A Poem as Lovely as a Tree?
In "Trees," American poet Joyce Kilmer wrote, "I think that I shall never see/ A poem lovely as a tree."  Poet and English faculty chair  Matthew Kearney also considers the power and place of verse in his October 10 campus life blog.

Kearney recalls the visit of former Poet Laureate Robert Pinksy to Mercersburg in 2004.  He also cites the passion of Billy Collins— another former Poet Laureate—to make Everyman's editions of verse classics something that every person can experience without intimidation. The website conceived by Collins, Poetry 180, aims to embrace the distilled, raw feeling of verse without the frou frou ("frou frou" is French onomatopoeia for swishing skirts, if you're interested) analysis.

Enjoy a sample poem from Collins' website:

The Moon

Robert Bly

After writing poems all day,
I go off to see the moon in the pines.
Far in the woods I sit down against a pine.
The moon has her porches turned to face the light,
But the deep part of her house is in the darkness.