Whenever I have a few minutes to kill I enjoy a few poems from my poetry cupboard...
But for a bit of thought and ink
Spilled earnestly upon a page
Names like Longfellow, Tennyson
Would lie in some forgotten age
And we would not be awed and thrilled
If thought in ink was never spilled
But for a bit of ink and thought
Falling madly or glad or sad
Then Shakespeare, Frost, Milton and Keats
And Coleridge would all be dead
Wilde, Riley, Whitman, Kipling, Clare
Would decay in a grave somewhere
But for a bit of thought and ink
We would not recognize this cast
The Brownings, Blakes and Dickinsons
All would be buried in the past
But for a bit of time and ink
Long now we taste their thought and drink
© Janet Martin
Those names inspire me. What a lovely tribute to some magnificent writers, Janet. Thanks for the memories.
ReplyDelete!! I love this. I too have poetry shelves that are really starting to bulge - I need more free time to lounge and read, but it usually means I'm sick! ;)
ReplyDeleteMargaret, unfortunately I've had a bit of the latter...a nasty cold. It has definitely slowed me down a little, but not enough to skip poetry:)
ReplyDeleteGlynis, I'm reading the book A Man Called Peter (Reverend Peter Marshall) He was laughed at sometimes for being quite poetic in his sermons quoting long passages of Milton etc, but it makes me love the man all the more:) His story is remarkable and inspired me to dig through my collection for some books I have not opened in a while.