Oh Poetry! How you untangle 

The wire we call life.

You guide us through secret lands

Of good and evil, love and strife.

Oh Poetry! You are a dainty lady

Who dresses herself in a million ways.

Epics, haikus, sonnets, nonets,

You silence the nightingale with every phrase.

Many moons ago in Ancient Greek,

Under your name Homer set to write

An epic ‘bout the bloody Trojan War,

Which people would forever cite.

Then back into the scenic Stratford Town,

A man called William Shakspeare lifts his quill,

And then a billion lines of love pours down,

And so much so much heart you shall fulfill.

In the royal Ducal Palace of Mantua,

Monteverdi knew your boundless power,

When Orfeo sang you with his blessed lyre,

Callous Pluto relented before an hour.

Again in the faraway east,  

Matsuo Basho met his time.

By turning everything into flowers and the moon,

You gave us eyes to see the world with no rhyme.  

Up into the dancing thistle fields,

Robert Burns sang your nostalgic line,

Which invites us tak a cup’o kindness

For days of auld lang syne.

Still in the British land,

William Wordsworth caught his turn,

He wandered lonely as a cloud,

And with golden daffodils you melt concern.

Deep into a dark Gothic Chamber

Where sat Edgar Allan Poe,

 with the Raven echoing “Nevermore”,

You made us shiver with woe.

As the century turns into a maze,

Following Robert Frost,

You lead us to the Road Not Taken,

Whenever we’re feeling lost.

Later in the Harlem Renaissance,

When Langston Hughes was ready to write,

You spoke out for love and equality,

And condemned injustice without a fight.

Oh Poetry! Isn’t it amazing how

You make lifeless words spring alive!

From an ode to an elegy,

You shall forever thrive.