Inspired By Poetry

In this a month of poetry
We celebrate many an honoree
....

OK. I was planning to write this whole post in verse, but it turns out I'm not that talented. Poetry is hard, y'all! Though certainly inspirational. We've all opened books to find chapter headings that quote the lines of poets both well known and obscure. There's also a few gems in which poetic threads run throughout, thematically tying novels together. I've put up a display in the Young Adult Room with a few fabulous teen books and the poems that shape and inspire them. One of my faves is Lips Touch by Laini Taylor. This National Book Award honoree features three short stories, one of which was inspired by Christina Rossetti's amazing "Goblin Market," in which two sisters are tempted by goblin men selling irresistibly delicious fruit that will cause the consumer to waste away. Why? Who knows. Goblins are like that. Here's an excerpt of the poem:

Evening by evening

Among the brookside rushes,

Laura bow’d her head to hear,

Lizzie veil’d her blushes:

Crouching close together

In the cooling weather,

With clasping arms and cautioning lips,

With tingling cheeks and finger tips.

“Lie close,” Laura said,

Pricking up her golden head:

“We must not look at goblin men,

We must not buy their fruits:

Who knows upon what soil they fed

Their hungry thirsty roots?”

“Come buy,” call the goblins

Hobbling down the glen.

Isn't that saucy?