- Marilyn Yaquinto, PhD
- 5 days ago
- 8 min read
As we close out April, the National Calendar earmarks several "special" reasons throughout the year to celebrate everything from pizza to gerbils. The 23rd was Talk Like Shakespeare Day and the 29th was Poem in Your Pocket day. Those days also included commemorating cherry cheesecake, shrimp scampi, and the peace rose -- a hybrid tea rose, whose namesake we could use a lot of right now. It comes into bloom in late spring, so those who own such a beautiful, fragrant rose have that to look forward to as we head into the month of May.
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet
The above line is from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and suggests that words alone cannot dictate the meaning of something or someone. Their essence is able to transcend words. On the other hand, Gertrude Stein in 1916 offered: "A rose is a rose is a rose," which might point out that sometimes things are just what they seem, no matter what labels or descriptors we use to inflate or abuse them. I'll leave parsing the deeper meanings of both phrases to others.
I'm more curious about that poem in a pocket thing. Who couldn't use somebody else's well-chosen words to lift our spirits or get us through the day, the month, even the year? I'm not a daily consumer of poetry, but when I find one that speaks truth, that aptly captures what it means to be human, wrapping words around feelings and anxieties with gentle force, I can't help but be moved.
According to the Academy of American Poets, the month of April is National Poetry Month, and aspiring poets and those simply inspired by poetry are encouraged to submit their favorites with the intent of sharing them with others. Pay it forward, pass it on, give the gift of words to those who need it most, which is probably most of us nowadays.
The Poem in Your Pocket Day was started in April of 2002 by the mayor of New York City until the academy took on the project and expanded it to all 50 states. In 2016, the League of Canadian poets joined in as well. Some cities, including Charlottesville, Virginia, spend a designated day in April to hand out roughly 7,000 scrolls of selected poems to delight recipients at local hospitals, libraries, senior centers, and businesses around town.
The goal is to find a poem that encourages reflection or that sparks joy (having survived a Marie Kondo purge of all other non-joyous belongings). And if we don't have a favorite poem stashed away, there are plenty of sites offering perennial favorites or featuring the musings of up-and-coming wordsmiths.
Does poetry have to rhyme?
That question was asked of me by many a student during my teaching career when the subject of poetry came up or a sample was included in a textbook. I knew they loved music, so I asked them to gather lyrics from their favorite songs, then try reading them out loud (with no musical accompaniment). Could they still hear the rhythm of the words, the flow of a good story, vivid pictures painted with lyrics alone? When that proved too hard to separate what they could still hear in their heads, I introduced them to a few "musical poets" who lived long before they were born. There was no melody in their heads anymore, hopefully just their open minds.
I started with Cole Porter, that titan of the Jazz Age, born in 1891 (died in 1964), and who authored more than 800 songs during his long career. In a site dedicated to poetry, Porter's lyrics are described as sophisticated and witty, exploring "themes of love, loss, and the complexities of human relationships, often with a touch of irony and satire."
A perfect example of Porter's intuitive lyrics matched with a singer renowned for his impeccable "phrasing" is Frank Sinatra's version of Porter's "I Get a Kick Out of You."
The 2023 book "Frank Sinatra's Artistry and the Question of Phrasing" delves into the singer's gift, defining phrasing as "a musician's way of lifting matter to meter." In this version of Porter's song, Sinatra becomes the "interpreter" and "master storyteller" of the song's conversational approach about a man besotted by the woman he loves. It reflects Sinatra's "innate grasp of his text and its presentation."
Poets of rock and roll and beyond
My students and I moved on to Chuck Berry.
"I saw her from the corner when she turned and doubled back / And started walkin' toward a coffee-colored Cadillac," notes Randy Lewis of the Los Angeles Times, reiterating a few lyrics from Berry's song, "Nadine." Lewis suggests that Berry is "crafting not only a compelling narrative of romantic attraction but also one that completed a rhyme with a brilliant example of alliteration."
Next, we explored Joni Mitchell, who published her self-titled book of The Complete Poems and Lyrics in 1997. She managed to write more than 270 songs and is still hard at work today at age 81. Her socially conscious song "Big Yellow Taxi" is described in a climate science course flyer at Smith College as an "environmental anthem that critiques environmental destruction and excessive urban development." Mitchell supposedly wrote the song on a trip to Hawai'i, where she noticed a new parking lot had been built that was detracting from the otherwise stunning vista around her.
Finally, we looked at the poetry of the late rap artist Tupac Shakur, who once said, "reality is wrong, dreams are for real." Shakur was known to revere poetry an an art form and later embedded its quiddities into his music. On a site called Mad Poets Society, Shakur's poetry is featured prominently and showcases one of the artist's more famous offerings: "The Rose that Grew from Concrete."
