# Poetry Request. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 28, 2008, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-request/469920 "2008-10-28T11:24:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-request/469920/1 "2008-10-28T11:24:50Z")
Morning all. I’m writing a letter to a friend of mine, and I thought that it would be a net idea to write the letter on the back of a poem. The first page of the letter is on the back of [Questions About Angels](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=176044), which is nice enough, but all other poems that I have to hand are all a bit miserable. Any favourite poems, Dopers? They have to fit comfortably on the back of an A4 sheet of paper, and, as this letter is heading to a girl who’s just broken up with her long term boyfriend (two weeks before her exams start), anything a bit upbeat would be preferable. Or downbeat, even, but not The Hollow Men. Thanking you in advance ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-request/469920/2 "2008-11-02T17:47:45Z")
Bump? If you were to receive a letter from a friend, and on the back of the letter was a poem, what would you like that poem to be? ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-request/469920/3 "2008-11-02T18:36:05Z")
This is a pretty open-ended question. 🙂 Personally, if you were going to send me a letter on the back of a poem, I’d want it to be a poem that meant something to _you_, so what do you like? One of my favorite poem’s is W.S. Merwin’s “To the Rain” (in the middle of [this](http://74.125.45.104/search?q=cache:TyYLNqK5qPAJ:www.lunararchives.com/deepin/merwin.htm+merwin+%22to+the+rain%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a) page), but…I already know that one, and I’d rather read something new to me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dosipede](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dosipede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dosipede)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-request/469920/4 "2008-11-02T18:40:36Z")
I suppose “Charge of the Light Brigade” is out of the question. I always liked “[Oranges](http://maitespace.com/englishodyssey/CW/Poetry/oranges.htm)” by Gary Soto. Might be a little long, though. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-request/469920/5 "2008-11-02T20:24:44Z")
**Especially for a woman, reading** by [Sue MacLeod](http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/That-Singing-You-Hear-Edges-Sue-MacLeod/9780921833901-item.html?ref=Search+Books%3a+%2527Sue+Macleod%2527). Somebody’s transcribed it [here](http://cerebralink.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_archive.html). Not sure if it’s 100% accurate, though. I do have MacLeod’s book; I love the poem so much. ---
**Author:** ![Stauderhorse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Stauderhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stauderhorse)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-request/469920/6 "2008-11-02T20:24:45Z")
Might I suggest two by Walt Whitman? These are two of my favorite poems: [\*\*What think You I take my Pen in Hand? \*\*](http://www.bartleby.com/142/60.html) and… [**A Glimpse**](http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-glimpse/) They both have to do with friendship, so it could work well. ---
**Author:** ![rayh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@rayh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rayh)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-request/469920/7 "2008-11-02T21:48:48Z")
A bit of a sad one, but one that might help. [And nothing is ever as you want it to be](http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/and-nothing-is-ever-as-you-want-to-be/).