April is National Poetry Month and I have always loved to celebrate it by reading more poetry as well as quoting a poem or two in our newsletter. As I sit here in mid-April, I am reminded of “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots…” from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.
Now I look to some cheerful and uplifting poetry! Ogden Nash comes to mind—and in a recently published book, Essential Pleasures, edited by Robert Pinsky (our U.S. Poet Laureate from 1997 -2000), I found a fanciful poem about Christopher Columbus in the section of “Long Lines, Strophes, and Parallelisms.”
Just before Ogden Nash, there are the first three chapters of Ecclesiastes, and always a favorite, Chapter 3 begins with: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die: a time to plant, and time to pluck up that which is planted…”
Back to Ogden Nash, and his poem, "Columbus":
Once upon a time there was an Italian,
And some people thought he was a rapscallion,
But he wasn’t offended,
Because other people thought he was splendid,
And he said the world was round,
And everybody made an uncomplimentary sound,
But his only reply was Pooh,
He replied, Isn’t this fourteen ninety-two?….
So Columbus said, somebody show me the sunset and somebody did and he set sail for it,
And he discovered America and they put him in jail for it,
And the fetters gave him welts,
And they named America for somebody else,
So the sad fate of Columbus ought to be pointed out to every child and every voter,
Because it has a very important moral, which is, “Don’t be a discoverer, be a promoter.
I suppose I like this poem not only because of its humor and wit, but because I often feel that in this business, I am the “promoter!” I ask you to come into the store to buy books, or to attend one of our wonderful special events, or to call or email us with your requests. We will stay in business with your support. And so I say “thank you” for all you do for us—I know so many of you are concerned and appreciative of having an independent book store in your area. By the way, this month we are offering a $10 coupon (with a $50 purchase) in our May newsletter. Stop by and pick up a copy if you are not on our mailing list. I hope you will take advantage of it!
It's flu season, so The Sniffle is timely:
ReplyDeleteIn spite of her sniffle,
Isabel's chiffle.
Some girls with a sniffle
Would be weepy and tiffle;
They would look awful,
Like a rained-on waffle,
But Isabel's chiffle
In spite of her sniffle.
Her nose is more red
With a cold in her head,
But then, to be sure,
Her eyes are bluer.
Some girls with a snuffle,
Their tempers are uffle,
But when Isabel's snivelly
She's snivelly civilly,
And when she's snuffly
She's perfectly luffly.