January 24th Challenge: Poetry Thursday

First things first:  it's GLOBAL BELLY LAUGH DAY!  Don't forget to laugh at 1:24 p.m. (local time).  We could make that the whole day's challenge, but since that was used for last Friday's post, let it be a bonus.
http://bellylaughday.com/
 
Today's challenge is to engage with poetry.  As always, you have choices; as always, let me suggest you take two or three if you've time.

I feel vaguely obligated to tell you all the reasons why poetry is Really Good for Your Mental Health, but not so much that I'm willing to delay bedtime any longer.  You'll have to trust me.

tonight's moon:  a ready muse

Visit your library, your bookshelf, a bookstore or the web and look for a poem that speaks to you.  Then you can:

• mail it to a friend
• tuck it into a menu at a restaraunt or 
• print it out and post it somewhere
• put it in a pretty envelope addressed "for you"and leave it in a public place
• post it on Facebook
• read it to someone you like
• share it here in the comments section

Sit down with a piece of paper, a deli napkin, a journal and write some of your own.  You can try a haiku, a limerick, a sonnet.  Don't be afraid to write a BAD poem.  Sometimes that's the best way to get the juices flowing.  If it's bad enough, maybe you can get it published.  Visit last January's creativity challenges for some ideas.  You too can translate Icelandic poetry, or turn a headline into a poem!

Find more inspiration, including poetry generators, at languageisavirus.com

Poem of the day:

You Reading This, Be Ready

Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life -

What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

~ William Stafford ~

See you Friday-- now go poet!

Jana

Today's vid is Shakespeare's sonnet 130,  read by the luscious-voiced Alan Rickman, with kinetic typography by Gideon Burton.