A father of a 7th grader in Texas learned that Shakur was included in his son's English class. Surprised at first, he told reporters in 2022 that he came to realize that Shakur's words moved his son, along with teaching him the meaning of metaphor. Shakur, who was shot and killed in 1996 at the age of 25, had studied poetry at the Baltimore School for the Arts, and was mentored by writer-poet Leila Steinberg. His poem, which he wrote at age 19, is often interpreted as being about hope and resilience despite growing up in challenging environments.
By the way, on the whole, my students did brilliantly with the above exercises. One even asked about Bob Dylan and was it true that he took his name from the Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas? True. And to this day, some of them send me lyrics and poems they find meaningful. Words fail to describe how rewarding that is as a teacher. If they were here with me now, they'd point out that words rarely fail me. I think what they're saying is that I talk too much.
Whose line (or stanza) is it anyway?
Grammarly, the AI-generated writing companion that many of us adopt to help us write coherent sentences (if we don't turn it off mid-sentence and scream: grammar be damned!), offers a step-by-step guide to writing poetry.
"Poetry is ... song lyrics without the music? Writing that rhymes? A bunch of comparisons and abstract imagery that feels like a code for the reader to decipher?" Grammarly asks before getting to its tips for writing poetry.
More to the point, its algorithmic amalgamation of multi-sourced information concluded that poetry is a "broad literary category that covers everything from bawdy limericks to unforgettable song lyrics to the sentimental couplets inside greeting cards."
Poetry remains as accessible as it is difficult. Its "lack of rules can make it feel hard to define," Grammarly adds to its explanation. I guess it's one of those concepts that we'll know it when we see it? Or it's in the eye of the beholder?
Yogi-isms: words of wit and wisdom
If Cole Porter and Chuck Berry can be considered poets, so can the late, great Yogi Berra, known as much for his playful aphorisms as he was for his stellar career as a baseball player and manager.
Many of his pithy sayings have become part of the American lexicon, including "it ain't over till it's over."
Many of his Yogi-isms capture the crux of a matter, and are an authentic attempt at shared meaning. That's despite his choice of words, which often defied logic and turned any common interpretation on its head.
Like stand-up comics who depend on rhythm and timing to deliver punchlines, Berra relied on his listeners' willingness to sift through his words and grasp his larger point. We came to expect and embrace his most outlandish oxymorons.
When you get to a fork in the road, take it.
The future ain't what it used to be.
Ninety percent of this game is half mental.
You can observe a lot just by watching.
It's like déjà vu all over again.
That last one is my favorite.
Berra isn't alone in twisting language, but he was earnest in trying to offer sage advice to anyone who'd listen. When he said, "half the lies they tell about me aren't true," we knew the larger point he was making was about false narratives that circulate and gain traction in media.
Others have invented phrases such as "plausible deniability" to prepare now to deny responsibility later (and be believed). They are not so innocent or well-intentioned. Another is a "near miss" to describe a close call between two airplanes that almost collide. These are calculated pieces of copywriting meant to describe something real, but to use less scary words that actually mean the opposite.
In the end, we understood what Berra was trying to say. And those who tried to rewrite him missed out on all the fun. He was a poet at heart, and another of poetry's enduring truth tellers.
"Words are the only things that last forever"
Those words were written by William Hazlitt, an English essayist and philosopher (1778-1830), who finished the above observations about words, noting they "are more durable than the eternal hills."
We may not be able to define poetry and its manipulation and celebration of words, but we know it remains relevant. And its sorely needed at a time when many of us struggle to make sense of the rancorous avalanche of words that threaten to bury us on a daily basis. From texts, ads, emails, billboards, and endless talking heads on media screens. So many words and so few of them really help us make sense of our world, our feelings, ourselves. The times cry out for poets who can offer us words of wisdom, whether they arrive in songs, clouds, fragments, lines, stanzas, couplets, quatrains, and quintains. (I just learned that those last few words describe sets of lines and stanzas in poems. As some of my students would say: whatever.)
In his review of the "functions of poetry" in Contemporary Poetry Review, Jan Schreiber described poetry's power to "entertain or amuse."
"It can offer an unexpected insight or a sharp observation. It can move. At moments of crisis or loss, or at times of rejoicing, it can offer consolation, comfort, or a decisive way of fixing the meaning and importance of the event," Schreiber added. "It can serve as a vehicle for meditation. With its power to stay in the mind, it can provide mental coordinates and emotional assurance over many years or decades."
Thomas Gray, one of the most important English poets of the 18th century, once described poetry as "thoughts that breathe."
Like Gray's, the words of Emily Dickinson ring true today. Even though she who died in 1886, she's able to speak to us and, in some instances, for us. They remain personal and universal. Simple but profound. She speaks truth, and we could use more of that today.
The poem that appears here was written by Dickinson more than 162 years ago. It's certainly a finalist for my pocket poem. I'll keep it handy beyond April's celebration of poetry. I know I'm going to need her wise words for some time to come.
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