# Help me pick out poems to share at work for National Poetry Month **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 27, 2015, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-out-poems-to-share-at-work-for-national-poetry-month/716167 "2015-03-27T23:54:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Haunted\_Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/94ad74/32.png) [@Haunted\_Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Haunted_Pasta)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-out-poems-to-share-at-work-for-national-poetry-month/716167/21 "2015-04-01T20:22:56Z")
Is “High Flight” too well-known? It sure is a fantastic poem, at any rate. As an item of historical interest, it was referenced by Ronald Reagan in his excellent speech to the nation after the _Challenger_ space shuttle disaster, the 30th anniversary of which is approaching. The author, John Gillespie Magee, Jr. was a pilot who was killed in World War II. "Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence. Hovering there I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air. “Up, up the long delirious burning blue I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace, where never lark, or even eagle, flew; and, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space, put out my hand and touched the face of God.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-out-poems-to-share-at-work-for-national-poetry-month/716167/22 "2015-04-01T20:41:48Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > [ul][li]A diversity of moods and tones would be good - something romantic, something funny, something profound, **something scary…** [/li][/ul] I recommend something from H.P. Lovecraft’s [_Fungi from Yuggoth._](http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/poetry/p289.aspx) ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-out-poems-to-share-at-work-for-national-poetry-month/716167/23 "2015-04-01T23:07:46Z")
This one’s a little more light-hearted than most of the other runners - I rather like it. \* When I am an old woman I shall wear purple With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter. I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells And run my stick along the public railings And make up for the sobriety of my youth. I shall go out in my slippers in the rain And pick flowers in other people’s gardens And learn to spit. You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat And eat three pounds of sausages at a go Or only bread and pickle for a week And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes. But now we must have clothes that keep us dry And pay our rent and not swear in the street And set a good example for the children. We must have friends to dinner and read the papers. But maybe I ought to practice a little now? So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple. \* Jenny Joseph [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-out-poems-to-share-at-work-for-national-poetry-month/716167.md?page=1)