Welcome to Poetry Month 2024
- richmcgnd
- Apr 1, 2024
- 2 min read
Welcome to Poetry Month 2024, our ninth year. It is, however, our first year using the Poetry Telos website. One member of our group congratulated me on "taking a bold step into the present." He's right - we should have had a website to make our experience both richer and easier years ago. But - better late than never. Thanks to Kathrina Dubnicek and Steph Grady Clay for nudging me forward and for knowing how to build it.
Song
Eammon Grennan
(1941- )
There seems to be a stage in parenting when the child is both "fully fledged" and still just tentatively stepping into a life of her own. The little girl in this poem is on stage, straddling grade school and high school. Maybe the initial parenting is over but more remains. The fervent wish expressed in the last lines of this poem comes from a distance now and straight from the heart.
Song
At her Junior High School graduation,
she sings alone
in front of the lot of us—
her voice soprano, surprising,
almost a woman's. It is
the Our Father in French,
the new language
making her strange, out there,
fully fledged and
ready for anything. Sitting
together—her separated
mother and father—we can
hear the racket of traffic
shaking the main streets
of Jersey City as she sings
'deliver us from evil,'
and I wonder can she see me
in the dark here, years
from belief, on the edge
of tears. It doesn't matter. She
doesn't miss a beat, keeps
in time, in tune, while into
our common silence I whisper,
Sing, love, sing your heart out!
A video of the poem being read.
A word about the poet:
Eamon Grennan (1941- ) was born in Dublin and is the author of 16 poetry collections, including There Now (Graywolf Press, 2016).
Boy, I feel like this poem is speaking DIRECTLY to me. I pictured my oldest when reading this. Clear as day. Isn't it funny how these feelings and moments can be so universal? So thankful for you, for Poetry Month, and for the beauty of these words. Thank you for continuing to do this!
Truly so heartwarming - I was immediately thrown into memories of my own time with choir throughout high school and college, with my parents sitting in the audience. Beautiful, thank you for sharing! ❤️
This is EXACTLY how it feels when I put my Theatre Director hat on; I always want the kids to feel they are enough, and can put themselves out there with courage. Tear up every time I see a student be brave on stage :)