Poetry Thursday. The Meme

This week at Poetry Thursday, we're invited to complete a meme on what poetry means to us. Well, before I go and read what anyone else has to say, I thought I'd write out my top-of-the-head responses to the prompts/questions.

1. The first poem I remember reading/hearing/reacting to was …"Bed in Summer" from "A Child's Garden of Verse, by Robert Louis Stevenson. My mother gave me a gift of this book when I was about 6 or 7, and lots of those poems stay with me. They are part of the culture of my childhood, and remain as reference points for my sister and I. Just a couple of months ago, she quoted from it, when she was on night-work, and had to sleep during the day, and I knew exactly what she meant.

2. I was forced to memorize (name of poem) in school and … Too many poems, and I've forgotten most of them. The Lady of Shallott stands out. I loved it, but was a bit of rebel when it came to memorisation. I don't even memorise my own poems, and wish I did. I love to see a poet recite their work without needing to refer to "the book"

3. I read/don’t read poetry because … I read because it feeds me. It nourishes me. It brings light into my life. Poetry says so much that I thought couldn't be said.

4. A poem I’m likely to think about when asked about a favorite poem is …Primo Levi's "To my Friends", I can't find a link at the moment, but think I used it in one of the early Poetry Thursday posts. Yes.... HERE IT IS Just in case you don't have time to follow the link, here are the few lines that catch my heart whenever I read

........I speak for you, companions of a crowded
........Road, not without its difficulties,
........And for you too, who have lost
........Soul, courage, the desire to live;
........Or no one, or someone, or perhaps only one person, or
........you
........Who are reading me: remember the time
........Before the wax hardened,
........When everyone was like a seal.
........Each of us bears the imprint
........Of a friend met along the way;
........In each the trace of each.
........For good or evil
........In wisdom or in folly
........Everyone stamped by everyone.

5. I write/don’t write poetry, but … I write poetry, but always think my last poem is my last poem, because I have no idea where they come from, and doubt that there will ever be any more, and then... along comes a poem, I write it down, and still doubt it... is it a poem, really? Is it any good? Does it actually say something? And given some time, when I look in my notebook next week or next month, sometimes I am pleasantly surprised to find a poem I seem to have written that I like.

6. My experience with reading poetry differs from my experience with reading other types of literature … Yes. I seldom read an entire book of poetry, even of a poet I love. I pick and dip. But then, with fiction I seldom go back, even to books I have loved, whereas poets... Yes, I return again and again. AND... I love to share poems. I'm much more likely to insist that people listen to this poem than that they read that novel.

7. I find poetry … everywhere.

8. The last time I heard poetry … Hmmm. Was it my own voice? Eeek. Yes. I was recording some poems for a radio programme. First time ever. Not yet broadcast.

9. I think poetry is like …sunshine, like rain. It is the stuff of life. What makes us grow.

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