For Many Years, I Thought A Poem

Everybody Who's Anybody Longs To Be A Tree.

Don't Be So Fast, You're All You've Got.

Instead Of Trying To Come Up And Pontificate On What Literature Is, You Need To Talk With Children, To Teachers, And Make Sure They Get Poetry In The Curriculum Early.

From The Time I Began To Read, As A Child, I Loved To Feel Their Heft In My Hand And The Warm Spot Caused By Their Intimate Weight In My Lap; I Loved The Crisp Whisper Of A Page Turning, The Musky Odor Of Old Paper And The Sharp Inky Whiff Of New Pages. Leather Bindings Sent Me Into Ecstasy. I Even Loved To Gaze At A Closed Book And Daydream About The Possibilities Inside.

By Making Us Stop For A Moment, Poetry Gives Us An Opportunity To Think About Ourselves As Human Beings On This Planet And What We Mean To Each Other.