I love how different genres of books can appeal to all kinds of readers. I recently read three books written by poets, in the categories of inspiration, memoir, and prayer. Maggie Smith’s Keep Moving is a little collection of “notes on loss, creativity, and change.” Natasha Trethewey’s breathtaking memoir, Memorial Drive, is about the poet’s adolescent experience losing her mother to violence. And John O’Donohue’s To Bless the Space Between Us is a book of blessings, of which journalist Connie Schultz says, “One needn’t be Catholic (I’m not) or Irish (I am, but I try not to brag) to appreciate O’Donohue’s calm and reassuring presence on every page of his book.”
The through line in these titles is the idea that poets have a lot to teach us about resilience. I wrote a post about it for Psychology Today that you can read here. If, like me, you’re always on the look out for meditations that remind you to live your life with intention, any of these three will do the trick.
[I highly recommend listening to the audio version of Memorial Drive as Trethewey is poetry personified]