It’s spring, the birds are chirping, the trees are blossoming, and I’m reading a biography of Carl Sandburg. Poetry is on my mind. Let’s celebrate National Poetry Month!

Most of my knowledge of poetry is based on high school learnings. 10th grade was British Literature, 11 grade was American literature. One of my fondest memories is learning Tennyson’s “Ulysses.” Even was a teenager, I loved it. The final lines are most famous. The fact that they made their way into a James Bond movie, Skyfall, only endears them to me more. Spoken aloud by Dame Judi Dench no less. The finale of “Ulysses”:

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.