Poets
Our guides inward to our humanity
We don't seem to revere our poets the way we used to but they're still the ones we turn to at our important milestones of life. Very few weddings, funerals, or significant anniversaries are celebrated without the assistance of poets (they write all the lyrics to our favourite songs, after all). One of my most beloved singers, Mercedes Sosa, said that poets are prophets, which I think is true. However, I think the best description of why poetry matters came to me from Krista Tippet quoting Martin Farawell: "I think poetry evolved to save us from ourselves. It questions our understanding of what it means to be human and, in the process, deepens our humanity. History teaches us, and the daily news reminds us, how easily we forget what it means to be human. Probably no other art form is better than poetry at getting us inside another's mind, experience, perspective. The ability to imagine someone else's inner life is where compassion begins. We could certainly use more of that nowadays."
Sarah Kay
Spoken word poetry is one of my favourite performance media. When it's done well you get the gift of the words, the unique rhythm of every performance, and a little soul from every poet. Sarah Kay delivers it all.
Mary Oliver
It's very hard to choose just one Mary Oliver poem. She has so many gems for us. She's a poet deeply connected to the nature and her words are full of images from the world outside that point the way to the world inside. I love this one but also check out The Summer Day where she poses that beautiful question, "What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
John O'Donohue
John O'Donohue brings so much soul and warmth to us through his work. Seek out his longer form writing on the human condition if you're spiritually inclined (or even if you're not).
Rudyard Kipling
An old chestnut but full of wisdom. So much so that they have the lines inscribed on the tunnel at Wimbledon as the players enter centre court.
Maya Angelou
This extraordinary woman can hardly be contained by one category. Poet, performer, academic, writer - she was so many things and all of them amazing (she never did things by halves). Look up everything by and about her. She's awesome.
Robert Frost
So many of us feel like we're not on the path that was laid out for us. But Robert Frost knew that we were taking the road that makes all the difference.
Kahlil Gibran
This one should really be at the top. It's what I wish I could read to every parent - I totally would if I could get through it without bursting into tears. Truth. Deep deep truth.
Rainer Maria Rilke
Known for his prodigious letter writing as much as his poetry, Rilke gives us this beautiful directive from his "Letters to a Young Poet": “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”