I once had a writing professor who told us that if we wrote a poem that rhymed she would give us an automatic grade of F. I obliged her even though I personally had nothing against couplets, quatrains, and the occasional limerick. The poems that we’re drawn to – or the ones that repel us – are telling. They’re as individual and distinct as our fingerprints.
In honor of April being National Poetry Month, we encourage Blurbarians everywhere to drink in the familiar and beloved poetry of writers such as Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Allen Ginsberg, Maya Angelou, E. E. Cummings, Rimbaud, Shakespeare, Octavio Paz, Ryōkan, or Dorothy Parker, but also to go out there and find new poems that blindside you with their lesser-known brilliance.
No need to go far. Lynette Glaser’s Say what? …thoughts from a girl will take you from “earth to hell and back again,” in her poem “Ping Pong.” And four walls by G.W. Rogers and Kenny Stephens, will give you a glimpse into the lives of slam poets from Knoxville, TN. Both can both be found in the Blurb Bookstore.
Better yet, take to the keyboard and let the words fall where they may. Your own poetry book could spark a following. There’s poetry in us all, whether it rhymes or not.
