First meme of 2007---all about poems

The first poem I remember reading was
..."maggie and milly and molly and may" by E.E.Cummings.

I was forced to memorize numerous poems in school because:
I was involved in fisticuffs (as the new kid in the neighborhood, one year younger than everyone else in my class and much smaller--I had to start AND win a fight to be accepted). I memorized Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods" and Shakespeare's "Who is Sylvia?"

I read poetry because...
it calls out to be read. Aloud.

A poem I'm likely to think about when asked about a favorite poem:
Theodore Roethke's "I Knew a Woman." That's the one, despite for romantic-morbid-age-19 reasons. My first love (and best friend of all time) and I vowed we'd each have a line from this poem put on our tombstone. I have mine planned (Let seed be grass, and grass turn into hay).

I write poetry, but...
I'd rather teach it. That's my guilty little 2007 confession.

I find poetry...
everywhere but on the blank page.

The last time I heard REAL poetry..
Brian Barker was reading from The Animal Gospels.--Check it out--he's published by Tupelo, so you know the poems are good.

I think poetry is like...
tidal breath.