across it. I haven't seen or read it for a long time since it got packed into storage in 2009. This poem was a labor of love from a dear friend both Drake and I have known since we were 18. I sent it to him, so he could revisit some of his early work. This guy has been a writer since we were in our 20's. Concurrently, he has also managed to snag a B.S in Metallurgical Engineering, a Master's in something, and a PhD from Cambridge University - yes, the one in England. He's also traveled all over the world. He didn't care much for his poem upon his re-visitation calling it doggerel. (A verse of little literary value.)
I told someone the other day the hardest thing to write is humor. (Faithful blog readers, think: "Intrepid Pigeon Fighter".) My friend made me realize I was wrong; poetry is the hardest thing to write. How many poems survive for more than 50 years, yet there's nothing more inspiring than good poetry. Almost everyone has a favorite poet or poem. I'm a poetry fan.
I think it comes with the English teacher territory. Did you notice the Robert Frost poetry quote on my blog about the road less traveled? He isn't my favorite poet. Up there, but not my favorite guy. My fav is William Carlos Williams. One of the things I love about Williams is he was a rural doctor during the day and half the night while he wrote amazing poetry in his spare time. He believed poetry was all about creating images that touched your senses, and he thought there shouldn't be hidden meanings in poetry.
Back to my friend....he also stated he's lost his poetry muse. I fear I never had one of those to lose. I can barely find my prose muse. It's a struggle to write when I'm in the mausoleum known as Sun City. Life is really dull here. No one wants to hear I exercised five times last week and am up to swimming 30 laps every other day. Saw the doctor, and I got good health news, mostly. Is there anything more boring that talking about your health? Nope. Shoot, I could just facebook or tweet my blogs from the snooze that is this place. "Today, I ate peanut butter." What do you think? Riveting?
So, do yourself a favor. After you finish reading this drivel (Prose of little literary value.). Google your favorite poem and re-read it or visit. www.poetry.org and pick another. You want to be ready for National Poetry Month (April).
