I'm a poet and I didn't even know! Share your poems for National Poetry Day

Chloe_Scope

Today, 3rd October, is National Poetry Day.

Dave Steel, who goes by the name of The Blind Poet, has shared a short piece to mark the day:

Let the poetry inside your heart spill upon this empty page Releasing anxious feelings like a bird from once locked cage For all those isolated by the blindness in our eyes these rhyming explanations stir a strength that’s bound to rise. #NationalPoetryDay #BlindPoet

Do you have a poem to share with us? What is your favourite poem? Let us know in the comments below!

April2018mom

Oh so that is why I have been seeing poems! I don't have a favorite poem. 

chiarieds

If I absolutely had to choose, it would be P.B.Shelley's Ozymandius. This because one of my primary school teachers obviously loved poetry....his reading of this poem awoke my love of it too. Then there's Coleridge's, 'Kubla Khan,'  the poetry of Leonard Cohen & Roger McGough & e e cumming's rather naughty ones.

I used to write a lot of poetry, but never was very good when it had to rhyme, which is still the case...... written today thinking about this community.....

Poetry can free you; just let your mind soar

Dispelling fears and worries, dis-ease and more.

Keep it for yourself, but you could also share

Nebulous infant words as they arise in the air.

Write so very clearly, or use some metaphor;

If shared, remember, that’s what words are for.

Chloe_Scope

Thank you for sharing @chiarieds, I love this!

Deb_Alumni

Poems and words of kindness, love, support and inspiration... a poem can mean so many different things to so many different people and situations.  I don't have an overall favourite as I enjoy reading poems and words about many different aspects of life. 

Today I love the sentiment in this poem, and thought I would share it with you all.  I recently lost a close friend and I know that she called me a friend so right now this poem feels comforting

Success Poet: Edgar A. Guest I hold no dream of fortune vast, Nor seek undying fame. I do not ask when life is past That many know my name. I may not own the skill to rise To glory's topmost height, Nor win a place among the wise, But I can keep the right. And I can live my life on earth Contented to the end, If but a few shall know my worth And proudly call me friend.

Chloe_Scope

This poem is called 'Welcome to Holland' and is written by Emily Perl Kingsley. It is about when you receive a diagnosis for your child. What are your thoughts?

"Welcome to Holland"

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss. But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.