Poetry...its been a while

Today I had the opportunity to listen to a two time Pulitzer Prize winner W.W Merwin who addressed some of the BYU students today. During this time we were entreated to hear some of his favorite poems. This was a treat but also at the same time really deep. He explained a little of the background on each of those poems. It’s been quite a long time since I have heard poetry so I was a little rusty on the meanings behind the poems. But there was a couple that really stood out to me., and I would like to talk about them.

                Sadly I got the name of almost all the poems except one which is actually the one I liked. It talked of two friends. They were talking about the relationship that one had with his father. I assumed the father had died as the tone of the poem was of remorse for not having been a better son. This made me think a lot about not just how im doing as a son but as a brother, friend, grandson and the other titles in my life. This was a really nice poem.

                The other I really liked was the first poem entitled Summer, which talked of relationship we have with the great world or otherwise known as the natural world that we have been invited to take care of and have a stewardship. But also it had a line I really liked that when more or less like this “Islands are not forever nor this sun again”. This speaks to the knowledge of that these moments will never come back. We don’t have second chances, we don’t get time back, we must use this time to the best we can. We will never have these moments again, so that poem to me was a silent pleading of taking in the moments we have.

                I really enjoyed these readings, as it allowed me to examine myself and enjoy some good poetry, which I’ll admit it, which I’m, a sucker for.