Kansas Snapshots by Gloria Freeland - April 30, 2021

The power of poetry

An assignment for my junior-high English class was to memorize a poem and recite it. English was one of my better subjects, but my introverted self wasn't looking forward to standing in front of the class. So why did I choose Edna St. Vincent Millay's 30-stanza "Ballad of the Harp-Weaver"? Perhaps it was because her words about a poverty-stricken mother's unconditional love for her young son resonated ... and they still do.

Poetry is considered as the intersection of prose and music. Since I enjoy both, I've dabbled some in this "between area." When I was in high school, I had poems published in "English Echoes," the school's literary publication. One was "My Loves," based on Rupert Brooke's "The Great Lover." Another was "Song of the Marsh" about the Vietnam War.

After my first husband Jerome died, my journey through grief swung wildly between depression and hope. Prose often seemed inadequate to express my feelings, so I turned to poetry. Our daughter Mariya's birth five months after his death, combined with the passage of time, slowly began healing my heart. I think that journey is mirrored in the following three poems.

Not all of my efforts have been serious. In 1991, husband Art, his mother Donna and I were in a huge miles-long traffic jam on the German-Polish border. After the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, traffic had increased dramatically and the thorough inspections of every truck created the problem. I decided to write something to help pass the time.

The last word was my tongue-in-cheek attempt to rhyme "rigor mortis" with "order." "Whizzed" referred to the men who exited their parked vehicles to relieve themselves at the edge of the road.

Although I'm only an occasional poet, a couple of friends have written poetry books and have performed their works in public places. Ron Wilson writes and performs cowboy poetry. He said in the early 2000s, he was working with a rural leadership group where everyone was asked to contribute their talents. His was a cowboy poem. Ron explained: "... the moderator said I was the group's poet laureate. I got my rope and replied that I wasn't a poet laureate, but I might be a poet lariat. The nickname stuck. ..."

Tony Crawford, former Kansas State University special collections archivist, has published several poetry books. One recent poem is about the pandemic.

Poet Robert Frost was the first to recite a poem at a presidential inauguration. He had written the poem "Dedication" for the event, but the bright sunlight prevented him from reading it, so he recited from memory "The Gift Outright," about how our people once belonged to other lands, but now belong to this one. The 2017 National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman read her poem - "The Hill We Climb" - at this year's inauguration. Her passionate presentation stole the show.

Joy Harjo, current Poet Laureate of the United States, said, "When I began to listen to poetry, it's when I began to listen to the stones, and I began to listen to what the clouds had to say, and I began to listen to others. And I think, most importantly for all of us, then you begin to learn to listen to the soul, the soul of yourself in here, which is also the soul of everyone else."

Poetry has long inspired, educated, entertained and sometimes even changed the world. Poetry.org observed "... we can rely on poems to offer wisdom, uplifting ideas, and language that prompts reflection that can help us slow down and center mentally, emotionally, spiritually."

Today is the last day of the month, so it is not too late to mention that April is National Poetry Month - and this year is the 25th anniversary.