On this day, we celebrate the magic that words can have. Words carry great impact on their own, but when partnered with tone and feeling, they become something else, entirely. We all experience it at some point in our lives. Starting when we’re babies. We listen to nursery rhymes and when we get older we can experience love poems. As soon as we add rhyming words and cadence, the mere words border on music.
Poetry doesn’t have to be all seriousness and romance. One of my favorites was the great, Shel Silverstein. The amount fun I feel like he had writing them, comes through. His poems were silly and fun and sometimes disturbing, or that may have been just the drawings that accompanied them. Just about everyone I knew had a copy of either Where The Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic or The Giving Tree. I remember using one of his poems as my try-out to get into the vocal class in middle school. Had to choose the longest one he had in the book, of course. Surprisingly, I remembered it. And it got me in. This one wasn’t it, The Voice displays the passion that Shel had for encouraging everyone to follow their hearts and be happy with who they are.
Dr. Suess gets a lot of credit, as well. He would outright make up words, but I’ll be damned if they didn’t sound charming as hell. Where would we be without the stories of the Grinch, the Lorax and the Sneetches? And there is the all-time popular graduation gift, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! A book constantly given to teenagers and adults. No one can deny that his stories and words of encouragement are forever loved.
On this day, take a moment to read a poem that you may have not thought about in a long time. There’s always one that sticks out. Or better yet, write one. A poem can make someone feel very special. It can be a simple “Roses are red…” poem or funny little limerick. And to kick it off, here’s a little something I found for inspiration…
Wonderful Randomness 