{"id":3520,"date":"2019-03-21T11:22:54","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T19:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/?p=3520"},"modified":"2019-03-21T11:27:13","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T19:27:13","slug":"happy-world-poetry-day-from-the-tavistock-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/?p=3520","title":{"rendered":"Happy World Poetry Day from the Tavistock Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy World Poetry Day!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though Tavistock Books is not known for our poetry books, we do have a selection for you on this most auspicious of days. See our list by Samm here<\/a>! In the meantime, we thought we would share some our<\/em><\/strong> favorite poems with you… one poem from each of the Tavistock team members. Enjoy our favorite reflective verses as much as we do, and don’t forget to silently (or loudly) thank your favorite poets on a day like today!<\/p>\n

Perhaps its even time for you to jot a few of yours down…<\/p>\n

\"poetry\"<\/p>\n

From Vic Zoschak: The Road Not Taken<\/em>\u00a0by Robert Frost<\/strong><\/p>\n

An oldie and a goodie! The Road\u00a0Not Taken<\/em> is\u00a0commonly acknowledged as one of the most well-known and popular poems ever written… and for good reason! It was published as the first poem in Frost’s collection Mountain Interval, in 1916. At the time it was considered extremely poignant, as the onset of WWI meant that plenty of soldiers held this poem dear as they enlisted and went to war.\u00a0Others claim\u00a0that it is one of his most\u00a0misinterpreted poems,\u00a0stating that it\u00a0does not simply “champion the idea of following your own path” but that it also\u00a0hints with\u00a0irony\u00a0at that idea or possibility. Here it is…<\/span><\/p>\n

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
And sorry I could not travel both<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
And be one traveler, long I stood<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
And looked down one as far as I could<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
To where it bent in the undergrowth;<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
*<\/span><\/div>\n
Then took the other, as just as fair,<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
And having perhaps the better claim,<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
Though as for that the passing there<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
Had worn them really about the same,<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
*<\/span><\/div>\n
And both that morning equally lay<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
In leaves no step had trodden black.<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
Oh, I kept the first for another day!<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
I doubted if I should ever come back.<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
*<\/span><\/div>\n
I shall be telling this with a sigh<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
Somewhere ages and ages hence:<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I\u2014<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
I took the one less traveled by,<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
And that has made all the difference.<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
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*****<\/div>\n
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From Samm Fricke:\u00a0LOVE: Is a Human Condition<\/em>\u00a0by Nikki Giovanni<\/strong><\/p>\n

Samm has gifted us with the knowledge of\u00a0\u00a0writer, activist, educator, and queer icon\u00a0<\/span>Nikki Giovanni<\/span>\u00a0(born\u00a0in 1943). “From her altogether magnificent 1975 collection\u00a0<\/span>The Women and the Men<\/em><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>comes a beautiful and unusual prose poem about the dualities with which we must live and the human conceits which we must relinquish in order to truly know love.” And we must agree with online writer Maria Popova’s description of this free prose poem. Love: Is a Human Condition is a work of art, by one of America’s foremost contemporary poets, a force of nature still publishing poems today. See for yourself…<\/span><\/p>\n

An amoeba is lucky it\u2019s so small \u2026 else its narcissism would lead to war \u2026 since self-love seems so frequently to lead to self-righteousness \u2026<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I suppose a case could be made \u2026 that there are more amoebas than people \u2026 that they comprise the physical majority \u2026 and therefore the moral right \u2026 But luckily amoebas rarely make television appeals to higher Gods \u2026 and baser instincts \u2026 so one must ask if the ability to reproduce oneself efficiently has anything to do with love \u2026<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The night loves the stars as they play about the Darkness \u2026 the day loves the light caressing the sun \u2026 We love \u2026 those who do \u2026 because we live in a world requiring light and Darkness \u2026 partnership and solitude \u2026 sameness and difference \u2026 the familiar and the unknown \u2026 We love because it\u2019s the only true adventure \u2026<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad I\u2019m not an amoeba \u2026 there must be more to all our lives than ourselves \u2026 and our ability to do more of the same \u2026<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

******<\/p>\n

From Margueritte Peterson: If<\/em> by Rudyard Kipling<\/strong><\/p>\n

If\u00a0<\/em>has been\u00a0a personal favorite of mine since I was quite a young girl – my family being fans of Kipling for many reasons (not, though, for his cultural views). I recited this poem in middle school and to this day still have it memorized. It was written in 1895, as an “evocation of Victorian-era stoicism\u2014championing<\/span>\u00a0self-discipline, which popular culture rendered into a British national\u00a0<\/span>virtue\u00a0and character trait.” (Wayback Machine). For me, though? It gives me courage. And in all honesty… I can’t help but share this reading<\/a> of\u00a0my favorite poem by Michael Caine.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can keep your head when all about you\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But make allowance for their doubting too;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Or being lied about, don\u2019t deal in lies,<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
Or being hated, don\u2019t give way to hating,<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And yet don\u2019t look too good, nor talk too wise:<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
*<\/span><\/div>\n
If you can dream\u2014and not make dreams your master;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you can think\u2014and not make thoughts your aim;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And treat those two impostors just the same;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
If you can bear to hear the truth you\u2019ve spoken<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And stoop and build \u2019em up with worn-out tools:<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
*<\/span><\/div>\n
If you can make one heap of all your winnings<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
And lose, and start again at your beginnings<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And never breathe a word about your loss;<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To serve your turn long after they are gone,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
And so hold on when there is nothing in you<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Except the Will which says to them: \u2018Hold on!\u2019<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
*<\/span><\/div>\n
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Or walk with Kings\u2014nor lose the common touch,<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If all men count with you, but none too much;<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
If you can fill the unforgiving minute<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 With sixty seconds\u2019 worth of distance run,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
Yours is the Earth and everything that\u2019s in it,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And\u2014which is more\u2014you\u2019ll be a Man, my son!<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
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Happy World Poetry Day, all!\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\"Share\"\/<\/a>