Search This Blog

6.01.2011

Poetry and Purpose

From Garrison Keillor's magnificent collection of poems, Good Poems for Hard Times:

"Poetry is a necessity as simple as the need to be touched and similarly a need that is hard to enunciate. The intense vision and high spirits and moral grandeur are simply needed lest we drift through our days consumed by clothing options and hair styling and whether to have the soup or the salad.  The meaning of poetry is to give courage..."


"Forget everything you ever read about poetry...poetry is the last preserve of honest speech and the outspoken heart."



Many years ago Di introduced me to A Prairie Home Companion on public radio and instantly I was hooked by the eloquence of the prose and the stories that were catapulted from those radio transmissions.  The most memorable memory I have of listening to a Saturday evening radio program was one of the times that Di and Jerome and the kids all invited me to go to De Soto Bend with them....it was an early adventure of learning, laughs and bit of uneasiness on my part partly because it was the first time in quite some time that I had traveled with children and really felt part of a family.  We wandered the grounds of the park and nature preserve, the kids oogled at the wildlife, I touched the many trees, took photos and lived in the hands of a good family with good love.  As we drove back to their house we listened to the antics of A Prairie Home Companion, the kids sung along to the quirky songs and in between the words and the prose there was laughter and delight and chatter from Di explaining to me what this strange radio program was all about during the commercials and that memory is still  fresh in my soul.   I will never forget it.  "It" is a part of me still today, just like it was that autumn day many years ago when Di introduced me or as she liked to say "educated" me....

Perfect prose...Perfect words...Perfect Timing...Perfect Friend...



Take a few minutes to listen to some quick podcasts here if you don't have an IPhone or the App:


Good times...
Good memories...
Bring both smiles and tears...
Cath

No comments:

Post a Comment



The people we meet form the foundation of our lives that when built upon allow us to bloom and blossom in ways that we never would have anticipated.