Poetry is a space to experiment with language — communications through this medium enables deeper emotional expression. This National Poetry Month, if you are looking to be inspired, or just simply want to appreciate beautiful language, consider reflecting on some of our favorite stanzas.
“picasso laughing” by Patti Smith
“notebook
divine love is so.
invisible.”
If our body is the material counterpart to our immaterial soul, what happens when it is gone? In “picasso laughing,” Patti Smith explores the legacy of artists whose art lives on after they have passed away. Smith’s poem is a symbol of how artistic creation can transcend death — leaving permanent marks on our world and imprinting in our minds.
— Siobhán Minerva, Deputy Arts Editor
“Here I Love You” by Pablo Neruda
“Here I love you.
Here I love you and the horizon hides you in vain.
I love you still among these cold things.
Sometimes my kisses go on those heavy vessels
that cross the sea towards no arrival.
I see myself forgotten like those old anchors.”
I’m sure that I originally found this poem on Tumblr or something similarly embarrassing, but this is the kind of thing that hitches a ride with you for your formative years and shapes you well into adulthood. The older you are, the more you find yourself “among these cold things” and the more you have to give your love to the world, even if without direction — especially without direction. Pablo Neruda constantly reminds us that the ache of love and loss is a constant in life.
— Oshmi Ghosh, Contributing Writer
“Put Something In” by Shel Silverstein
“Do a loony-goony dance
’Cross the kitchen floor,
Put something silly in the world
That ain’t been there before.”
Shel Silverstein’s iconic books like “Where the Sidewalk Ends” and “A Light in the Attic” are many children’s introduction to poetry. “Put Something In” is one of my personal favorites, as the silly poem encourages children to let go of the fear of judgment and create something. Silverstein understood the importance of empowering young people, and poems like these play a key role in developing a new generation of creative minds.
— Annie Emans, Staff Writer
“For Nothing is Fixed” by James Baldwin
“The moment we cease to hold each other,
the moment we break faith with one another,
the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.”
The day after the election, I made “For Nothing is Fixed” — a line from James Baldwin’s 1964 book “Nothing Personal” — my phone lock screen. The poem reminds me that the world is always changing and nothing is permanent, no matter how nightmarish things may seem. The only way out is through, and the only way through is by holding on to both hope and each other.
— Alexa Donovan, Arts Editor
“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver
“You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.”
When life feels overwhelming, I find myself turning to this poem again and again. Mary Oliver encapsulates the connectivity of shared struggle and reminds us that in a season of hustle and struggle, sometimes the best thing we can do is just take a breath and be. We might achieve more by doing that, anyways.
— Rory Lustberg, Staff Writer
“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
My love for this poem stems partly from its quote in my favorite comic book series, “Watchmen,” and partly from analyzing it in my 10th grade English class. Ozymandias is an imposing, self-absorbed despot, but his rule is ephemeral and his memory is lost to time. With this poem, Percy Bysshe Shelley reminds us that no matter how powerful, no single man nor his words will last forever.
— Leo Field, Staff Writer
“Little Beast” by Richard Siken
“History throws its shadow over the beginning, over the desktop,
over the sock drawer with its socks, its hidden letters.
History is a little man in a brown suit
trying to define a room he is outside of.
I know history. There are many names in history
but none of them are ours”
Richard Siken’s work made me realize how short-form writing can truly pack a punch. His collection “Crush” was the first poetry collection I have read cover to cover — his poems traverse the planes of queer longing and existentialism, and are made powerful by their straightforwardness. Siken is direct with his ruminations, and it makes his use of metaphor all the more powerful.
— Eleanor Jacobs, Music Editor
“Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost
“Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.”
Whether I’m listening to a recently discovered song or developing a new relationship, I find myself thinking about this poem daily. The wonderful luster of that which is new always disappears — without fail. I look forward to the day when I perceive a gold which stays.
— Matthew Singh, Deputy Sports Editor
“On The Nature Of Love” by Rabindranath Tagore
I was first introduced to Rabindranath Tagore’s way with words through the Hindi TV series, “Stories by Rabindranath Tagore,” and in the nine years since, I’ve delved deep into the Nobel Prize winner’s extensive archive. Tagore published 14 novels, more than 50 volumes of poetry and around 2,000 songs, and I believe that the piece of writing that best encapsulates his universal appeal is “On The Nature Of Love.” The well-known short poem elegantly describes the hopeful search for life-long connection while reminding us that the pursuit of love itself holds meaning beyond understanding.
— Krish Dev, Director of Creative & Digital Strategy
“Now” by Audre Lorde
“Woman power
is
Black power
is
Human power
is
always feeling
my heart beats
as my eyes open
as my hands move
as my mouth speaks.”
I have this line of Audre Lorde’s permanently stuck inside my head — “[poetry] forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change” — and although its origins derive from a different work, the words remain all too relevant at this current moment in time. Throughout her years, Audre Lorde wielded power through a pen, expressing the energy of movements that no other art or literary form could apprehend. Yet, as I write this, we are each up to our knees in it again — and there has never been a more important, or more essential, time to return to the insurgencies within Lorde’s poetics.
— Levi Langley, Deputy Sports Editor
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