Read Some Poems, Dang It!

My mind has been drawn towards poetry recently. No, don't worry. I won't force my own poems to be seen by your eyes (this time). But I did want to share one or two poems that have moved more over the years as well as some other songs that are merely poems sung.


One of my favorite poets is Sappho from the island of Lesbos. I love the poem for the broken way she speaks from it. In all of the surviving parts of Sappho's poems, I feel I can just get lost in her words and imagery. She speaks in such a way that I cannot help but heed what she says. One of the poems that she wrote speaks accurately of how she has become immortalized:

I have no complaint

Prosperity that
the golden Muses
gave me was no 
delusion: dead, I
won't be forgotten. 

Nearly twenty-five centuries later, her words still affect those that read them. She is still known in the modern world. The poem I wish to share is one that catches my heart and holds it still. Sappho speaks in a way that I feel like I can understand. To pine and yearn and yet be happy is something that seems to happen to me a lot these past couple of years. 

He is more than a hero

He is a god in my eyes--
the man who is allowed
to sit beside you--he

who listens initimately 
to the sweet murmur of
your voice, the enticing

laughter that makes my own
heart beat fast, If I meet
you suddenly, I can't

speak--my tongue is broken;
a thin flame runs under
my skin; seeing nothing,

hearing only my own ears
drumming, I drop with sweat;
trembling shakes my body


and I turn paler than
dry grass. At such times
death isn't far from me


The last poem I wish to share is hymn, written by Lowrie M. Hofford, that I fell in love with as a teenager while still believing in the LDS Church. It was one that I had asked to have sang at my Farewell. When I read the lines of this poem and listen to it sung by choir or individual, I am still carried back to those years and to that point of my life, a point that seems like a lifetime ago.

Abide with me; 'tis eventide.
The day is past and gone;
The shadows of the evening fall;
The night is coming on.
Within my heart a welcome guest,
Within my home abide.
O Savior, stay this night with me;
Behold, 'tis eventide.
O Savior, stay this night with me;
Behold, 'tis eventide.

Abide with me; 'tis eventide,
And lone will be the night
If I cannot commune with thee,
Nor find in thee my light.
The darkness of the world, I fear,
Would in my home abide.
O Savior, stay this night with me;
Behold, 'tis eventide.
O Savior, stay this night with me;
Behold, 'tis eventide.

Abide with me; 'tis eventide.
Thy walk today with me
Has made my heart within me burn,
As I communed with thee.
Thy earnest words have filled my soul
And kept me near thy side.
O Savior, stay this night with me;
Behold, 'tis eventide.
O Savior, stay this night with me;
Behold, 'tis eventide.

These two different poems speak to me of different views on life and speak from centuries and centuries apart from each other. I find that poetry can sometimes express emotions best. When I was coming to terms with being gay a few years ago, I used to write poems. They were how I dealt with my sorrow and confusion as I wrestled with religious beliefs and how I felt. I don't write poetry as much now but I do write stories and blog posts and short essays now. 

I wish to share a few songs that have also meant a lot to me over the years. Each of these songs helped frame a different period of my life in a way I could not express in words.

So what poems affect you (whether through music or by word only)? Why does it move you? Why does it make you feel or think or act that way? For me, it taps into that part of my being that longs and loves to connect with others, to be understand people around me. What about poems for you?