Stories from the Stacks
The Monthly Liaison: April 2022
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The Poetry of Possibilities |
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Last Monday morning, April 11, I pulled the hood of my parka (that I thought I had stuffed in the closet for the last time this season) tightly over my head against the thickly falling snow at the bus stop. The hood muffled the morning noise of car tires rolling through slush, but I could still hear the high, insistent trill of blackbirds and the chirping of robins.
Later that morning, fifteen toddlers sat in a squirrely circle around Lee, who held a book open wide before them. A few children were nestled tightly in their parents’ laps, their rosy cheeks pressed to grown-up shoulders, thumbs secretly tucked in their mouths; they watched the story unfold from the corners of their eyes. Others wiggled and squirmed and popped up and down. Lee read a story about an angry bird; some children giggled; some kicked their snow boots together; one shouted, “Guess what, guess what...” The snow kept falling outside the windows like a heavy curtain.
That evening, a dozen high school students and a handful of adults formed another circle in the same room to discuss the book So You Want to Talk about Race. The conversation was led by teen leaders of the local Amnesty International Club. Everyone spoke up, sharing different points of view, and everyone listened respectfully to each other. At the end of the evening, there was a collective good-natured groan as they all looked out the door at the still-falling snow - then they repeated the refrain “we need the water” like a chorus and headed out into the blizzard together.
All day long, that April day, it looked like winter, but it reverberated with the energy of spring—the poetry of possibilities (restless, eager, toddlers; ready, courageous teens) like a syncopated rhythm amidst the quiet snowflakes.
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Jenny Emery Davidson, Ph.D.
Executive Director
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Smashing Snow Globes:
A Celebration of National Poetry Month
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Emily Dickinson took liberty with poetry’s required elements—a snubbing of convention that opened doors for poets to come and let the winds blow into the genre.
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By Pam Parker
Circulation Manager
Poet Billy Collins celebrated the arrival of spring with a poem in which he crushes a snow globe with a hammer and throws open all the windows.
Each April, National Poetry Month begs us to open the windows of our mind by indulging in poem. This spring, I invite you to crush the snow globe—metaphorically, of course—by reading poetry from divergent and diverse perspectives.
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Pam Parker is ready to smash a snow globe and usher in Spring |
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Poetic rule breaker Emily Dickinson wrote the now famous “Hope is the Thing with Feathers” sometime in 1861. It’s a lovely poem and speaks to the eternal nature of hope—the sort of sentiment that we could probably all use just now:
“Hope” is the thing with feathers —
That perches in the soul —
And sings the tune without the words —
And never stops — at all —
Dickinson took ample liberty with poetry’s required elements—a snubbing of convention that opened doors for poets to come and let the winds blow into the genre.
Much of today’s poetry diverges with tradition as well—poets of complex backgrounds and experiences have joined the ranks of America’s best-and-brightest. Jose Olivarez, Richard Blanco, Ha Jin, Rita Dove, Naomi Shihab Nye, Jason Reynolds, Amanda Gorman, Ocean Vuong, Natalie Diaz, Juan Felipe Herrera—living, breathing poets that are making waves in our sensibilities of what poetry should be.
In our recent Super Staff meeting at the Library, we read a poem collectively called "Gate A-4" that represents this sort of drift in the genre:
Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning
my flight had been delayed four hours, I heard an announcement:
"If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please
come to the gate immediately."
~Naomi Shihab Nye, 2008
At first glance, it’s hardly recognizable as a poem. However, it provoked a vibrant conversation among us as staff members, reminding us of how diverse perspectives can bring fresh air to institutional discussions.
This poem is included in Nye’s collection titled Honeybee (2008); We loved it so much that we’ve added the eBook and Audiobook to our Libby by Overdrive platform, where you can read or listen as well.
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. . . . poetry is a thing with feathers. It carries us up. . . . |
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While the poet and national treasure Maya Angelou passed away in 2014, she seems to have handed her inaugural skills to young Amanda Gorman. The Hill We Climb (2020) burned brightly on that cold morning in Washington, D.C., when our country seemed divided beyond hope. She declares victory against the tides:
We will not march back to what was,
But move to what shall be.
