The Full Mating Moon
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April is National Poetry Month and as has been my habit these last few years I made an effort to find and share new poetry on my Facebook page. Last year I found a number of poems that spoke to my theme for 2012, Grabbing the Tiger By the Tail. This year, some of my favorite poems of National Poetry Month illuminated this year's theme - Claiming My Superpowers, Calling My Allies.  |
| By Emily Dickenson |
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| By e.e. cummings |
I read so much new poetry this month and all of it added to my life. Every year I find more and more poetry that speaks so clearly to me. I didn't grow up reading or hearing poetry. In my culture, middle class, white, late 20th century American culture, poetry has been seen as something elite and academic. It is not something "we" do in our daily lives, it is something to be pondered and studied, kept clean and pure. But the reality is, poetry is as complex, grounded, interesting, dirty and real as the human experience. It is an egalitarian art that can be created in stolen moments between the endless work of women, working class people, incarcerated people or others without much in the way of resources to put towards art. It doesn't require lots of equipment, in fact, much great poetry has been created with nothing more than the human facility for language and memory. And poetry is a way to speak truth, the kinds of Truth that can not be adequately described with prose, or math or even visual art. Poetry is one helluva super power.
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| By James Broughton |
Full Mating Moon 2011: The Green Month
Full Mating Moon 2010: Mercurial
Full Mating Moon 2009: The Flower Moon
Also, be sure to check out all my other National Poetry Month postings, and all my other posts with poetry!
Also, be sure to check out all my other National Poetry Month postings, and all my other posts with poetry!
