Poetry Day

Poetry is not a popular reading choice, but good poetry sometimes can express in just a few words the most complicated issues. For instance, what responsibility does the U.S. have regarding the war in Syria? Many of us feel that we have had enough of war, but what about the people in Syria who are being killed by their own government? What about other nations’ responsibilities? Why does intervention fall on our shoulders? Calvin Trillin wrote a terse verse on this subject:

Thoughts on Geopolitics

It seemed like such a good idea.

Oh, when did it begin to sour

And start to be no fun to be

The last remaining superpower?

Closer to home is the subject of seed planting as treated by everyone’s favorite poet, Robert Frost.

Putting in The Seed

You come to fetch me from my work tonight

When supper’s on the table, and we’ll see

If I can leave off burying the white

Soft petals fallen from the apple tree

(Soft petals, yes, but not so barren quite,

Mingled with these, smooth bean and wrinkled pea),

And go along with you ere you lose sight

Of what you came for and become like me,

Slave to a springtime passion for the earth.

How Love burns through the Putting in the Seed

On through the watching for that early birth

When, just as the soil tarnishes with weed,

The sturdy seedling with arched body comes

Shouldering its way and shedding the earth crumbs.

As for myself, I'd rather take Voltaire's advice and tend my garden than try to solve geopolitical problems.

Copyright 2013 by Shirley Domer