I have had some fine moments hearing the news from Lake Wobegon. It was part of "A Prairie Home Companion" programs which came to us over Wisconsin Public Radio. I take Garrison Keillor to be a master of language, timing and delivery. But The Writer's Almanac comes and goes with me. At times, it brings tears to my eyes and at other times, it can bring yawns. It is free and it always features a poem.
I can enjoy poetry and I think the business of bards, troubadours, recitations, performances is a solid and important part of humanity's development. Just as I am a stalker of the actual pleasure that readers report having had from Locker Room Lust v. from Moby Dick, I am interested in the reports of actual pleasure from poetry. I take a broad definition of poetry to be very carefully constructed language, often celebrating something typically overlooked, such as the moment of pouring a bit of cream into coffee or the moment of pushing a doorbell button.
Today's Writer's Almanac poem, Horseplay, is by George Bilgere. I have found other poems by him that I enjoyed. Like Ogden Nash, a poet's titles for poems can be a source of pleasure above and beyond the poem. Bilgere's Once Again I Fail to Read an Important Novel and Nash's To a Small Boy Standing on My Shoes While I Am Wearing Them give me a lift without even reading the actual poem.
http://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio/twa-the-writers-almanac-for-january-13-2020/
There are shining moments in our lives that matter, that beautify, that last and sometimes a poem spotlights them, increases our pleasures in life, in our surprising selves and in our love and appreciation of others. Some of the best moments are internal ones, funny ones, as we try to point out important credentials that show that we matter.
