Writing my way through the A-to-Z blogging challenge, I’m sharing my thoughts and reflections on a lexicon (vocabulary specific to a certain subject) of unusual, obscure, or simply charming-to-me words. Ludic is defined as “playful, in an aimless way” and that’s my plan for approaching this challenge – keeping my feet on the joy trail and meandering wherever the daily word takes me.
Y is for…
yed – (noun) a song, a poem, a speech, a tale, a riddle. Circa 1200s.
I’m leaning into the poem aspect of today’s word because it happens to be Poem in Your Pocket Day. It’s the annual celebration in the United States, first introduced in 2008 by the Academy of American Poets, in which people are encouraged to choose a poem, carry it around with them and share it with others. What a perfect way to actually participate in April’s National Poetry Month.
I’ve participated for many years, and if you know me at all, you know poetry is essential to my life. I read it daily, and I share my favorites widely with friends. I am on a mission to encourage people to open more fully to this art form, and to see the world through this lens. If I were in charge of things there would be no armies, only poetry academies and versification salons. And everyone would look forward to April’s thirty days of celebration.
While my dreams and imaginings may be bold and unlikely, what is true and doable is that I can in fact carry poems in my pocket to share. Being the paper lover I am and an origami aficionado, I’m always up for a bit of folding. Here’s a pocket I’ve made to hold my selection of poems.
If we saw each other in person, I’d invite you to choose one of the poems to read. But of course we won’t be seeing each other. Still I won’t let that deter me. I’m offering you an opportunity to check out the poems I’ll be carrying this year.
I try to be mindful when quoting poems here on my blog to use only short excerpts or only those that are in the public domain, so as to respect the rights of the poets. So I’m not going to post the poems here. But no worries – I am linking to them and really encourage you to take some time and check them out.
- Nothing Wants to Suffer by Danusha Lameris
- A Love Letter to Humanity by Samantha Reynolds
- Don’t Bother the Earth Spirit by Joy Harjo
- The Poem of Your Life by Joyce Sutphen
I understand of course that you might have decided you don’t actually like poetry, and/or that this post is already too long and you don’t have time. I get it. But I’ll offer once again my opinion that poems open portals into seeing and understanding that circumvent our ordinary habitual brain ruts. And it is a gift to sometimes take the journeys that bring us to new edges. I totally concur with poet Carol Anne Duffy’s observation: “Poetry is the music of being human.”
So what do you think? Are you a poetry lover? Ever celebrated Poem in Your Pocket Day? Would you have chosen a different definition from the ones associated with yed for your musings? Do tell – you know I love to hear.
Hari OM
Oh, you know I am – and I enjoyed all your offerings today – but most of all the second one.
As one who aspires to poetic writings, I have come to the conclusion that there is in them (both the writing and the reading) a sense of the sacred – even when they are being arrogantly secular… YAM xx
I totally agree with you, Yamini.
I am a poetry lover because it’s dense and every word counts and is powerful. I’ve never celebrated the holiday nor did I even know about it.
You can be prepared next year with a poem in your pocket. 🙂
I subscribed to the Poem A Day list last year and have found it really valuable – so many voices I’d never have heard (or heard of!) otherwise. This year I’ve made it a practice to read a poem from one of the books on my shelf every day. Some have been familiar; others, not at all.
What a perfect poetry practice Kathleen. I especially like the Poem A Day list as they have a mission to introduce the work of so many diverse new poets.
Yed is a perfect Y word, and great definition too! Thanks for sharing these poems.
It’s always my delight to share poems. 🙂
Although I’ve never heard of Poem in Your Pocket Day, it sounds like a great idea to me, as do some of your other ideas listed above. I enjoy learning new forms of poetry and have written a small book of renshi-style poetry which I gave to family and friends for a milestone birthday. Haiku is one of my favorite forms of poetry and more recently, I’ve taken to writing haiku poems inspired by colorful pictures I come across on Twitter then retweet the photo with the poem to that person. Guess that would be Poem in a Tweet.
https://gail-baugniet.blogspot.com
Oh, Gail, I love the idea of a book of poetry for a milestone birthday – that’s fabulous, and I’m sure everyone loved it. I participated with a group writing renshi several years ago, and it was great fun.
