Poetry – Take Me Away! How Poetry Can Refresh Your Perspective and Bring Relief

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The riveting performance of Amanda Gorman at the Presidential Inauguration somehow breathed new life into a literary form that is oftentimes overshadowed by fiction, history, mysteries, and memoirs.

I love words that move me, I love words that paint a picture in my mind, simply, I love poetry.

Last fall, I shared a Robert Frost poem, Gathering Leaves on my Front Porch Forum. In all the time I’ve been on FPF, no one has responded with appreciation like they did when I posted that poem. I heard from three people! Three people decided to take a moment of their day to read the beloved poet and then took time to email me to thank me for posting it!

Sometimes, a little poetry is all we need to refresh our spirits and recharge our battery.

In the spring, I substituted for a school librarian. Her lesson plan involved teaching poetry to elementary students. When I asked them about spring – what new things the students would see, hear, feel, and touch in spring, I was blown away by the beauty and the seriousness of their responses. Poetry to me is a bit of an ethereal art form that is difficult to explain, but these kids got it!

We learned that poetry describes something, it paints a picture in one’s mind and it evokes feelings as you read the words that sometimes rhyme and sometimes do not. 

Poetry tells a story, it evokes emotion, and sometimes, if the poem greets you at the right moment, poetry can transport you away and forget about the stresses and worries that have been compounded over the last fifteen months. According to Edgar Allan Poe,

Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.

I write about mother loss and I look for poems about mothers to capture the feelings and emotions that I try to convey in my writing. There are some great poetry sites out there that promote contemporary, budding poets, including Rattle, Vermont’s very own Mud Season Review, Thrush Poetry Journal, 3Elements Literary Review, and lots, lots more.

So, let’s take a moment, breathe, and read a poem or two. I dedicate these to the mothers who have sustained the last 17 months of COVID and who are now managing a summer with kids! Let’s all BREATHE and READ… maybe, just maybe, reading these poems will inspire you to write a poem of your own.

woman dancing

I ONLY DANCE FOR MY MOTHER

Mathias Neilson

She gives me the wine

and I take the wine.

 

I mop her floors

and she walks on them… (*to read more, please continue at Rattle.com.) 

TO THE FRUSTRATED MOTHER IN STARBUCKS WITH HER THREE-YEAR-OLD SON

Chanel Brenner

Don’t worry, this will end.

One day, he will stop hitting you

when he’s mad, his hands swatting

at your face like a short-circuited robot… (*to read more, please continue at Rattle.com.) 

MY MOTHER

Giovanna Capone

You were always the loud, strong-willed one

ruling us like a high-strung captain

our ship flung

headlong through a tempest… (*to read more, please continue at Rattle.com.) 

Mother’s Day at Doña Rodríguez

Sandra Maria Esteves for Aya

We never met, but I knew her.

By that ray of life that passed into her son,

brilliant as sky through cane fields,

casting pastel shadows on a jíbaro’s balcón… (* To read more, please continue at the Poetry Foundation.)

woman dancing

LETTER TO MY MOTHER, ONE YEAR AFTER HER DEATH

Megan Merchant

You should know that the circus is holographic now—

whips are muted beams of light, the elephants,

like holy ghosts, no longer leave giant shits or hoofprints… (*To read more, please continue at Rattle.com.) 

mother and daughter baking

THE MOTHERS

Sharanya Manivannan

A mother wearing glass beads looking for

another handkerchief, the melted candy

in the one she is carrying as sticky as

the nose being wiped on her arm… (*To read more, please continue at Rattle.com.)

woman posed on the beach with a fan

MY MOTHER WAS A DANCER AND SHE NEVER LOOKED BACK

Luigi Coppola

and why would you when up ahead is vermilion,

gold, when the dress you wear is billowed

by poise, hemmed with every minute… (To read more, please continue at Rattle.com.) 

Young girl massages older woman

MY MOTHER MAKES A RELIGION

Leila Chatti

to replace the old gods. Scripture

gleaned from the backs

of magazines, stars—she follows

horoscopes like commandments… (To read more, please continue at Rattle.com.)

father snuggles infant

UNSIGNED MOTHER’S DAY CARD

Bayleigh Fraser

My mother broke the silence first

as my son slid into a pair of tense gloves,

bright beneath the cold light

of the delivery room… (To read more, please continue at Rattle.com.)

mother with 3 children

SHE WAS BEAUTY

Karen Stewart

She was beauty with a lively, vibrant smile that welcomed a “how do you do?” and a good chat.

She was farmer with hands that milked and cooked and sowed and loved, all in a days work

She was mother, who loved deeply and commanded respect that never faltered

She was mother

She was beauty

She was love.

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I hope these poems have inspired you to write one of your own. If not, I hope that reading some poetry has refreshed your soul and allowed you, for a moment, to pat yourself on the back and appreciate all you do as a mother.

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