A Poem: Joanna Goddard Fall Challenge

Joanna Goddard recently started a series of Fall Challenges, during which she and her readers will do things like read more, watch tv less, and write actual letters.

This week, she suggests that we memorize a favorite poem. What a lovely idea. There was something therapeutic about reciting "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" day after day in elementary school, and maybe, as a grown up, it would be just as nice. I would welcome having something beautiful in my head to combat daily to-do lists, running on repeat.

Here's mine:

Moon

Open the book of evening to the page

where the moon, always the moon, appears

between two clouds, moving so slowly that hours

will seem to have passed before you reach the next page

where the moon, now brighter, lowers a path

to lead you away from what you have known

into those places where what you had wished for happens,

its lone syllable like a sentence poised

at the edge of sense, waiting for you to say its name

once more as you lift your eyes from the page

and close the book, still feeling what it was like

to dwell in that light, that sudden paradise of sound.

--Mark Strand 

 What about you, what poem would you choose?

Thanks, Joanna, for reminding us to slow down a little bit and remember what's beautiful.

Image is "Sconset Beach" by David Armstrong, available at 20x200.com.