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"Trees" and "34"

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Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise  (E) Blog City - Every Blogger's Paradise. #1972895 by Lyn's a Witchy Woman

Have you ever asked someone what their favorite poem is? It's not as easy as you would think for them to name an author and a poem with the reason why.

One of mine is Marge Piercy's The Moon is Always Female. I was trying to understand women in general.

Please recommend a couple to us and why.

💙 Carly-wrimo 2024 made me do this! As I told her:

"Joyce Kilmer's "I think that I shall never see, a poem lovely as a tree..." From my childhood. And all the haiku of Basho, Buson and Issa I was raised on.

Reading poems by Costa Rican teenagers today, Utopia.

I like my "I, Katrina" poem, but Patricia Smith in "34" gives each person a voice. #18 is hard...

Trees

         by Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12744/trees

Why this poem? It's the first I can remember! Plus, I loved my elm tree. I was awed by trees more than poetry!

Children learn what they are exposed to. My favorite book was poetry and images from Japan. Silly little poems ... but ... they spoke to me. I've known haiku all my life (at least the English translation and versions). When I visited Japan in 2015 it was as if I understood. Because I did. When I saw old plum trees... I knew.

In my poem "I, Katrina"  I give voice to the storm. In "34" Patricia Smith gives voice to 34 residents of a nursing home that drowned. Very powerful voices. Giving voice ... that's what many of us do.

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