Santa Clara County Poet Laureate Blog

The Song of the Bell
Das Lied von der Glocke
by Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805)

The “Song of the Bell” (“Das Lied von der Glocke”) by Friedrich Schiller is probably one of Germany’s best-known poems (and I believe longest) and a rich source of everyday German sayings. It inevitably had become part of my life way before I first read it, and only then I discovered the actual source of all the sayings. The section about marriage was read at my wedding by my best friend and has a particularly special meaning to me ever since. I read the poem regularly, always make new discoveries and hopefully one day will learn it by heart.

Fog
by Carl Sandburg

“Fog” represents important firsts for me. I was in first grade when my teacher read it to our class. It’s my first conscious memory (as I pieced together later) of free verse poetry, metaphor, and imagery. At the time, I loved how its tone made me feel: quiet, peaceful, a bit mysterious. I have vivid memories of looking at nature and weather differently after hearing it. Years later, I appreciate how Sandburg deftly conveys a metaphor for life? death? fear? within 6 short lines, a gentle reminder of how we, too, will move on.

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg
1878-1967

Too Many Daves
by Theodor Seuss Geisel
aka Dr. Seuss

I’m taking advantage of my position at the keyboard to take note and salute the work of Dr. Seuss who played an important part in most of our poetry lives, either as parents reading to delighted children, or as children ourselves reveling in the music and invention of his poetry. He delights us with rhythm, rhyme, and a certain essential wildness. “Dum-ditty-dum-ditty-whack! whack! whack!,” from Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb, my once-toddlers’ favorite.

Thank you Dr. Seuss for letting us play. I dedicate my favorite, “Too Many Daves,” to the never-too-many Daves in my life, but especially today to Dave Denny, current Cupertino Poet Laureate, and David Tom, my best “Dave” fan ever. Please read aloud to someone.

Oh, and why not list your favorite Dr. Seuss in the comments below?

Theodor Seuss Geisel, Dr. Seuss

Things Shouldn’t Be So Hard
by Kay Ryan

I spent the first decade of this millennium caring for my parents — a great honor.  Mom was a teenager during the Great Depression.  She fell in love with my father who left to serve his country in WWII.  She taught school while she waited, and they married when he returned.  Living in tiny California farming towns she raised five children.  Kay Ryan’s poem “Things Shouldn’t Be So Hard” reminds me of her life and of the importance of being soft.

A life should leave
deep tracks:
ruts where she
went out and back
to get the mail
or move the hose
around the yard;
where she used to
stand before the sink,
a worn out place;
beneath her hand,
the china knobs
rubbed down to
white pastilles;
the switch she
used to feel for
in the dark
almost erased.
Her things should
keep her marks.
The passage
of a life should show;
it should abrade.
And when life stops,
a certain space
—however small—
should be left scarred
by the grand and
damaging parade.
Things shouldn’t
be so hard.

Kay Ryan