Special: Poems to Carry in the Blood, with Tara Penry

This is a special bonus post in support of a worthy project

Tara Penry

made a request in notes a few weeks back for suggestions of short poems her college students might commit to memory. What followed was a perfect example of Notes working the way I think most writers and poets here would like it to. A veritable mountain of favorite poems from so many people. It was stunning. You can read the original note and the list of suggestions here

Poems to Carry in the Blood

She asked us all to record ourselves reciting or reading a favorite poem and post it on October 25, tagging her so she’d see it.

Below is an audio recording of the poem I chose to read. It’s called “Genes,” and it was written by Sharon Dunn.

I first read it when my son was about the age of the son she mentions in the poem, eleven years old. I was so struck by the familiarity of her description of this young man reaching out for the things that interest him, and a mother’s perspective on where those interests might have come from. I have come back to this poem over and over again as my children have gotten older, as my mother grew ill and eventually died. I think it is human nature to wonder who we most resemble, how we are constructed from the parts of those who came before us.

But the true wonder is that we are not simply the sum of those parts. We are all that and something else, too. A secret ingredient or particular spark that lets us take all that we are and create of it something new and unique. Sharon Dunn captured this idea in a way that has shaped my thinking and stuck with me for many years.

It’s a great day to share your favorite poem! If you do, be sure to tag

Quiet Reading with Tara Penry

.

Happy Friday!