Gift Ideas for Poets
Poets, when asked what they'd like for Christmas, often come up with unorthodox ideas. I include my own in this assessment.
For the last week or so, my children and loved ones have asked me what I'd like for Christmas. Invariably, I rattle off a few things that are useful. Clothing, perfume, and jewelry don't rank high on my list.
Things that take priority are books, stamps, paper, pens, and anything else related to writing. But there are other useful things as well, things that bring a bit of comfort to my poetic soul. A bottle of good bordeaux, preferably red, should please any palate and induce reflection that can lead to poetic thoughts, as long as you don't drink the whole bottle by yourself. Then there's freezer tape. I use this for a number of purposes. Right now, a wad of this tape is holding the battery in my cordless phone. I have also turned index cards into stickit type notes with this tape. I use it in the kitchen when the children open a bag of potato chips by ripping it down the middle.
Being a brave poet, I asked my fellow friends, whom I call "my dears," at Gazebo to share their poetic wish lists with me. As anticipated, I received some highly creative responses, including a Christmas poem penned by Ernest Slyman. Mr. Slyman's home page offers a link to The Poet's Comic Strip and many of his widely published works in top literary journals. He is also founder of the message board, Reverie.
The poem was gift enough, but there were other excellent responses from the talented poets who post on this popular board. Staffer Karen Masullo wishes for items such as a Norton's Anthology, stamps, envelopes, and more stamps. Other wish-I-hads include a "larger wastepaper basket" and "a bottle of brandy from a pear tree."
Someone named Captain Silverware dreams of receiving the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, a tome that, while worthwhile, will certainly add weight to Santa's bag. The captain is wise enough to request a "wheelbarrow" for carrying this book and "twenty-five oompa loompas to read it and prepare summaries of the main sections." I must comment here that this task would take a longer lifetime than most of us have. I own a copy of this reference, and often must read a passage at least a dozen times to arrive at the conclusion the writer intended. Even then, I occasionally cannot be sure I interpreted correctly. The captain threw in "mint tea" and a "good proofreader" as well, adding "Catholic guilt" to the list of 16 items.
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