Poem In Your Pocket

In the USA, today is National “Poem In Your Pocket” Day

PomPom has posted about it [here] and there is a website [here]

“The idea is simple: select a poem you love, during National Poetry Month, then carry it with you to share with co-workers, family, and friends”

I like the idea, but I have yet to decide if I shall participate [mainly because I have yet to work out which poem to carry – an old favourite or a new discovery?] No, please don’t suggest Pam Ayres “I wish I’d looked after my teeth” – I’m still feeling sensitive about the broken bridge!

…quick flick through the poetry books on shelf nearest to me…

How about this one – another GMH, to go with last months’

God’s Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs --
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings

I love the imagery of ‘shining from shook foil’ – yes, I think this will be a good poem for my pocket today– I can take it out at odd moments and ponder on it [and muse on the fact that GMH was very conscious of the Industrial Revolution around him over 130 years ago, severing the direct links between humans and the earth, and how much more today’s generation are removed from nature]

But I am not sure I am confident enough to ‘share it with co-workers’ [family and friends can read it on the blog!]

What poem would you carry around with you today?

Long or short?

Serious or frivolous?

Modern or ‘trad’?