Life in Cadence

It was Anne of Green Gables who began it. I was fifteen with the romantic drama of the world unfolding at my feet when I discovered the riches of poetry. I was reading Anne of the Island when I realized how often my heroine would quote the perfect bit of classic poetry to set the tone of an adventure. And then there was her recital of The Highwayman; a dramatic feat of memorization and romance that I simply couldn't resist. If Anne could memorize it, why not me?
Ah, the thrill of walking barefoot over the hills of Colorado while whispering;
The wind was a torrent of darkness,
Among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon
Tossed upon cloudy seas...

From there I progressed to Stevenson, Shakespeare and Yeats. I discovered Wordsworth and Coleridge, Burns and Browning. And this year, thanks to the help of a book friend, Auden and Whitman. My new ally in the exploration of poetry is John Hollander's lovely book: Committed to Memory. It is a collection of what he considers the hundred best poems to memorize. They are companionable poems, fit to aid every season of life. I've memorized three in the past month. I find an unexpected pleasure warming me when these words come unbidden to my mind, setting an inner song to my mundane hours. There is grace and drama, new courage and old beauty in the classic poetry.

So Anne began it. But I'm keeping it up. Because poetry adds just a bit of song to life, adds a gracious cadence to my work and play. Poetry reminds me to follow the example of the poets to cup my hands and wait for wonder to fall.