Monday Musings: National Poetry Month

National Poetry Month has been celebrated every April since its commencement in 1996 by The Academy of American Poets.  During my younger years, I was never particularly fond of poetry.  I can still recall my high school English classes and the dread that came over me as we began the traditional segments on Poetry.  I felt as though I was drowning in allegories, alliterations, couplets, hyperboles, quatrains, rhythm, and the like.  Somehow the voice of the poet became lost to me amid all of this analysis.  It wasn't until many years later during a college course on World War I Literature that I discovered a deep fondness for Poetry and the emotional impact it possessed.  I immediately recognized " In Flanders Fields" By Lt. John McCrae.  My grandparents had a copy of this hanging in their home for as long as I could remember (In fact, that same framed copy now hangs in my living room).  As a child, I recall several occasions of insisting that my grandfather lift me into his arms and read it to me.  However, I was too young to understand its impact and the words were lost to me until many years later.  During my Lit. course, I was also moved by Wilfred Owen's infamous WW I poems, "Anthem For A Doomed Youth" and "Dulce et Decorum Est", and many by Siegfried Sassoon.  These were by no means flowery love poems, but instead dark and harrowing accounts filled with satire and the ugly truth of war.  For the first time, I was emotionally moved by Poetry and began to explore this genre of writing with a renewed sense of vigor.  As the years have passed, I have quite a list of favorite poets including, Emily Dickinson, William Wordsworth, Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath, and of course, Maya Angelou, as well as a variety of Chinese poets.  As National Poetry Month comes to a close this week, I welcome your thoughts and comments. Do you enjoy reading poetry? Do you have a favorite poem(s) or poet(s)?