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The big tidy up norah smaridge7/6/2023 As an adult, I use poetry to express emotions or share stories that might otherwise go unspoken. As a teenager, I poured out pages and pages of angst. As a child, I used rhyme to create silly songs I sang to box turtles in the pond. “Her shoe was askew.” Go ahead, say it out loud.ĭoesn’t it feel and sound luxurious? That’s poetry!Īs an art form, I have always found great freedom in poetry. My 4-year-old vocabulary hadn’t yet catalogued its definition, but I loved what it did to my mouth when spoken aloud, especially paired with shoe. I remember hearing that word – askew – and being fascinated by it. Her beautiful box to keep ribbons in was full of old junk instead…” I can still quote by heart most of the sing-song-y lines from my favorite, The Big Tidy-Up, about a girl with a particularly messy bedroom, by Norah Smaridge: Truly, I was enamored by the poetry in the books I read as a small child. “To err is human to forgive, divine.” An Essay on Criticism, by Alexander Popeįrom the very beginning of our lives, nursery rhymes are quoted to calm and amuse us. “Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose…” Sacred Emily, by Gertrude Stein “Because I could not stop for Death…” Poem, by Emily Dickinson “I have spread my dreams under your feet…” He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, by W.B. “I wandered lonely as a cloud…” Poem, by William Wordsworth “‘Tis better to have loved and lost…” In Memoriam A.H.H., by Lord Alfred Tennyson “Do I dare to eat a peach?” The Love Song of J. “I took the road less traveled by…” The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost Just read through these lines of literary touchstones: Poetry is often perceived as difficult, by writers and readers alike, but we’ve subconsciously adopted bits of poetry as a part of our cultural zeitgeist. Since 1996, April has been a time to celebrate and explore the wonder of words that is the poem. Twenty-five years ago, the American Academy of Poets launched National Poetry month.
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