My Favorite Poems

It might be strange for me to talk about poems on a blog that's called Prose, Pearls & Polka Dots, but just because I love a good novel or short story doesn't mean I can't appreciate the depth and creativity of poems. For a long time I was almost afraid of poems. The unusual structures, formats and punctuation confused me. I felt like I had to read into every character to unlock some hidden meaning that only poets understood. Prose has always been easy and straight forward to me. But my senior year of high school, things changed when my AP English teacher shared a poem with our class. I realized poetry isn't harder than prose, it's just different. Poetry is inspirational and can capture a particular feeling or setting with both it's words and format. So today, I share my favorite poems and favorite lines:

Desiderata by Max Ehrmann

"And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should"

This poem is what made me love poetry. I took a copy of it to college for whenever I needed some inspiration. It is my favorite poem.

Fog by Carl Sandburg

"On silent haunches"

Every night when I'm at home, I watch the fog roll in over the hills near my house. At school, I turned to this poem when I felt homesick and it reminded me of the peace I felt seeing the blanket of fog envelop the mountains every evening.

i carry your heart with me by ee cummings

"whatever a sun will sing is always you"

This is just the sweetest poem about loving someone. I am a huge ee cummings fan and love the unconventional punctuation in this poem.

Happiness by Raymond Carver

"I'm in the window with coffee and the usual morning stuff that passes for thought"

I'm always happiest when I wake up early in the morning after a good night's rest. This poem captures that feeling perfectly.

Newspaper Blackout Poems

"The clever part is knowing which words to leave"

These are the coolest things ever! Newspaper Blackout poets scribble out words in newspaper articles and leave random words that make up a poem. Google "Newspaper Blackout" for more cool poems!

Happy reading!

xoxo