Poem in your Pocket Day

In celebration of National Poetry Month, we were encouraged to carry a poem in our pockets to share with friends and co-workers.  Thursday morning, April 26, I thumbed through poetry books looking for a poem with my name on it.  As I checked out Billy Collins poems, I looked in particular for The Lanyard.  This poem delights me and I am putting it in my "online pocket" to share with you. Alas, I didn't have enough time to find it and settled on two other poems instead; one for each pocket.  If I didn't get to share my poems with you on Thursday, I will take this brief opportunity to share with you on the blog.

Left pocket poem

Today

                        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. 

 Billy Collins

Right pocket poem

A. B. SEMIC

Death and Me

Death and me.

Death is not withour me.  She is within

from the very beginning:  she grows with me

every moment

                    One day

I stop

                    and she grows on with me

Until she completely outgrows me

reaching my borders.  My ending is

her real beginning:

                    Thenceforth she reigns alone.

Only a few more days to celebrate the poems and poets in our lives.  What is your favorite poem to share?