Dear Reader,
Decades ago, I bought “A Woman’s Notebook: Being
a Blank Book with Quotes by Women.” I didn’t know
exactly what I would do with it, but its appeal lay in the possibilities
waiting between its covers. Each page offered floral drawings,
quotations from women (e.g., Helen Keller, Willa Cather, Joanna
Field, and Anne Taylor Brown), as well as wonderful blank spaces
to fill with…I wondered what, as I paid for it.
Languishing among my other blank books, it waited for sketches
or musings. One day, after reading Stanley Kunitz’s poem,
“The Layers,” I discovered its purpose. I wanted to
hold on to this poem in a different way: “Why don’t
I copy it letter for letter?” The blank book would become
my Favorite Poem notebook. On its title page, I wrote, “Copying
down a beautiful or true poem is like trying on a great-looking
pair of shoes. And keeping them.” I proceeded to copy “The
Layers” with that thought in mind.
Years later, there are only a few pages left. Sometimes, I revisit
these special poems that made me say, “I need to save this
poem in my notebook”- and I fall in love all over again.
One of the earliest poems was “Wet Evening in April”
by Patrick Kavanagh. The London Underground had a project where
a poem was displayed overhead, in line among the ads for life
insurance or lipstick. It took me three trips to memorize the
lines and copy them on scraps of paper because I was also paying
attention to the stops. I ended up adding two words to Kavanagh’s
poem.
Here are ten poems that made it into My Favorite Poem Notebook,
in case you’re curious about what floats my poetry boat:
