Poems for Life: Celebrities on the Poems they Love

By Anna Quindlen

What is your favorite poem? That is the question students from two fifth-grade classes at a New York grade school asked famous people to whom they had written. Their idea, the students explained, was to put together a book that would benefit the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children. The students were also studying poems in class and wanted to know if anybody still, in fact, read and gained insight from poetry. Touched by this appeal to their hearts, minds, and memories, fifty celebrities responded to their inquiries, including Geraldine Ferraro, Allen Ginsberg, Rudi Giuliani, Peter Jennings, Angela Lansbury, Yo-Yo Ma, Isabella Rossellini, Diane Sawyer, Ally Sheedy, Kurt Vonnegut, and Tom Wolfe. The poems they offer range from John Donne to Langston Hughes, but their letters all express hope that the studentsand readers of this wonderful gift bookwill read and take inspiration from the poetry of past and present.

Of all the words that have stuck to the ribs of my soul, poetry has been the most filling,” writes Anna Quindlen in her introduction, and this beautiful, inspiring collection of poetry is the perfect expression of how poets can influence and shape our lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Release date: Dec 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781628722765

Anna Quindlen

Anna Marie Quindlen is an author, journalist, and opinion columnist. Her New York Times column, Public and Private, won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992.

Reviews for Poems for Life

[glade1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well, I didn't mean to, but I picked up this little volume last night and read the whole thing! It's obviously a quick read, and not as weighty or as peopled with really famous individuals as I had expected. Basically it was a project "compiled by the Grade V Classes of The Nightingale-Bamford School" to benefit the International Rescue Committee. The students wrote to various celebrities and "important" people asking that they contribute a favorite poem and explain its significance to them.As is always likely when approaching a large group of individuals, particularly when most of them are creative and/or driven, the result is somewhat erratic. Some people gave long, thoughtful responses; some jotted a quick note; some dictated an answer to a secretary. Some sent poems; some sent scraps of poems; some referred the students to poems; and some sent or referred to prose selections instead (why not?). The contributors range from "really" famous (Angela Lansbury, Yo-Yo Ma), to well-known in literary circles (E. L. Doctorow, Joyce Carol Oates), to "huh?" (Whitney North Seymour Jr., Richard W. Riley). They are authors, politicians, teachers, priests, rabbis, actors, movie producers, photographers, and poets. The selections include some fairly predictable choices, such as "If," by Rudyard Kipling, and "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening," by Robert Frost, but there are some lesser known poems and at least one that was composed for this book.I think the one that spoke most strongly to me was Elie Wiesel's contribution, written by a Jewish boy named Motele in Yiddish (no last name, date, or poem title is provided):From tomorrow on, I shall be sad --From tomorrow on!Today I will be gay.What is the use of sadness -- tell me that? --Because these evil winds begin to blow?Why should I grieve for tomorrow -- today?Tomorrow may be so good, so sunny,Tomorrow the sun may shine for us again;We shall no longer need to be sad.From tomorrow on, I shall be sad --From tomorrow on!Not today, no! today I will be glad.And every day, no matter how bitter it be,I will say:From tomorrow on, I shall be sad,Not today!This is an enjoyable little collection. I will likely keep it for a while and reread it.