Your haiku practice sounds wonderful as well. Poem in a Tweet indeed!
Loved the poems and loved the concept of carrying a poem in your pocket… I didn’t know of the tradition
It really is a lovely, fun tradition, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be great if everyone did it every day, and we could hand out poems every time we met someone? It makes me smile thinking about it.
While I haven’t read as much poetry recently, I remember in High School for my year end project turning in a book of personal poetry that I had written. I still remember how one line said something to the effect that I wish I wasn’t so emotional and when I got the project back my teacher had written in the margins how emotion was a good thing. It showed passion. I never forgot that line of encouragement.
How wonderful Karen – both the project and the comment. I’m glad you took the encouragement to heart!
You had me at Yed– a poem.
Will come back after tasting all the lovely offerings here.
The idea of carrying a poem in ones pocket (literally) is perfect –why only a day? why not everyday? Let me think about developing a new habit:)
Sharing a very old post with you. I have a feeling the poetry lover in you will like it:) https://artismoments.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-wise-goat-and-poetry-box-on-coastal.html
What a perfect post to share Arti – thank you! You were right of course. I’m swooning over the idea of poetry boxes and all their magic. You have my mind popping with ideas! Such wonderful adventures you have – and documented with such glorious photos. I love being a traveler in the future looking at your past. 🙂 And that goat! Maybe he was grumpy, but I love him anyway.
I sometimes do poetry also on my blog .. there are some lines I still remember from the poems I learnt at school … my children love origami too especially making animals with paper
https://pagesfromjayashree.blogspot.com/2021/04/z-for-zoo.html?m=1
Link to one of my poems
http://pagesfromjayashree.blogspot.com/2016/11/song-of-rain.html
“When one cloud kisses another. . . The heavens take pictures.” What fabulous imagery! I will never be in a rainstorm again and not think of your words, and I’ll be listening ever more closely to the rain’s song. Thanks so much for sharing your poem Jayashree.
I love that quote: “poetry is the music of being human.”
I’ve been writing poetry since I retired 3 years ago and have found it’s also a medicine to write and to read.
http://tao-talk.com/2021/04/29/a2z-2021-jethro-tull-songs-day-25-year-one-skating-away-on-the-ice-of-a-new-day-from-war-child-1974/
I love that. There IS medicine in the writing and the reading.
I love the idea of carrying a poem in your pocket to share. Miy favourite poems tend towards the absurd: I never grew out of the Owl and the Pussycat, and Jabberwocky.
But there’s nothing wrong with that!
Yed is great word. I must try and use it sometime 🙂
I love absurd, too. The Owl and the Pussycat is a favorite of mine as well.
Oooh, I especially love the first one. Thanks for sharing.
My children observed Poetry in your Pocket Day when they were in elementary school, which was really nice. I’m sorry they don’t do it in college!
Black and White: Y for Yuwara Ul Sahd
How fun they did it in grade school, but you’re right, I’d love to see it observed in colle
I didn’t know about Poetry in your Pocket. What a fun idea! Other countries should take it up too 🙂
The Multicolored Diary
Wouldn’t that be great? I love imagining it would start a beautiful new trend – upon saying hello, everyone across the world could whip out their poems and exchange them.
yed it is .
I belong to a poetry group and we are in the process of publishing an anthology of some of our work.
I very much like pocket poetry idea.
I have my own campaign of poems where I write them on cards or bookmarks and slip them into those little street book libraries .
presently I am reading Rumi but I like Mary Oliver beside my bed
How wonderful about the analogy, Sandra – that’s really exciting. And yay for poetry groups!
Your poem campaign is brilliant, and I’m absolutely stealing the idea. Those little street libraries are fabulous in themselves, but adding a poem tucked into a book raises the game to an entirely new level. You know I adore secret messages. 🙂
Rumi and Oliver are never far from me either. Oliver had so much to teach us about seeing the world outside ourselves, and Rumi so much about experiencing the inner. I think they make fine companions.