Loving Words during National Poetry Month

 Did you know April is National Poetry Month?

I'm not a poet, but I am in love with words and occasionally read poems. I love to read a poem and either be transported to a different world, see my world in a different way, or have someone from another time nail a thought or impression I've had. 

I was paging through an old poetry book and found a poem I don't remember seeing before. It's a poem by Emily Dickinson, and I love it because it's relatable to me. Written in the 19th Century, it's an acknowledgement of the existence of God. 

I Never Saw a Moor

I never saw a moor,

I never saw the sea;

Yet know I how the heather looks,

And what a wave must be. 

I never spoke with God, 

Nor visited in heaven,

Yet certain am I of the spot

As if the chart were given. 

Another poem I like, and one that's been residing in my brain, is a poem I'd memorized many, many years ago. If thou must love me, let it be for nought is one of the poems found in Sonnets from the Portuguese. It's quite lovely.Sonnets from the Portuguese is a collection of poems that Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote for her husband, Robert Browning. I think she nails the desire of women to be loved simply for who they are. That's the kind of love that lasts--one not built on image or convenience.

If thou must love me, let it be for nought...

If thou must love me, let it be for nought 
Except for love's sake only. Do not say 
"I love her for her smile—her look—her way 
Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought 
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought 
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"— 
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may 
Be changed, or change for thee,—and love, so wrought, 
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for 
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,— 
A creature might forget to weep, who bore 
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby! 
But love me for love's sake, that evermore 
Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity.

Do you have a particular poem that resounds in your head or your heart?

That lovely photo is one I took in Columbia, SC at the capitol last January. Isn't it lovely?