What Are We Reading?

My mind has been all over the place lately, so much that I haven’t taken the time to read as often as I wanted. This seems a bit redundant, but reading is one of my favorite pastimes. Diving into a story and escaping from reality even for a little while is almost a necessity for me, maybe for all of us. Our brains need a break from the exhausting tasks of adulthood.

A format that has always fascinated me is poetry, I think it’s because writing poems is a very unique form of storytelling. Life lessons, experiences, and other observations are expressed differently in this particular outlet than in others. By the way, for all of you curious minds out there, yes, I did try my hand at poetry when I was younger. I recently went back and found some of my older writings and I have to say, I’ve never cringed so much in my life. On the other hand, there were also signs of improvement, even though I still have much to learn.

So, as I’ve started to rebuild my own personal library, I aim to add more poetry books to that collection. One such addition is titled The Best Loved Poems of the American People. It’s a compilation of works from many different poets put together by Hazel Felleman. I haven’t gotten too far into the book yet, but there are some truly beautiful pieces! It’s amazing to see ideals like love and friendship interpreted in various ways and from numerous perspectives!

Quite a few of them are now on my list of favorites. One of them is written by Grace Stricker Dawson and is named “To A Friend.” Pretty straightforward, right? However, the message in it is, to me, very heartfelt and relatable. Just as in all relationships, genuine friendship is hard work, but when you find it, it’s a treasure! I believe this poet expresses that in this piece and whoever this friend is, I can sense a level of gratitude towards them as well.

Do you guys have at least one friend like that? I’m so grateful that I do! I’m interested to read the rest of this collection and finding some other gems. If you haven’t read it before, I highly recommend it, I hope you enjoy it, too!