At the beginning of October I wrote a post entitled THE GOOD-MORROW #NATIONALPOETRYDAY to link in with the National Poetry Day here in the UK. At the same time I asked for your comments about your favourite poem or poems, which one(s) had inspired you over the years. The response was overwhelming!
A huge heartfelt thank you to everyone for commenting – through you I reconnected with some old favourite poems as well as welcoming new ones into my heart.
As the responses kept coming the idea of collating all the suggestions grew on me and I am happy to include the link to a PDF document here. Precious Lives, Precious Poems includes the poems mentioned as well as the people suggesting them. Where possible I have included links to the bloggers websites. Please do take the time to visit them – a rewarding read at each and every one and all lovely people to boot!
I apologise in advance for any mistakes – they will all be mine!
Enjoy and thank you once again. Connecting, sharing, learning is the true joy of this blogging journey.
By the way it is possible to import this document into iBooks, Kindles etc to save it and read at your leisure.
To start reading here is the link again: Precious Lives, Precious Poems
Annika Perry 
Hi Annika..
Happy New Year.
Just came across your blog
Will download via the
Link you shared
And take a look
Thanks for sharing
Best wishes and regards.
Ved
Feels so nice to be connected with each and every one.
I do agree, it is a wonderfu! 😀
Yes
How nice. Thank you for sharing the PDF. What a treat! 😊😊
My pleasure, Jessica! 😀 Hope you get a chance to take a look now and then…one to be read in small chunks!
Good idea! After I get caught up on all the blogs I’ll dive into those. ❤️
Thank you for taking the time to do that! I downloaded it and can’t wait to read through them all. One poem that I’ve always remembered is The Daffodils – a good one to remember for this time of year!
It was a pleasure to compile this, Sheila and so happy you could download – definitely a document that should be perused over time! 😀😀 I do hope you enjoy it. Oh, I’m so happy you mentioned The Daffodils, I haven’t thought about this one for years although I adored it as young, thank you for the reminder! Yep, we need their sunshine yellow now!
Pingback: Ocean Victories and a Thank You | Sheila Hurst
Thank you Annika for your kind gift. I have saved the anthology and will nibble through it with pleasure 🙂
So glad you like it, Janice! 😀 Nibbling through poetry is the best way to read it!
HOW WONDERFUL IS THIS???!!!! These poems – every single one – are ones I’ve either known about and forgotten, or missed somehow when learning about great poetry, or loved for years, like the Mary Oliver poems. I wish you could publish this – but in the meantime, I’m printing it out so I can take my time to re-read these beloved poems, day by day. THANK YOU – what a gift!! ❤
Oh wow, Pam – thank you so much for your lovely enthusiastic comment – I can feel its energy all the way here! 😀 I felt so enthralled with all the great suggestions by the bloggers, many which were like revisiting an old friend and I so wanted to share this with everyone here! I do like the idea of printing this out – so much easier to savor and reread at leisure. Do enjoy in quiet peaceful moments. ❤️
Hi Annika!
I wanted to let you know that your name was drawn for the e-copy of Sheila Hurst’s book, Ocean Echoes. If you can send me your email address to authorjillweatherholt@gmail.com, we’ll get your claim code to you. Thanks for being a loyal visitor! I always enjoy your comments. 🙂
Hi Jill, that great! 😀😀 Many thanks and I look forward to reading her book! It’s not often I win anything!
Nice idea, and it must have taken you a while to compile. I had a browse and if time permits will come back to meet a few people. 🙂
It was a joy to compile and yes, it took a while but only because I dawdled and got carried away reading other poems and about the poets…a lovely detour in the work! 😀 Enjoy your browsing and I totally empathise with time being short…these bloggers all have such wonderful sites, always interesting, inspiring so well worth a visit to some of them if you have a chance.
Oh, Annika! I love, I love what you did…how special! Taking time to put together such an outstanding selection of poems…most are my favourites. I’ve downloaded into my iBooks, and it will brighten my mornings as I sit and read in the bus on my way to work. What a lovely idea, thank you! 🙂
Khaya, thank you so much for your warm and lovely comment.😀😀 I can feel your enthusiasm all the way here! I’m smiling away at the though of you reading this on the bus to work…a perfect start to the day and just right to peruse a poem or two before the start of the day proper.
