Observations from a Woodstock poetry geek speak volumes

April, National Poetry Month, is here again, a time to celebrate verse and its importance in our culture. It was introduced in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets to highlight the month each year, and poets celebrate with workshops or poetry readings or slams. Retailers, too, see an uptick in poetry book sales, according to Arlene Lynes, owner of Read Between The Lynes in Woodstock.

I am a bona fide poetry geek; I admit it. And when you’re a poetry geek, rhyme catches your eye all the time. Let me give you an example. In the Dec. 22, 2024 comic strip, “For Better or For Worse,” Michael pulled up a poem on his computer screen after his girlfriend Rheta broke up with him. He read:

“That so few words could cut so deeply,

that words alone could so offend,

cast not aside my love so cheaply,

for wounds of passion seldom mend.“*

Michael’s mother watched him read and asked, “Poetry?” Michael answered, “Therapy.” Maybe I am the only reader who noticed that Michael turned to poetry for solace; but researchers say reading, writing or listening to poetry is a common way to deal with grief. That is why poems often appear on sympathy cards.

From another angle, being a geek can influence other people. In April 2023, I spoke about poetry before the Second Thursday Book Club at the Crystal Lake Country Club. I began my remarks by asking who liked poetry. Some hands went up, but one attendee, Liz Tinker of Crystal Lake, admitted that she was not a poetry fan. I acknowledged that people have different tastes. Following my 30-minute talk, we went our separate ways; but in 2024, Liz tapped me on the shoulder at a gathering and bragged that she had purchased a poetry book. We both kind of chuckled.

After first seeing it at the Crystal Lake Public Library, she bought herself a copy of “Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World” by Pádraig Ó Tuama, an Irish poet, theologian and conflict mediator. In the book, poems are presented, then explained; so Liz says she can read the poem, read the explanation and then read the poem again. That helps her understand the work. She chose to learn more about poetry, and Pádraig’s accessible and inviting volume has been the perfect book for her. Maybe it could be for you as well.

And if you have a spare moment, find Pádraig on YouTube. Specifically, watch or hear him read his beautiful, thoughtful poem “The Facts of Life.” His voice alone may help you find moments of peace. As a poet, he believes one might have to do away with flowery abstraction and accept the nitty-gritty of real life to make work more accessible to readers. On one of his podcasts, he tells the interviewer that in Ireland, students are asked to memorize several poems per month. Poetry is part of the culture.

Before I end this column, I invite you to consider a couple of poems I was introduced to this year. Colleagues sent them to me. Sharing is a benefit of being a geek.

The first is by Mary Oliver. You know her as the nature writer who loved to walk her dogs on the beach and lecture us on not wasting our “one wild and precious life.” I, and 100 other interested poets, took an online course sponsored by the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets titled “Mary Oliver and the Art of Observation in Nature.” Most of the work like “Sunflowers” or “Wild Geese” followed the nature theme. However, Oliver had a different message in a 2008 poem titled “Of the Empire.” She ends that poem like this:

“And they will say

that our politics was no more than

an apparatus to accommodate

the feelings of the heart,

and that the heart, in those days,

was small, and hard,

and full of meanness."

If you and I could lunch with Mary (the Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry died in 2019 of lung cancer), I would ask her two questions: How were you able to make a living from your poetry while so few have, and who are the “they” in your “Empire” poem?

A second, more hopeful poem, “Consolation,” written by Wislawa Szymborska, was texted to me by Woodstock Atrocious Poet Jessica Campbell. I will just give you a couple of lines and encourage you to read the whole thing in your spare time. It’s not long. I seem to be into shorter poems these days and a bit ago was feeling guilty about that. I was encouraged when an instructor told me that no one turns the page because a poem is too short, but many have skipped a poem that is too long.

“Darwin.

They say he read novels to relax,

But only certain kinds:

nothing that ended unhappily.

If anything like that turned up,

enraged, he flung the book into the fire.

True or not,

I’m ready to believe it."

I could go on and on about poetry; I told you I’m a geek, but I’ll gift you with this final excerpt from the prose poem “Desiderata,” written in 1927 by Max Ehrmann. I hope it encourages you as much as it does me.

“And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.”

*“For Better or For Worse” verses written by Harry J. Couchon Jr., a love poem writer who says, “I admit it; love poems are what I write. And if you don’t like them, that’s too bad.”

• Jan Bosman of Woodstock taught English and business for 32 years, the last 22 at Johnsburg High School. She also is a published essayist and poet and a member of the Atrocious Poets of McHenry County and the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets.