Oliver: National Poetry Month a chance to revel in rhyme, find wonder in words

Each April, like clockwork, I find the following lines rattling around in my brain: “April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain.”

These are the opening lines of the poem “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot. Its starkness enchanted me decades ago when I wrote a high school term paper on the work.

“The Waste Land” might not be as accessible a poem as others by Eliot. I’m particularly fond of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, with its line; “Do I dare/ Disturb the universe?”

I suppose it’s fitting as well, because April is National Poetry Month.

The observance, created in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, aims to celebrate “poets’ integral role in our culture and that poetry matters,” according to the academy’s website, poets.org.

Poetry is something that a lot of us have been exposed to from a very early age.

For instance, if you grew up reading Dr. Seuss, then you do know a thing or two about poetry.

Who can forget such lines as “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” That’s from “The Lorax” (1971), which is one of my favorites. But there are plenty of rhymes to be had in “The Cat in the Hat” and “Green Eggs and Ham” and all the other books by Seuss.

My school years were particularly good for feeding my thirst for poetry, as well as my appreciation for words in general. Cadence and rhythm, so necessary in a poem, are just as important in prose. So poetry actually helped me develop as a writer.

I remember there was a time when I could recite from memory at least a page of “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe. “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.” And, of course, “Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore.’”

By my teen years, I had discovered the power of love poetry, which went along well with being an adolescent. I had a mild crush on Lord Byron. Although who could blame me; he did, after all, write the poem “She Walks in Beauty.” “She walks in beauty, like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies.”

Of course, my favorite love poems were written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in “Sonnets from the Portuguese,” which she wrote for her future husband, Robert Browning. “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach.” It took a few years for me to find my dear Tony, but now I know exactly what she meant.

Poetry also has played a role in some of the darkest times of my life, too. When a pledge in my sorority at Northwestern University was murdered, I read a Shakespearean sonnet, Sonnet 18, at her memorial service. The lines “But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade” took on a poignant meaning.

Those college years also introduced me to poetry slams. I have fond memories of watching poets far more skilled than I who would get up and go head-to-head during competitions at The Green Mill in Chicago. If you don’t think poets are particularly competitive, you really ought to check out a slam. They are highly entertaining.

Over the years, I’ve found that I keep turning to poetry. These days, I’m just as likely to read Mary Oliver poems as I am those of Emily Dickinson. I’ll often remember a snippet of a poem, which will send me searching to read the entire work.

It’s also a love of poetry that informs my taste in music. So often, the artists that I treasure are poets at heart. I defy anyone to tell me that Suzanne Vega’s “The Queen and the Soldier” isn’t a long-form poem set to music.

If you aren’t a fan of poetry, you probably haven’t looked hard enough. Perhaps you could start with some clever limericks. Or if short is better, then there are many haikus to enjoy.

Still, it’s possible to have too much poetry. I always chuckle at this line in the movie “Persuasion” (1995), which is based on Jane Austen’s novel of the same name. “You ought, perhaps, to include a larger allowance of prose in your daily study. Too much poetry may be – unsafe.”

Happy National Poetry Month!

• Joan Oliver is the former Northwest Herald assistant news editor. She has been associated with the Northwest Herald since 1990. She can be reached at jolivercolumn@gmail.com.