Happy National Poetry Month!

For me, being a teacher is never more enjoyable than the month of April because I get to read some of the world’s best poems with my students. This week, when I introduced the unit, I shared my favorite poem (Who Knows if the Moon’s by E. E. Cummings). I’m always enamored with how other (younger) sets of eyes react to my most treasured words.

When I collected all of the papers at the end of the day, I found this annotation scribbled at  the bottom of one:  “So, are the flowers suicidal?” How brilliant.  Who Knows if the Moon’s (1925) E. E. Cummings

who knows if the moon’s
a balloon,coming out of a keen city
in the sky–filled with pretty people?
(and if you and i should

get into it,if they
should take me and take you into their balloon,
why then
we’d go up higher with all the pretty people

than houses and steeples and clouds:
go sailing
away and away sailing into a keen
city which nobody’s ever visited,where

always
it’s
Spring)and everyone’s
in love and flowers pick themselves

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought I’d share a Cummings-esque poem of mine and a collection of some more vintage airshow images from France (source).

Zeppelin Bend

We’re from a golden era, you and I.
The kind where people were found facing upwards
looking for Hindenburg and the flames.
We could almost hear the film reels and the loud flash bulbs.
Everyone is discussing the tragedy
at the party (the kind Gatsby would throw)
in their feathers and beads.
“And How!”

We’re vintage, you and I.
Strong as antiqued-canvas,
Our memories pulled taut
over an alloy structure—
and we’re inside, floating toward
an unknown destination.
The best part is that it will
take forever to get there,
because the engine is in
reverse.

Head in the clouds,
Destiny