Today is Random Acts of Poetry Day. It happens each year on the first Wednesday in October. The day is about painting the world in beautiful words either literally or figuratively. I’m all about painting with words.
If you need inspiration for your own random poetic act, tweetspeakpoetry.com is offering a free pdf of 10 ideas to get you going. I like where it suggests you leave a poem under a random windshield wiper. I imagine the smile once it’s read. If parking lot sharing isn’t your thing, there’s a hashtag for Twitter and Instagram sharing too: #raopoetryday
I came late to reading poems for enjoyment. I just never got into it in grade school or high school, though I did enjoy Shakespeare’s beautiful sonnets. Because I enjoy poetry now, I’m led to believe that you need to get a little life under your belt to be able to interpret the nuance. Sitting before my keyboard thinking on notable poems to share with the world today, the first to come to mind is from Elizabeth Barrett Browning. To articulate the nature and extent of a passion isn’t an easy thing to do. Love is a subjective thing after all.
She uses figurative language in How do I love thee?; making a comparison to express the extent of the love she harbors (I presume for Robert Browning). There’s one line that is particularly telling in the nuance: I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach… I love this line. She’s stating her love is at once both physical and spiritual in an almost out-of-body way. I have felt love like this every day of my adult life. Feel the nuance for yourself…
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,–I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!–and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
More~
The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
http://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/
I’m over at Author Denysé Bridger’s Fantasy Pages today talking about Heart of Stone. Do stop by. I share where the idea for the story came from.
http://www.fantasypages.ca/2015/10/be-enticed-by-heart-of-stone-from.html
Madeline who? As Rose Anderson I write the intimate side of award-winning romance and will continue to do so. As Madeline Archer I’ll write the other flavors of fiction. It might be a sweeter love story, an otherworldly walk in the twilight zone, or something dark…
Pre-order The Changeling on Amazon too!
Words worth mentioning for October
Every man’s work is a portrait of himself
~Jose Ortega Y Gasset
Today’s guest~ J.J. DiBenedetto
http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/
Romance Books ‘4’ Us
The October contest is on! We have $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N. Other prizes often include ebooks, print books, audiobooks, additional gift cards, and non-book items.
http://www.romancebooks4us.com/
calliopeswritingtablet.com 
Trail of Words
Become a poem
Clothe yourself in words
Let the wind whip them
around your face,
twist around your body
Leave them lying in the street
as you walk away
Margaret Fieland
Just lovely, Margaret. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Beautiful, Rose. Thanks for digging this one up.
Very nice, Margaret. I used to write poetry in my younger days to express myself or situations I was in, but not so much now.
I love poetry. It’s so fun to challenge myself with creating images with few words. My favorite poets are Margaret Atwood and Langston Hughes. 🙂
I like Langston Hughes, too. I also like (totally random list) Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton, Rita Dove, Stephen Dunn.
Ooh, now I have other poets to look into. 🙂 I agree with Langston Hughes.