Poetry Collection Crisis

Okay, maybe I overshot with "crisis." More like "conundrum." I bookmark poems that I discover online in two ways: I tag them in my Google RSS Reader and, more frequently, I use the social bookmarking site Delicious. Delicious has long been one of my favorite Web 2.0 resources. I think it's brilliant and it's possible that I use it more than any non-Gmail site on the web.

Well, it seems Delicious is on the verge of shutting down and there's no word on whether my 1,500+ bookmarks that range from poems to teaching sites to resource compendiums to Edmonton Oiler blogs will be preserved. Luckily there's another site, Diigo, that offers many of the same things. And it seems like the transition will be secure and easy.

The art of losing, even the trivial things, is certainly not hard to master, but it's rarely fun. So in the spirit of the possible loss of Delicious and my love of List poems and the Monday Poetry Stretch posted at The Miss Rumphius Effect, here's a first draft of a little list poem on Losing.

I Have Lost

That mix tape you made me.

So many pens it's not funny.

My patience way too often.

I blame genetics,
grandfather; your temper 
was legendary.

My grandfather.

A friend or two.

My ability to ignore your absence.

Track of time again.

My memory of adult life without
children. (No need for it.)

Control of this poem.

----

A nod to Word Playgrounds author John O'Connor on this one. I think he features Loss Poems in his wonderful book.

Poetry Stretch: The Sky

One of my absolute must-follow blogs is The Miss Rumphius Effect. I was drawn to it by its title, inspired by one of my all-time favorite picture books, Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney, and I became a regular reader because of the awesome posts about literacy and poetry.

New followers of my blog should definitely subscribe to The Miss Rumphius Effect and I encourage all of you to take part in the Monday Poetry Stretch, a terrific weekly posting. This week's stretch, called for poems about the sky. Can you write one of your own? Leave it in the comments here or, better yet, at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

To preface my poem, I have to say I have never, ever published a poem of my own for the world to see. Ever. So this is a first. I really enjoyed the revision process as my poem started as one thing and ended as another. Finally, I guess I need to give a nod to Uncle Walt because upon rereading, my poem seems to have a bit of a Learn'd Astronomer kind of vibe. So, thanks Walter. Now, I bring you "Not For Us To Know:"

Not For Us To Know

There is talk amongst us
of what’s above.
Analysis of stars and satellites
and the heavens.
Gaseous nebulae reduced
to formulas.
Predictions of collision and
implosion.
Those sparkling shards--
that darkness--
calling to us, daring us
to unravel the science within.
The unwritten
chapter of the night--
it is not for us to know.

Children’s arms reach upward,
the skies just within their grasp.
They marvel at
the moon’s majestic glow
and worship its light.
They know
the majesty fades
each dawn,
the sequel arrives
each dusk.
There is more
to know. There is no
more to know.

This mystery.
This distant palette.
This celestial regalia.
Ours only to admire,
to wish, to hope,
to imagine.
There is
beauty
in not knowing.