It's time for the fabulous P in today's Blogging from A to Z Challenge - and my topic:
Poetry
I love poetry. Always have and always will.
Some of my best memories growing up, are tied to many of my favorite poems: My sisters and I reading the wonderful rhyming words from the late-great Shel Silverstein, in WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS, THE LIGHT IN THE ATTIC, and THE GIVING TREE.
And recalling as if it were just yesterday, my mom reading one of my favorites from the fabulous Dr. Seuss:
Oh, The Places You'll Go! - Dr. Seuss (excerpt)
On and on you will hike.
And I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.
You'll get mixed up of course,
as you already know.
You'll get mixed up
with many stray birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with you left.
And will you succeed?
Yes! You will indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent garanteed!)
KID YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!
So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Alenn O'Shea
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So... get on your way!
_____________________________
But after all these years, there is one that stands out from the rest of them. It's a poem I had to memorize in junior high English...which I then had to recite back in front of the entire class, as the boy I had the biggest crush on, sat and watched from the front row. Fifteen years later, he was the best man in my wedding.
And the poem? It's still my favorite:
The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
_______________________________
Words, no matter how they're strung together, can mean more than just what's written down.
Poetry: What's your favorite - and what memory does it bring back for you?
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