Poetry reviews: HOW TO LOVE THE WORLD and THE WONDER OF SMALL THINGS

Last October my husband and I made a trip across the country to vacation in Boston and several towns in Maine.  Wherever we were we tried to visit independent bookstores. I've made it a 'policy' to purchase something every time I enter these little shops. It's my way of helping them stay in business. While in Boston we visited the darling, and quite famous, Beacon Hill Bookstore. I could live inside that place quite happily, I think. I purchased my first James Crew poetry anthology, How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope, there.

One whole floor of the Beacon Hill Bookstore is dedicated and sized for children

In his introduction, titled "The Necessity of Joy", James Crews says,

For many years, reading and writing poetry has been my personal source of delight, an antidote from the depression that can spring up out of nowhere. I now carve out what I call 'soul time' for myself each day, making space for silence and reflection... We need poems like the ones gathered here to ground us in our lives, to find in each new moment what Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer describes as, 'the chance for joy, whole orchards of amazement.'

I love that -- so much joy it is like "whole orchards of amazement." Don't you?

In addition to the collection of poems which lead us toward joy, hope, wonder, and gratitude, Crews asks the reader to pause several times during the reading to reflect on one poem longer than the others by providing reflective pauses. He also gives a suggested prompt for writing practices based upon the poems if one wants to pause a little longer. I find these reflective prompts very helpful in pulling out deeper meaning from the highlighted poem. This enhances my whole poetry reading experience. there are seven or eight of these reflective pauses in each volume.

A Reflective Pause and Invitation for Writing and Reflection page in response to the poem "Thankful for Now" by Todd Davis.

In addition to the poems and the reflections Crews does something I've never seen in a poetry anthology before. At the end of the book he highlights ten poems with book club discussion questions for them. I love this! It makes me want to try this in my book club. I've never even considered reading poetry for our monthly selection, but why not? I think it would be fun to dig in a little deeper into these ten poems and discuss our thoughts and insights. An example question from the Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer poem, "How It Might Continue": 

• What does Trommer mean when she suggests that we can go around with "our pockets full of exclamation marks"? Do you know someone like this, who carries the seed of delight with them wherever they go, giving them freely?

I'd love to talk to my friends about what it is like to be around someone who has a pocket full of exclamation marks! How much fun would that be to pause and reflect on such things?

Reading Group Questions and Topics for Discussion, highlighting ten poems

I haven't read the second book in this anthology series, The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy, but I've added it to my TBR.

The third book, The Small Wonder of Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal, was also a delight to read, though if I was rating the them, I liked the first book a bit better. In the forward of this book, Nikita Gill tells a story about a conversation she had with her grandmother when she was very young. Her grandmother said, "where there is wonder, there also lives poetry." They were picking strawberries at the time. Picking one and lifting it up, she said, "To a poet, even a little strawberry like this is a poem." This collection focuses on those small, ordinary gems-- like ripe berries, or carrots pulled from the ground -- which remind us of the many miracles in our lives.

I'll leave you with two poems, one from each volume, and hope they entice you to read on.

"Field Guide" by Tony Hoagland in The Wonder of Small Things.

Once, in the cool blue middle of a lake,
up to my neck in that most precious element of all,

I found a pale-gray, curled-upwards pigeon feather
floating on the tension of the water

at the very instant when a dragonfly,
like a blue-green iridescent bobby pin,

hovered over it, then lit, and rested.
That’s all.

I mention this in the same way
that I fold the corner of a page

in certain library books,
so that the next reader will know

where to look for the good parts.

"Hope" by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer in How to Love the World

Hope has holes

in its pockets.
It leaves little
crumb trails
so that we,
when anxious,
can follow it.
Hope’s secret:
it doesn’t know
the destination–
it knows only
that all roads
begin with one
foot in front
of the other.

Happy National Poetry Month! I hope this post has brought you joy and a sense of wonder.

-Anne