Masland Library Blog

Join us this year for our 3rd Annual Art Competition!  We have loved seeing the entries and look forward to seeing PBU's creative side this next year.

As some of you may know, April was National Poetry Month. As I was searching for an interesting poem to write about, I happened to stumble upon one that was written in honor of...You guessed it! A library. What could be more fitting for the Masland Library Blog?! The longer I've been at PBU, the more I have come to appreciate the library. Not only is it one of the only quiet places around campus where I can get work done, but it has the resources I need to conquer all of my research papers that I so enjoy writing. I also find the library workers to be extremely charming and helpful, brightening my dreary load of homework with their cheerful smiles and eagerness to share databases, call numbers, and other delightful tidbits of library information. So without further ado, I present this poem in honor of National Poetry Month and libraries everywhere. Enjoy : )

My Library

by Varda One

It's only a room with shelves and books,
but it's far more magical than it looks

It's a jet on which I soar
to lands that exist no more.

Or a key with which I find
answers to questions crowding my mind.

Building my habit of learning and growing,
asking and researching till I reach knowing.

Here, I've been a mermaid and an elf
I've even learned to be more myself.

I think that I shall never see
a place that's been more useful to me.

With encouraging kind friends with wit
Who tell me to dream big and never quit.

It's only a room with shelves and books,
but it's far more magical than it looks.

VW

Last Thursday, I heard the poet Billy Collins speak at the Free Library of Philadelphia. I would like to say that it was in honor of National Poetry Month, but it wasn’t—I just love Billy Collins. He’s ancient now—his glasses are old enough to be called spectacles, if that gives you any idea. But he wasn’t slow. I thought perhaps he would be boring—excellent writing does not guarantee good public speaking—or, worse, too academic, but happily I was mistaken. Billy Collins was witty, thoughtful, and unpretentious. Sometimes he was all three at once. I suppose I should have known he would be wonderful after having read his poetry. If you haven’t heard of Billy Collins, he writes what I like to call “everyday poetry”—poetry written so that you can understand it; Billy Collins writes about normal things using normal words. I love it. I have never read a Billy Collins poem and, when I’ve finished it, looked up and asked, “What the heck did that even mean?” He writes about regular things we notice every day and makes them unexpected and amusing, like in this poem entitled “Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House”:

In honor of April being National Poetry Month I thought I would take a few moments to reflect on some of the great poets and their works. I could admire the great Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, or even Edgar Allan Poe, for they all have such unique styles and wonderful pieces of literature. Although they are all certainly great in their own way, there is little poetry that is closer to my heart than that of which I read in my younger years. Certainly Shel Silverstein who wrote Where The Sidewalk Ends and The Giving Tree are children’s poetry books that all of us should have read when we were younger. Although these two are great classics and even aimed at children, my personal favorite is not as well known as the works of the great Silverstein, but is written by Carol Diggory Shields. The book is titled Lunch Money and Other Poems About School. I remember reading this book as a child, but forgetting about it until later in a middle school English class when I rediscovered it when analyzing children’s literature (and sure was I glad to find it and reminisce a little bit!) The poems in this book are pretty straight forward with no hidden meanings or themes, but they sure are cute and have some light-hearted humor. If you are an elementary education major you also may get a kick out of some of the poems since they are rather realistic when it comes to the behavior of young children.

Below is an example of one of the poems in the book. The poem is written in cold language (meaning a child with a cold/ is sick) and I think although it is a silly poem, it is certainly a feeling we can all relate to at one time or another.

Code
I dibbin go to school today,
Bom looked at be and said, “No way.”
Wend back to bed and here I’ll stay,
‘Cause I hab a terrible code.

By throad is sore, by eyes are bink,
By node dribs like a leaky sink,
By head’s so stuffed it hurds to think.
I hab a terrible code.

I challenge you in honor of National Poetry Month to take advantage of the library’s collection of poetry. Peruse through the PN, PR, and PS sections of the library when you have a few free moments. Maybe even head over the children’s section and find some children’s poetry, so that you too can reminisce a little.

CJC

Shields, Carol Diggory. Lunch Money and Other Poems About School. New York: Puffin Books, 1995. Print.

April is National Poetry Month. For some, this brings a happy reminder to quiet nights spent curled up in a corner with a slim, old-smelling book. For others, it brings the feeling of immediate incarceration within a bare, near-windowless classroom with badly-photocopied sheets being passed along the desks. But, in general, poetry is not approached with ambivalence.

Almost anyone who had to take any sort of English class knows the challenge (or tedium, depending on the perspective) of taking in a poem. I remember being told to explicate a poem that was written by a man in an insane asylum about how wonderful and angelic his cat was. My teacher did not appreciate my conclusion that the poem meant that the man was exactly where he needed to be. But, at the same time, though rather disgusted with that particular example, I still found myself stealing off with the poetry anthology, wanting to absorb more of the curious words.

One of the poets who I discovered during high school was Billy Collins. I like to think that he understands the inherent frustration in tackling poetry, but I could be wrong. At the very least, here’s his Introduction to Poetry.

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

I doubt that the Academy of American Poets will make anyone magically begin to like poetry by instituting this monthlong celebration. But for anyone who is loves poetry already or who maybe is interested in learning more about how poetry works, the library has a display that contains guides to poetry and a sampling of works from a variety of poets. Read with joy.

abbie.


Collins, Billy. The Apple That Astonished Paris: Poems. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas, 1996. Print.