A Catholic Poet

Any mention of Gerard Manley Hopkins will catch my eye.   Three years ago, three other ladies and I started a monthly Tea & Poetry.   I was the only one who who had not gone to college, knew next to nothing about poetry, but my best friend from Jamaica, who had been much influenced by the wonderful Irish Jesuit priests there, was an English major.   She can recite from memory a treasure trove of poetry.   Poetry was not my "cup of tea" but she influenced me so much that I had the trepitude to be the first presenter....on Gerard Manley Hopkins.   I start from the top!!!   Three years into our T&P, GMH is favorite.    Poetry has taught me to "see."  

This morning on MPR, Garrison Keillor gave his usual Almanac excerpt, this time a poem by May Swenson, "Daffodils." in which her delightful metaphor was telephones.   Just this week I had admired a new neighbor's daffodils marching all in a single file row.   Suddenly, I saw myself in my first job, at 17, during the war in 1943.   I had a telephone which perhaps today would not be recognized.   But my telephone was ... a daffodil.

Children should be introduced to poetry at a very young age.   It teaches us to "see."   If they can master two languages before five (as with immigrant children), think what they can do with poetry!