In honor of National Poetry Month (April) I will share poems that have touched me throughout the month.
Following are the first two poems I remember being especially delighted by in high school. They are not the first poems I read but both stuck with me because of their spare, elegant styles. They were so different than most of the poems I had read up until I encountered them. Different in their directness and their subject matter. What an impression they made.
We Real Cool – By Gwendolyn M. Brooks
The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
from Selected Poems. Copyright © 1963 by Gwendolyn Brooks.
[Buffalo Bill ‘s]
Buffalo Bill ‘s
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
Jesus
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death
Related:
Poems found on Poetry Foundation site
Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month, held every April, is the largest literary celebration in the world with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets celebrating poetry’s vital place in our culture.
That Gwendolyn Brooks poem is one of my favorites too! Thanks for sharing.
Once again, awesome and thought-provoking! So much meaning in so few words.