Poems don't have to teach you things, of course, and sometimes they are just beautiful or emotional moments captured in words. But I also like some poems that are life lessons or wisdoms the speaker would like to share through the poem.

One of my favorites is One Art:

One Art

By Elizabeth Bishop

.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;

so many things seem filled with the intent

to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster

of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant

to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or

next-to-last, of three loved houses went.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.

I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident

the art of losing’s not too hard to master

though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Hi, I am Glynn Gomes. This is my poem, Dreams, published in my book, Lighthouse, inspiration (published 2020).

https://preview.redd.it/ff5rf7baedyd1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=affa153b37b32c07611728077115a4ca639914ae

https://preview.redd.it/pgjh6j31edyd1.jpg?width=1700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1c5efe69f829b3546f876f71e076aa34454dc46a

My website https://specialcreativity.com/lighthouse/ provides some more details, including this poem and a couple others from the book. If you are interested in purchasing the book, you can find links on my website. Basically, it's an eBook and you can get it on Amazon for USD $3.99 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BKXFC9S/) Apple Books and Kobo. I'd love to hear your comments. Happy reading. Glynn

hello! i don’t often engage in poetry and stuff but my girlfriend is very into it, and for her birthday i wanted to write something romantic and poetic basically conveying the love i feel for her. my original plan was to write it on a piece of paper with a watercolour painting of her favourite flower next to it, but by the time i was done writing, sending it would come too late for her birthday (we are long distance). so i have to send it online unfortunately and also straight up forgot my handwriting is barely readable so i can’t make anything physical and send a photo of that. but how do you guys usually like send poems? i’ve been thinking about putting maybe a digital drawing as the background but would that be distracting from the poem/look a little tacky? so my question is how do you guys usually display your poems? thanks in advance, sorry if i’m on the wrong subreddit but unfortunately i’m stumped where to go elsewhere

Anyone has any idea how I can find this?? I searched everywhere on the internet, and I mean EVERYWHERE. The best I could find was analysis and reviews that contained nothing of the poem.

https://allpoetry.com/Letter-In-November

While joy gave clouds the light of stars,

That beamed wher'er they looked;

And calves and lambs had tottering knees,

Excited, while they sucked;

While every bird enjoyed his song,

Without one thought of harm or wrong --

I turned my head and saw the wind,

Not far from where I stood,

Dragging the corn by her yellow hair,

Into a dark and lonely wood.

Es schienen so golden die Sterne,
Am Fenster ich einsam stand
Und hörte aus weiter Ferne
Ein Posthorn im stillen Land.
Das Herz mir im Leib entbrennte,
Da hab ich mir heimlich gedacht:
Ach, wer da mitreisen könnte
In der prächtigen Sommernacht!

Zwei junge Gesellen gingen
Vorüber am Bergeshang,
Ich hörte im Wandern sie singen
Die stille Gegend entlang:
Von schwindelnden Felsenschlüften,
Wo die Wälder rauschen so sacht,
Von Quellen, die von den Klüften
Sich stürzen in die Waldesnacht.

Sie sangen von Marmorbildern,
Von Gärten, die überm Gestein
In dämmernden Lauben verwildern,
Palästen im Mondenschein,
Wo die Mädchen am Fenster lauschen,
Wann der Lauten Klang erwacht
Und die Brunnen verschlafen rauschen
In der prächtigen Sommernacht.

Looking for a poem in a style and feeling similar to Ulysses but instead of invoking the same urge of striving and still seeking adventure and activity in old age, it does so from a younger perspective (ie making the most of the long life that you have lying ahead of you).

Would love any recommendations!

I was recently reading blog posts from last few years that suggested poetry was a dying art form. I mean still there are those self-claimed twitter poets, but well, you know. :)

A friend who is a poet also told me that it had been a waste of his time and precious money studying poetry in college because nobody buys his books (even his profs said they did not make money from their books). The number of poets who can make a living from their art is small even compared to prose writers. I mean aside from the long dead poets like Rumi and Shakespeare (the latter more famous for his play), I assume only a few dozen living poets (e.g., Mary Oliver) can make enough money to pay the bills. Am I wrong?

So what has changed compared to the olden times when poetry and poets had, I assume, a much higher place in society?

It can't be about access because Internet has made poetry way more accessible than it used to be. Is it that poetry requires more effort than other popular art forms? Is it that poetry itself has become more difficult to understand than it once was? Perhaps the subjects poetry addresses have changed and the average person can no longer relate. I mean my friend said sometimes he feels that he was taught to write poetry for his classmates and college prof than for the average person.

Is that our expectations have changed or the reasons for reading poetry are not the same. So we want to be moved of course, but we want to experience more extreme emotional states and these can only be satisfied through other arts like fast moving and visually intense movies. And these are much less effortful and way more popular than reading a book or going to a poetry reading.

And whatever the cause, how to fix this problem?

Or are other factors at play that I'm totally overlooking?

I'm new to poetry myself so I figured asking here may give me a better understanding. Thank you for your input.

Hi everyone! I teach E.L.A. for the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades at a private religious school. We have been covering poetry and using it as a tool to learn figurative language. I'm having a difficult time finding poems that are appropriate for their age range (11-14) and will also be allowed by my school's somewhat strict standards (has to be pretty PG). Additionally, anything with good examples of figurative language and other poetic devices would be a great help. I'm open to individual poems or collections. Thank you in advance!