"Poetry begins with delight and ends in wisdom."
                                  -Robert Frost

Well as I was too late getting on here to wish all my (5) readers a Happy Easter, I will wish you a Happy Poetry month instead. I recently found that April is National Poetry month! I think that it is so cool that we have a whole month dedicated to poetry, when some say that it is a dying art. I find it very hard to believe, that after years of men and women writing outstanding poetry, with thoughts from the depths of their souls, that we could suddenly just lose interest in the art. I find that very sad and hard to believe, and as long as I am alive, no matter how out-dated poetry becomes, I will continue to write it. (not that I am any good but still) And I do know that there are people who still love poetry, and read, and write it fluently, and after all, they have a much greater treasure than some of the richest people in the world: the treasure of knowledge.

               ~When I have fears that I may cease to be~
                                By John Keats
          When I have fears that I may cease to be
         Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain
           Before high-piled books, in charactery.
        Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
           When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
          Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
         And I think that I may never live to trace
      Their shadows,with the magic hand of chance;
         And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
          That I shall never look upon thee more,
           Never have relish in the faery power
         Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
     Of the wide world I stand alone,and think
        Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

I cried when I read this poem.I cried even more when I read that he died at the age of 26. He originally started out as a doctor,but when he finally got his licence,he found that he loved poetry so much more than doctoring,that all he did was write poetry.he fell in love with a beautiful girl,and they were engaged,but just then John Keats found that he had a disease and that he would not last another year. He broke his engagement,and went to Italy where he died.All his grave-stone says is: 'Here lies a man whose name was rit in water'.
I find his poetry more uplifting that he had so many wonderful,lovely thoughts that he was able to write down for us even at that young age.

True poetry...

If you want to read a poem that will make you cry,read 'The Prisoner of Chillion: a fable' by George Gordon Byron. It is one of the best poems I have ever read. It sent a little chill up my spine,and tears to my eyes.

Another really good love poem is 'Isabella; or the pot of basil' by John Keats. Its really sweet.

What If?

                          ~If~
                By Rudyard Kipling
 If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
 If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
     Or being lied about,don't deal in lies,
   Or being hated,don't give way to hating,
 And yet don't look too good,nor talk too wise:
  
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master;
  If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
      If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
     And treat those two imposters just the same;
   If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
     Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
  Or watch the things you gave your life to,broken,
  And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
 And lose,and start again at your beginnings
   And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force you heart and nerve and sinew
   To serve your turn long after they are gone,
  And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings -- nor loose the common touch,
  If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
  If all men count with you,but none too much;
        If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds' worth of distance run--
   Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
 And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man,my son!

I thought that this was great one of his.If only all parents would teach this way!