"Eating Poetry" by Mark Strand

HAPPY NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!!! Even though you should read poetry all year long, Poetry Month is a great time to really celebrate poetry. I hope you take this month as an excuse to revisit some of your favorite poets or find some new ones. I love poetry month (though I'm sure that as a keeper of a poetry blog, that doesn't surprise you) and making time to look at back at some of my favorites like "Eating Poetry". Even though I’ve read it a million times, I get such a kick out of this poem by Mark Strand and it seems like the perfect way to get Poetry Month started. Oh, and just so you know, our theme for the month of April will be poems about poetry. Poems about writing it, reading it, loving it, hating it, eating it…

Eating Poetry
By Mark Strand

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.

The librarian does not believe what she sees.
Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.

The poems are gone.
The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.

Their eyeballs roll,
their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.

She does not understand.
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams.

I am a new man.
I snarl at her and bark.
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.

Found at: http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poems/poem.html?id=237702