For National Poetry Month, I am going to record some of my favorite poems and talk a little about what they mean to me. I hope you enjoy!

I must have first encountered “Pied Beauty” in a college literature class. I can’t quite place it, but I remember I was immediately seduced by the idea of it: that there is something praise-worthy in that which is “dappled,” “stippled” or “strange.”

Which is to say, beautifully imperfect.

Yes. Forever, yes.

–from Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works

*image courtesy of Jenny Downing