W is for Walt Whitman: Always in Love

For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

This will be my 5th year participating.

• In 2014, I wrote about evocative words. 
• In 2015, I wrote about my publication journey and the release of my first novel. 
• In 2016, I wrote about my favorite superheroes. 
• In 2017, I wrote about the places of my heart. 

My theme this year is Poets I Love all about some of the poets whose work has touched me over the years.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too. Be sure to check out some of the other bloggers stretching their limits this month to share their passions with you, too. With over 600 participants, there is bound to be something you'd love to read.
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In 2017, I decided I would read a poem every day and post about it. Poetry was such a central part of my life when I was younger, but it had drifted almost entirely out of my life, and I realized I missed it. The inspiration for that project was Walt Whitman. My eldest daughter was reading Leaves of Grass for a literature class she was taking, and I LOVED talking with her about the verses of his I loved most, and about his place in the history of American poetry. It seems fitting that it was Whitman who brought me back to reading poetry after an absence of many years.

One of his poems that I remembered fondly was "I Sing the Body Electric." There's that part in Bull Durham where Susan Sarandon remind us how sexy some parts of it are when she reads it aloud to her lover.

When I revisited the whole poem, the first thing I noticed is that it's a lot longer than I remembered. It's a nine part poem! 

The next thing I noticed was the range of it. It's all a celebration of human form, but it waxes philosophical, scientific, personal, and political in turns. It's a sweeping, epic vision, and you can get pulled up into the beautiful maelstrom of words. 

Whitman in his verses always seems to be love. His joy, fascination, and celebration are contagious. Reading him, I fall back in love, too, and see my fellow human beings as the wondrous creations they are. 

V is for César Vallejo: The Personal and the Political

It's April! Time for the AtoZ Blogging Challenge!

For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

This will be my 5th year participating.

• In 2014, I wrote about evocative words. 
• In 2015, I wrote about my publication journey and the release of my first novel. 
• In 2016, I wrote about my favorite superheroes. 
• In 2017, I wrote about the places of my heart. 

My theme this year is Poets I Love all about some of the poets whose work has touched me over the years.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too. Be sure to check out some of the other bloggers stretching their limits this month to share their passions with you, too. With over 600 participants, there is bound to be something you'd love to read.
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I'd heard of César Vallejo before, but not read his work until recently. When my former poetry professor lost her battle with cancer last year, I revisited her work and found a poem she'd written "after César Vallejo." That sparked my curiosity so I looked him up. My curiosity is still sparked, so I'll be looking for more by this poet.

The nineteenth century was politically rough in a lot of Spanish-speaking countries, including Vallejo's homeland of Peru. Every poet or writer I read about from that time period faced a great deal of turmoil and persecution, sometimes for their art, sometimes for their lives. Bohemian artist-types are not always welcome. That pain and tragedy is reflected in his work, which is both personal and political in tone.

U is for Miguel de Unamuno: Quiet Passion

It's April! Time for the AtoZ Blogging Challenge!

For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

This will be my 5th year participating.

• In 2014, I wrote about evocative words. 
• In 2015, I wrote about my publication journey and the release of my first novel. 
• In 2016, I wrote about my favorite superheroes. 
• In 2017, I wrote about the places of my heart. 

My theme this year is Poets I Love all about some of the poets whose work has touched me over the years.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too. Be sure to check out some of the other bloggers stretching their limits this month to share their passions with you, too. With over 600 participants, there is bound to be something you'd love to read.

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I haven't looked deeply into the life of Miguel de Unamuno, but I get the impression he was a quiet, scholarly sort of man with deep passions running beneath. The embodiment of "still waters run deep."

He saw tumultuous times in Spain's history, suffering exile (without his beloved family) and returning in triumph only to get himself in trouble with the next government and die while under house arrest. Throughout it all, he wrote: plays, essays, novels, and philosophy.

What his poetry is like depends on what part of his career we're talking about, but a lot of his work has a serious bent, with a touch of mystic and melancholy. Here's one of my favorites.

T is for Sara Teasdale: Timeless Universality

It's April! Time for the AtoZ Blogging Challenge!

For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

This will be my 5th year participating.

• In 2014, I wrote about evocative words. 
• In 2015, I wrote about my publication journey and the release of my first novel. 
• In 2016, I wrote about my favorite superheroes. 
• In 2017, I wrote about the places of my heart. 

My theme this year is Poets I Love all about some of the poets whose work has touched me over the years.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too. Be sure to check out some of the other bloggers stretching their limits this month to share their passions with you, too. With over 600 participants, there is bound to be something you'd love to read.

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Sara Teasdale was my grandmother's favorite poet. When I first told her that I wanted to write poems (when I was six or seven years old), that's who she said I should read. She showed me some of her verses on greeting cards, including a mushy one from Grandpa.

I wasn't much of a judge when I was seven, but I always smile when I come across one of Teasdale's poems, thinking of Grandma.

Teasdale's poetry, like that of Edna St. Vincent Millay, is underestimated sometimes. Simplicity can be mistaken for a lack of sophistication. A lot of Teasdale's work is more contemplative than dramatic, but I still get that little gasp of recognition reading her lines, and that's half of what I read poetry for.

