Poetry puts off many people. They associate it with required classes in school. It’s like your mother telling you to eat your broccoli. Well, in truth, a lot of poetry is a slog. But there is much poetry that is clever, engaging, witty and brief. The purpose of this SDG is to pursue that kind of poetry, both early and modern. No slogging here. The poems are selected for meaning, but are not dreary in language or content. I have found that this kind of poetry stays with the reader because of its cleverness, deft and unexpected uses of language and brevity.

I coordinated an SDG with the same title and much of the same poetry seven years ago. I was asked if I wish to repeat it.  I do. In my mind, the poems merit repeated reading and discussion.  Most of the poems are short enough to allow several poets and a number of poems to be included in a single session.   I also added a session on limericks with the idea that each SDG member will bring a limerick or two which are clever and have a moral.   Our discussions in the previous SDG were excellent and I would expect the same here.

Each SDG session will consist of brief briographical information about the poet(s) of the day, readings aloud of some of the poems of the day and discussion.

‍