A New Wrinkle Makes Front Page News! Plus the Healing Power of Poetry

I was on the phone with a friend this morning when my housemate Louise suddenly appeared with a big grin on her face. What's up? I wondered, immersed in my phone conversation. Then Louise held up a copy of the local paper and pointed to a big picture of composer Laura Rich and I on the front page. Front page! she exclaimed happily. And so it was, a BIG photo and wonderful article about A New Wrinkle and A Celebration of Aging right there on the front page. Pretty darned nice. I am glad for the chance to get some of these ideas about aging out there in my community. Take a look at the article here.

'A New Wrinkle' | DailyTidings.com

This morning before the front page phenomenon entered my reality, I was planning to write something about poetry. It's National Poetry month. I am a lover of poetry. I even love reading what poets have to say about poetry. For example......


Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason.
--Novalis
Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.
--Carl Sandburg
Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.
--Rita Dove
Poetry is what gets lost in translation.
--Robert Frost

What are poets for, in such an age?
What is the use of poetry?
The state of the world calls out for poetry to save it.
--Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.
--Plato
There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.
--John Cage
Poetry is all that is worth remembering in life.
--William Hazlitt

I cannot imagine life without poetry which has been a treasure in my life from childhood on. I could never choose one poet as a favorite, any more than I could choose one fiction writer. I love the poetry of Alan Ginsburg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jane Kenyon, Basho, Lorca, Dylan Thomas, Ellen Bass, Anna Swir, Kabir, Hafiz, Anne Waldman, Maya Angelou, Billy Collins, W.B. Yeats, W.H. Auden, Emily Dickinson.

How about this 3-year old's rendition of Billy Collin's poem Litany? I find it quite wonderful. May your days and nights display their innate poetry in patterns and cadences that restore and invigorate you.