A country that is bruised but whole,
Benevolent but bold,
Fierce but free.
Yes, poetry can be cathartic. It is also powerfully personal at times. Vietnamese American writer Ocean Vuong recently penned his second collection of highly-acclaimed poetry titled Time Is a Mother (2022)—and the accolades are flowing:
How else do we return to ourselves but to fold
The page so it points to the good part
The loss of his mother in 2019 inspired this work but the collection reaches into his personal struggle to survive the hardships he’s faced. As an openly LGBTQ+ young person, his haunting work brings an edge that asks us to leave our comfort zone. It’s a bold reminder of how art from diverse voices can ‘wake’ us.
As another spring arrives in our mountain village, might we ask if poetry is medicine?
In a wonderful anthology of poems, The Poetry Remedy: Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind and Soul (2019), author William Sieghart offers poems for specific ailments, from melancholy to divorce. It’s a powerful concept, and one that Sieghart has practiced as Great Britain’s poetry pharmacist—with sage words to nourish our inner needs.
So before you go smashing snow globes with a hammer, maybe a collection of poems can help carry you through. A current Library display of recommended poetry reflects our staff’s favorites—and these titles are also reflected in "Our Poetry Picks" on our website. You’ll also find a multitude of perspectives in YOUR Library’s amazing collections.
Yes, poetry is a thing with feathers. It carries us up.
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If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze
that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house
and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,
a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies
seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking
a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,
releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage
so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting
into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.
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Recommended Titles in Poetry |
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April is National Poetry Month and The Community Library celebrates
the power of words to shape our minds, hearts, and destinies.
Here are a few poetry volumes we like in print and digital formats
(all free with your Library card).
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Heralds from The Hemingway House |
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"While staying here at Hemingway's house, I learned to see another side of him. Not the bon vivant, charismatic, larger-than-life figure...but really
as a vulnerable human being who,
like all of us, struggle with the
same big life questions..."
~Richard Blanco
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2020 Hemingway Distinguished Lecturer, Richard Blanco, recites his poem,
"Metaphors at Big Wood River."
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THANK YOU to Our March Donors
for Supporting the Stories of the Library
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Anonymous
Amazon Smile
Marion and John Bechtholt
Gayle and Dr. Fred Bieker
Susan and Arnold Blair
Blaustein Family Charitable Trust
Daphne Coble and Patrick Murphy
Sherry and David Cook
Gigi and Jim Daniels
Heather and Tim Deckard
Carol Eleazer and John Kelley
Mary Pat and Joseph R. Gunderson
Eli Gus
Jude Hawkes and Charlie Pomeroy
Mark M. Howland
Susan McKee
Patrick J. McMahon II
Rebecca and Jonathan Neeley
Polly and John O'Meara
Beverley and Brent Robinson
Chapman Root
Roselyne Chroman Swig and Family
The Good Works Institute
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Page Turner Society
Robyn and Todd Achilles
Big Wood Landscape
Kathleen Diepenbrock and Kelley Weston
Claudia and John D. Gaeddert
Kyla Merwin
Elaine H. and Michael T. Phillips
Narda Pitkethly
Gay Weake
Anita Weissberg
Susan Woodruff
Tribute Gifts
Eleanor Jewett and Eric Rogers in honor of Kathleen Jewett
Beverley Robertson in memory of Florence Oberhofer
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Idaho Gives: Mark Your Calendar |
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The Community Library is participating in the Idaho Gives campaign, May 2-5.
This is an easy way to support our mission of bringing information, ideas, and individuals together to support the cultural life of the community. . .
. . .which is more vital than perhaps ever before, as books—and librarians—are under attack in
these tumultuous times.
(May 2-5 only)
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If you would like to consider a legacy gift to the Library,
Director of Philanthropy, is here to assist you.
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