After hearing Jim Holt on NPR one day, discussing his essay “Got Poetry?” where he makes the case for memorizing poetry, I was inspired to sign up for Poem-A-Day at poets.org. I may not get around to memorizing many poems, but I thought it would be useful as a teacher of writing (and a literate adult) to get more poetry into my daily reading. Some days the poem comes and I don’t feel very engaged - the poet’s message and my mood just aren’t jiving at that moment. But sometimes the poem arrives in my inbox and it sparks all kinds of images and ideas. More after the jump:

Today’s poem was Ode on Dictionaries by Barbara Hamby. And while the poem itself is not appropriate for children, there are snippets that could be shared to show how a poet loves words - devours them.

I’m building
my own book as a mason makes a wall or a gelding
runs round the track—brick by brick, step by step, word by word,
jonquil by gerrymander, syllabub by greensward,
swordplay by snapdragon, a never-ending parade
with clowns and funambulists in my own mouth, homemade
treasure chest of tongue and teeth, the brain’s roustabout, rough
unfurler of tents and trapezes, off-the-cuff
unruly troublemaker in the high church museum
of the world.

I like the idea of students keeping track of words they adore - whether because of how they sound or what they mean - and building a poem “brick by brick, word by word” with their favorite words they’ve found over time.