Shel Silverstein

Growing up there was no poet I loved more than Shel Silverstein. The imagination, the complexity merged with childlike simplicity, and the generally positive attitude of his work have always left me speechless. I remember opening my sister's copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends and reading straight through in one sitting. It was my first poetic experience and it has always stuck with me. Falling Up will always be my favorite collection. The images he drew were beautiful in their crude, ink-blotted style. It was magic on the page.
A few years ago, while I was browsing through the humor section of a bookstore I came across something startling. It was a book of dirty limmericks and accompaning drawings by none other than Shel Silverstein himself. Now I'm not one to be bothered by such things usually, but I must say that I was a bit shocked. How offputting it was, to see my chikdhood idol in this light. I never knew he did anything other than children's literature. After a while though, I became okay with the whole thing. Afterall, the limmericks were funny, and they do not change how much Silverstein's work meant to me as a child. Now, I am about to have my own child, and I cannot wait to read her poems out of Falling Up before bed. They can spark her imagination the way they did mine, so many years ago.

Emily Dickinson

I never really gave Emily Dickinson much of a chance before. I knew she loved to write about death, and I was not too huge on that topic. But then I read a handful of her poems for class, and I was blown away. One in particular stuck out to me, and it was the shortest of them all.

"Faith" is a fine invention
For Gentlemen who see!
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency!

Something about this poem caught my eye. It is humorous first of all, but there is something even deeper here. This poem says a lot for her thoughts on religious matters. They were all well and good for those who could use them, but for the rest of us there is logic. That is how I interpret it anyway. I have written quite extensively about faith in my own personal writings, and I am always fascinated to get other people's opinions on the matter. I am particularly interested when the opinion is not the norm. Dickinson's opinion is certainly not the norm for her time, and that is what I love about it. Well done Emily, well done!