Other readers have already eloquently expressed gratitude for this beautiful gift, Annika. Let me simply add another thank you for your creativity and thoughtfulness. ❤
Carol, thank you so much for your comment, it means a lot to have you visiting. ❤️ I hadn’t thought of this as creative but reading your words makes me smile with joy – I suppose it was! Many thanks and hope you enjoy. 😀
Omgosh! This is very nice Annika! I really like this idea!
Thank you, Kathy!😀 So glad you like it. 😀
I loved this since I enjoy poetry. I have love of nature and music. There are so many poets and musicians who focus on nature. The poetry is lyrical and the music is carried in my soul and cells. 🙂 Annika, thanks so much!
Robin, what a beautifully spiritual comment, I’m very moved – an anthem to poetry and music! 😀 Both live in our souls, stay with us even if forgotten for a short while and become part of our being…documents like this are little prompts.
Yes, they are like brain triggers to our memories, Annika. So excited you “got” my emotional reaction. Your description about them “living in our souls” and my comment being (to you) “an anthem to poetry and music” were such lovely responses back! 🙂
Thank you! ❤
What a wonderful collection. Many of the poems took me back to my high school days. So happy to read Mary Oliver.
Thanks for the time you took, Annika, in putting this together. ❤
Thank you so much, Carol 😀 Our schools must obviously have been following a very similar curriculum as I studied many of these at school as well. It has been wonderful to learn of Mary Oliver through this post and also come across unfamiliar poets as well. A joy to collate albeit time-consuming.
What a wonderful collection, Annika! Thank you so much for the effort you put into this. I’m not familiar with a lot of the poems, but this is an opportunity to read the ones so many people enjoy. Thank you!
Julie, thank you so much and it was a pleasure and delight to compile this document. It is an opportunity to see in an easy manner the favourite poems of many others…and perhaps to find another favourite oneself. Hope you enjoy perusing! 😀
This must have taken you a long time to put together. Obviously a labour of love and it shows. It’s wonderful to have all these poems together to be able to read at leisure. Thank you Annika
Mike
Thank you so much, Mike! 😀 So kind of you to say the labour of love shows in the final document. It is fantastic to have completed this and have it so handy and easy to read and a joy to share here.
Thank you, Annika, for your hard work producing this wonderful list. It needs time to absorb and reflect on so much, I shall have to take my time over it. (Perhaps the whole idea of poetry?)
Wishing you and yours a Happy Christmas.
Yes, quite Peter – take your time over this and the great thing is you can now save it and access it with ease – that is what gave me the idea to start with as I was switching back and forth between websites reading the poems! So glad you like it and enjoy reflecting and perusing at your leisure. 😀
Hi Annika – what a great idea to collect all these poems into one list!
Thank you so much! 😃 The idea came to me as I read the comments all with such interesting poems that I was looking up and reading until I thought so many would also enjoy them, but in an easier format than searching up for each and every one.
Annika, I have just started strolling through the poems you have so patiently cited in such a readable format, for my failing eyes do appreciate it. And everyone i pull up seems to be a favorite or one I ‘ve read years ago and now has returned to enlighten me again. So I thank you for this wonderful gift, it is indeed appreciated and something to go black to time and time again..
What a wonderful image of strolling through the poems – I’m very taken with your phrasing here, JC and gives a perfect feeling of a cosy peruse, enjoying with patience. 😃 Great that you found the format easy to read, I don’t like struggling to read on screen myself so hoped this would work best for everyone. It’s odd isn’t it that you don’t realise how much poetry you know until reminded by something like this collection – I was surprised myself and a joy to revisit. Enjoy your return to them!😃
so generous,
talented
dear poet 🙂
Truly my pleasure
To feature all these wonderful poets,
This writing format is not my forte!😀
Oh Annika! How lovely 🙂 This is a great way to give back to the readers and those who love poetry! I just briefly looked through the document (I will read it more when I have additional time) and see it includes Shakespeare and Frost, whom are both amazing poets in my opinion. In other words, the readers of your other post have good taste! HUGS
Christy, thank you so much for your lovely comment – it has me smiling and chuckling – the poems were indeed all so interesting and wonderful, some quite unusual, testing, spiritual; the eclectic mix is fascinating and revelatory. Hope you get chance to read a bit now and then to enjoy the document fully.😀😃 Christy, I wonder, do you have a favourite poem? Hugs 😀
I do love your comment back to me, Annika! I started looking through the document and I think what I have delighted in most so far has been the eclectic mix of the poems. As for my favorite poem, I did a big post about it. No rush to read it but it is called “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost https://poeticparfait.com/2016/09/01/analysis-poem-nothing-gold-can-stay-robert-frost/
That is one I haven’t heard of before – I have bookmarked your analysis and will read it soon when I can sit down with a cuppa and concentrate, with you and Aqui on the case my brain cells need to come out and work! 😀
Hehe no rush for the read, Annika as I know this is a busy time of year and blogging gets busy any time of the year 😉 Thanks for always making time and for your sweet nature xx
Thank you so much Annika for this lovely share. I have downloaded it. Happy holidays. 🙂
My pleasure, Debby and hope you enjoy the poems! 😃 Great the downloading worked! Christmas tree and decorations now up so in the holiday spirit now!😃
Just got my tree up today! 🙂
What a great idea Annika. I’ve recently discovered Mary Oliver and have just bought ‘Winter Hours’. My favourite poem though is Anne Sexton’s ‘Her Kind’.
