My favorite: poems

There are so many poems I have loved in my life that it would be impossible to pick a favorite.  There are poems that approach top favorite status, for sure, such as this one by e.e. cummings.  This poem expresses how I feel about my sons and almost always makes me cry to read it.

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] 

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

                                                      i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

--

When I was in grade school, my favorite poem was about cats, and also The Song of Hiawatha. When I was in junior high school, The Desiderata was my favorite.  I still love those poems.  Temporary favorites might depend upon age and circumstances, but truly beloved poems tend to stick with me through all ages and all circumstances.

Here is one by Philip Larkin I like right now, simply because I ran across it today as well as one other time when I picked up a book of poetry in a hotel lobby, and it resonated then and now. I guess you could call it today's favorite.

Days

What are days for?

Days are where we live.   

They come, they wake us   

Time and time over.

They are to be happy in:   

Where can we live but days?

Ah, solving that question

Brings the priest and the doctor   

In their long coats

Running over the fields.

photo: Church in Geneva, Switzerland