Dead Poet's Society_ Entry 1

I have decided since April is rumored to be poetry month that I would devout at least a few entries to great poets who are no longer with us. There are many great poets who are still with us, of course, including Nikki Giovanni (who also teaches at Va. Tech), Ted Kooser, and Charles Bukowski (that's a joke- he died circa 1995, though many of his 'new poems' keep propping up). I actually have several friends who are poets, including Mike Allen of Roanoke, Kamal Ayyildiz of New York and his mother Judy of Roanoke, and Bruce Piephoff, of Greensboro, who is also a folk singer (see earlier entries). And, one of my students at Danville Community College in Va. (I live across the border in Reidsville, N.C.), Connie McNear is going to be in a local publication there. I have attempted poetry several times, but hmmmm.....I'm slightly better at plays..........at least I hope so, or else I'm wasting my time. I would gladly put up a poem by one of friends or Charles Bukowski, but there is always a slim chance that they could sue me.

The poetry of the late, great Edgar Allan Poe is in the public domain though.

A few years ago, I picked up a $2 book of Poe's poetry at the Poe Museum in Richmond. I am going to choose his poem, simply entitled "To_" because it is very, very short.

Here it is:

To_

I heed not that my eartly lot

Hath little of Earth in it,

That years of love have been forgot

In the hatred of a minute:

I mourn not the desolate

Are happier, sweet, than I,

But that you sorrow for my fate

Who am a passer-by

Links:

I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, that the Poe Museum can be found on the web at:

http://www.poemuseum.org

There is also a Poe Museum in Baltimore!