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Poetry from Daily Life: Finding a poem on the radio, at church, in a penny on the ground

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Poetry from Daily Life: Finding a poem on the radio, at church, in a penny on the ground

Sylvia Vardell
 |  Special to the News-Leader

My guest this week on Poetry from Daily Life is Sylvia M. Vardell, who lives in Dallas, Texas. When asked how she became interested in poetry, Sylvia says, “My parents are German immigrants and German was my first language, so poems and rhymes helped me learn English.” Her latest poetry project is a collaboration with Janet Wong and 100+ poets: “Clara’s Kooky Compendium of Thimblethoughts and Wonderfuzz.” “It’s a poetry collection blended with a junk journal, a graphic novel, and a book of fascinating facts — all rolled into one.” Sylvia loves traveling and has visited all 50 states and every continent. ~David L. Harrison

Poetry is all around us

What is it about life’s big and little moments that calls for a poem? At weddings. At funerals. On greeting cards. In church. On the radio. At moments of great happiness or deep sadness. At beginnings and endings.

Distinguished educator and poetry advocate Bernice Cullinan reminds us that “poetry is a shorthand for beauty; its words can cause us to tremble, to shout for joy, to weep, to dance, to shudder or to laugh out loud.”

Poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”

And award-winning actress Helena Bonham Carter, who served as a narrator for the first poetry app for children, iF Poems, observed, “There is little that is as deeply satisfying as the apt poem. It’s like chocolate for the soul. Except less fattening. It resolves the nervous system, captures the elusive experience of being alive so we may always have it and never lose it. Give your child an appetite for poems and they will never be bored … with poems in your pocket, you’ll be armed with beauty and food for the soul and you will never be lonely.” 

If you look around you, you might be surprised at the poetry you’ll find in everyday life. For example, I encountered the following examples of poetry and poetic language all in a single day:

  • I heard a wedding toast (in rhyme) on a TV morning show;
  • I found a penny on the ground and spontaneously recited the rhyme “See a penny, pick it up, all day long, you’ll have good luck” and remembered the teen version that I have seen on a T-shirt and that always makes me laugh: “See a penny, pick it up, all day long, you’ll have … a penny”;
  • I listened to music on the car radio (with rhyming lyrics);
  • I reviewed a biography of Ben Franklin that ended with one of his proverbs told in rhyme;
  • I scanned a magazine in a doctor’s waiting room and found an ad that used rhyme (“the potion’s in the lotion”);
  • I stumbled upon the middle of a cable television movie, “Desk Set,” in which Katharine Hepburn’s character spouted multiple stanzas of several classic poems;
  • I read a post on Facebook about a friend who had a loved one in hospice care who wanted to hear poetry read aloud.  

As we stop and think about the language we encounter in our everyday lives, it is interesting to observe how often that language takes poetic form. It may not always be in the form of a published poem on a piece of paper, but the presence of poetry is interwoven throughout our days.

Through the ages, great minds have hypothesized where the power of poetry lies. The words? The sounds of words? The structure and shape? Meaning? Emotion? Effect? The philosopher Plato wrote, “Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.” Poet Robert Frost noted that “Poetry is the renewal of words forever and ever. Poetry is that by which the world is never old.”

Years later, at the dedication of a library named for Robert Frost, President John F. Kennedy said: “When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.” 

Whatever the reasons, our human capacity for language has long manifested itself in poetic expression. Poets help us see the magic in life’s big and little moments; poetry brings us together through shared emotions and experiences. So much power in such a little package!

Sylvia Vardell is Professor Emerita in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University and the author of ”Children’s Literature in Action, Poetry Aloud Here,” and editor of “A World Full of Poems.” She has collaborated with Janet Wong on multiple poetry anthologies for teachers and young readers.

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