Poems for National Poetry Month

Although I love (some) poetry, I don’t read it very often. However, since April is National Poetry Month (which in Canada is sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets), I thought I would share one of my favourite poems with you, as well as mention a few other poems I’ve been introduced to by other bloggers this month. I was first introduced to Glen Sorestad’s poem “We Need These Silences” by a friend who is now also a blogger (Gigi at Solitary Spinster). Coincidentally, she sent me this poem on a “poem card” (a postcard with the poem printed on the front), which had been printed by the League of Canadian Poets to celebrate National Poetry Month in 2001.

Here is the poem:

We Need These Silences

the spaces that lie
between moments of sharing,
those times when it is
enough to feel the presence
of the other, the knowing
that this silence, too,
is a gift;

the silence of the mountains
or the dark forest,
or the plains at night,
reaching out to touch
some part of us
that craves time alone;

the moments before sleep,
or after waking, when the world
rises or falls into order,
finds shape and meaning
of its own.

We need these silences
as we need the words
we must first learn to say
and then forget
as we come to know
silence.

© Glen Sorestad. Reprinted with permission of the author.
From Leaving Holds Me Here: Selected Poems. Saskatoon: Thistledown Press, 2001.

Several other bloggers have reprinted poems on their blogs this month, introducing (or reintroducing) me to some great poems. Here are a few of my favourites (click on the poem title to read the poem):

• “Waiting for My Life” from Carnival Evening by Linda Pastan (at bookgirl’s nightstand)
• “When I Am Among the Trees” from Thirst by Mary Oliver (at Bookstack)
• “Uh” from Killarnoe by Sonnet L’Abbé (at The Indextrious Reader)
• “Numbers” by Mary Cornish, which appeared in Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry (at Ticket to Anywhere)
• “One Art” from The Complete Poems: 1927 to 1979 by Elizabeth Bishop (at Tea Leaves)

Do you read poetry? What are some of your favourite poems?