Day 29: Poetry Archive

Celebrating National Poetry Month by highlighting 30 days of literary publishers who produce poetry you can listen to, watch, or read, in 5 minutes or less.

Today is for rhythm lovers.

Today’s poetry match is in honor of my drum teachers. Michelle. David. Corey. Josh.

Today is for all of you who hear drumbeat in a walk down the sidewalk, who like to hear cadence in words. Today’s poetry comes from a site dedicated to preserving the sound of poets reading aloud their own work.

From the Poetry Archive “About Us” page:

We believe poetry is for everyone. 

The Poetry Archive is the only charity wholly dedicated to the production, acquisition and preservation of recordings of significant poets reading their work aloud.

We care for and preserve these uniquely valuable voices, which might otherwise be lost, so that future generations can continue to enjoy them. We make our own recordings of poets who write in the English language, and poets also donate copies of their own archives to us so we can look after them in the long term.

When a poet dies without making a recording, a precious resource is lost for ever and as time goes by that loss is felt more and more keenly. By recording poets reading their own work, The Poetry Archive preserves for future generations uniquely valuable voices which might otherwise be lost. The Poetry Archive’s collections bring poetry into homes and classrooms and offers a valuable educational resource as well as protecting and preserving an important part of our social and cultural history.

With more than 2,000 poems to choose from, I winnowed my selection by searching for something about music. “Drum.” “Music.” “Song.”

With that I found “Some Definitions for Song” by Kei Miller. It begins like this:

“Some Definitions for Song”

– the speech of birds, as in birdsong – but with exceptions. Pigeons do not sing.
Vultures do not sing. A bargain, or a very small sum, as in “he bought it
for a song.” Think what we could purchase with songs, thrown across the
counter and landing softer than coins. Perhaps then, the origin of the
expression, to sing for your supper.”

FROM “SOME DEFINITIONS FOR SONG” BY KEI MILLER

Now go find your song wherever you step today.

But first, explore Poetry Archive and listen to “Some Definitions of Song.”

Singing and poetry, music and rhythm, the sound of human voices are good for the soul.