Thank you, Andrea and funny you have also just recently discovered Mary Oliver. Was it through your blogging as well? Or is she experiencing a revival in her popularity or perhaps her poems are striking a chord with today’s world. I’ve just taken a quick look at her ‘Winter Hours’ and it seems fascinating with being so many essays as well – it’s on my Xmas list now! Also thank you for sharing your favourite poem – wow! 😃 I want to read this again…but extremely powerful and great to learn of a poet I hadn’t come across before. Another Pulitzer Prize winner! Thank you so much for your comment. 😃
Yes, I discovered her through blogging. I have to confess I don’t read much poetry but I’ve read more than ever before since I began blogging.
How wonderful, Annika! Thanks so much for this precious gift you’ve put together for us all and for including my selection. Blessings and love, my dear, thoughtful friend. HUGS! 🙂
Bette, thank you so much for your wonderful comment, it means so much to me. ❤️ I had imagined it as sort of gift but thought it might seem presumptuous to say so…happy you saw it as such. Blessings to you too, Bette on this third Advent day.😃
Happy Advent! Hugs, my friend… 🙂
What a great idea and poetic treat, Annika. I’m not at home now, but I plan to print it off later so I can take my time and indulge. Thanks so much!
Thank you so much, Diana – it’s my pleasure. 😀 This is something which should definitely be perused at ones leisure – I hadn’t thought of printing it off but great idea. Enjoy. 😃
To be honest, Annika, I couldn’t wait and had to browse right then and there. It was such a lovely variety and to know that they are the favorites of many bloggers I know was extra special.
What an amazing collection, Annika. Kudos to you for curating it. I’m going to repost it to my blog, but I’m backed up on book reviews so you won’t see it until April! Still, I wanted everyone to enjoy this eclectic collection. I found so many forgotten favorites in here.
Thank you so much, Jacqui and I love the idea of being a curator – very chuffed indeed – and yep, an eclectic mix of poems which I think is fabulous. 😀 Also many thanks in advance for the repost…I totally understand about the backlog of book reviews – I have so many I’m even half-considering whether to start a separate book review blog.
Thanks Annika, I can’t wait to have a look at this when I’m back home at my computer. It is so good to be reminded of poems that may have slipped from our minds for awhile, and to also find a new one to love.
Exactly, Lana and part of the reason it’s taken a while to compile is that I became carried away learning more about certain poets and then reading more of their work. A great diversion!😀
It’s a great diversion!
I can’t but agree with previous comments. This is such a great and special gift. Like the best possible Christmas present to your blogging friends.
The collection is wonderful and it must have taken some labour to put all this together. Furthermore in a format so we can save it. Thank you so much.
Mirja
Thank you so much for your wonderful comment, Mirja – I’m so touched that you call it a Christmas present to my blogging friends! 😀😃 Quite so, although I hadn’t realised it at the time. It did take quite a bit of time over a couple of months working on it now and then. My only problem is that I kept getting carried away and reading around the poets and more of their poems! 😀 Not that I minded in the least. Happy reading!❤️
What a special gift you’ve given us, Annika. Thank you for taking the time to compile this beautiful collection. It’s wonderful!
My pleasure, Jill and so glad you liked it!😀 A joy to compile although always nervous of errors creeping.
This is a wonderful collection. Most of my favorites poets are in the collection. I am sorry I somehow missed the opportunity to participate. My all time favorite poem is Blessings by Ronald Wallace.
Bernadette, that is a pity as I would have loved to include this one. The blogging world is very busy indeed and I sometimes miss posts . Thank you for sharing ‘Blessings’ – absolutely beautiful and I can see why it is your favourite. And yeah, another new one to me.