How often do most people read poetry? How often do poems enter our lives, compared to all the books, news articles, blog posts, social media posts, and so forth?

I like poetry, but apart from re-reading poems I encountered in school, I can’t say I seek out much poetry. I buy and borrow lots of novels and non-fiction, I subscribe to newspapers and magazines, and I surf the web, but I rarely look for new poetry.

Fortunately, sometimes poetry seeks me out. How poetic of it! I wrote earlier about a neighbor who sometimes inscribes poems on the sidewalk in chalk, with the title and poet’s name included. I’ve also run into an occasional poem I like in the newspaper, or in a novel. And now, for reasons known only to the mysterious and ever-changing Algorithm, Facebook keeps showing me poems in my newsfeed.

Good poems, actually. Poems that sometimes make me look up the author. Catherine Barnett. Brian Bilston. Barbara Kingsolver (okay, I already knew her name, but I didn’t know she wrote poetry.) Poems that sometimes lead me to buy a book of poetry. Wow.

I remain a fan of Robert Frost, Ogden Nash, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, but I’m delighted to be reminded that good poetry continues to be written. (And by “good,” I really just mean “appealing to ME.”) I hope other people are also being accosted and charmed by the occasional randomly discovered poem.

Till next post.