Teasdale's poems have a timeless universality. They're not confessional or philosophical, neither focused on the narrow individual experience nor taking a god's eye view overlooking the cosmos. I don't, at the end of the poem, know why the poet is drawn to broken things at the moment, but I feel with her nonetheless, taking the same quiet comfort alongside her. She finds the emotional center of a moment and gives us room to find ourselves in it. 

S is for Edna St. Vincent Millay: Sincere and Direct

It's April! Time for the AtoZ Blogging Challenge!

For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

This will be my 5th year participating.

• In 2014, I wrote about evocative words. 
• In 2015, I wrote about my publication journey and the release of my first novel. 
• In 2016, I wrote about my favorite superheroes. 
• In 2017, I wrote about the places of my heart. 

My theme this year is Poets I Love all about some of the poets whose work has touched me over the years.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too. Be sure to check out some of the other bloggers stretching their limits this month to share their passions with you, too. With over 600 participants, there is bound to be something you'd love to read.

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When I first encountered the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay, I dismissed it without reading much of it. Because it was direct, sincere, and easy to understand, I thought it simplistic and less meaningful than the complex and cynical work I admired at the time. 

I probably inherited a bit of this attitude from the literary scene. She wasn't one of the poets people mentioned as an influence, and some poets were downright dismissive of her work. I can remember one conversation when someone called her work "greeting card drivel."

She had once been so popular and admired a poet, but by the time I was studying poetry, no one was talking about her work.

But more recently, her poems have come across my radar from time to time and I found them beautiful and moving. I am older now, which may have something to do with it, and my views have changed about those complex and cynical works I once admired. A lot of it seems contrived and pretentious to me, and sincerity and honesty is exactly what I'm looking for. She feels like a breath of fresh air to me in that way.

She's better technically than I ever gave her credit for, too. Her formal sonnets have all the right beats and rhyme schemes, yet feel as fresh and natural as free verse. That's quite a feat!

I feel I owe her an apology for judging her when I was younger based on reputation alone instead of reading for myself. Luckily, it's never too late to read her work and admire it.

R is for Robert Browning: Dramatic Monologue

It's April! Time for the AtoZ Blogging Challenge!

For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

This will be my 5th year participating.

• In 2014, I wrote about evocative words. 
• In 2015, I wrote about my publication journey and the release of my first novel. 
• In 2016, I wrote about my favorite superheroes. 
• In 2017, I wrote about the places of my heart. 

My theme this year is Poets I Love all about some of the poets whose work has touched me over the years.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too. Be sure to check out some of the other bloggers stretching their limits this month to share their passions with you, too. With over 600 participants, there is bound to be something you'd love to read.

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I love dramatic monologues. They bridge the space between poetry and theater, allowing the poet to take on a character completely separate from themselves and put words in their mouth. Like Shakespearean soliloquies, they can give real insight into a character while wowing you with gorgeous language and metaphor.

One of my favorite dramatic monologues ever was written by Robert Browning: My Last Duchess. It's a creepy thing, a slow reveal. At first it seems to be merely an art collector showing off his collection. But there are all these small red flags that creep up, until you find yourself wondering if the Duke in question killed his wife.

"That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive."

It's there even in the opening lines. The ominous feeling. The next few lines have the Duke insisting strongly that the listener sit and examine the portrait, that he notice the look of warmth in her eyes.

"Sir, ’twas not
Her husband’s presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek"

Jealousy reared its ugly head. 

"She had
A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere."

Yikes. Dangerous jealousy. I start to wonder if I misread and this is actually by Edgar Allan Poe. 

"Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive."

 Shudder. 

This poem amazes me for all it says by not saying, for all that is suggested, threatened, or implied. When he finishes and it is revealed that the visitor is there to discuss the Duke's intentions to marry again, a Count's daughter, I find myself hoping the emissary has the wit to refuse the match, lest this turn into Bluebeard's castle. Masterful work.

Q is for Nizar Qabbani: Dramatic Declarations of Love

It's April! Time for the AtoZ Blogging Challenge!

For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

This will be my 5th year participating.

• In 2014, I wrote about evocative words. 
• In 2015, I wrote about my publication journey and the release of my first novel. 
• In 2016, I wrote about my favorite superheroes. 
• In 2017, I wrote about the places of my heart. 

My theme this year is Poets I Love all about some of the poets whose work has touched me over the years.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too. Be sure to check out some of the other bloggers stretching their limits this month to share their passions with you, too. With over 600 participants, there is bound to be something you'd love to read.

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Confession time. I didn't have a poet I love for the letter Q. At least in English (which is the language I read best) there aren't that many names that start with Q, let alone names that were given to people who became poets and whose work I love. 

So I had to go searching. 

I found a Syrian poet, Nizar Qabbani. A lot of his work is available in translation.

As I clicked on poem after poem, I found short, tight little love poems, full of sweeping passion and glamorous hyperbole. His work made me think of the part from Dead Poet's Society about what poetry is for: 

There was something really refreshing about such direct and flirtatious words. Sometimes the cynicism we live in wears me out and I just want to pick up the beautiful parts of a fairy tale and live there. Qabbani would be the court poet.