This is one of the poems sent to the people on my National Poetry Month email list back in April.
I hope you take it personally.
Personal
Don’t take it personal, they said;
but I did, I took it all quite personal—the breeze and the river and the color of the fields;
the price of grapefruit and stamps,the wet hair of women in the rain—
And I cursed what hurt meand I praised what gave me joy,
the most simple-minded of possible responses.The government reminded me of my father,
with its deafness and its laws,and the weather reminded me of my mom,
with her tropical squalls.
Enjoy it while you can, they said of Happiness
Think first, they said of TalkGet over it, they said
at the School of Broken Heartsbut I couldn’t and I didn’t and I don’t
believe in the clean break;I believe in the compound fracture
served with a sauce of dirty regret,I believe in saying it all
and taking it all backand saying it again for good measure
while the air fills up with I’m Sorrieslike wheeling birds
and the trees look seasick in the wind.Oh life! Can you blame me
for making a scene?You were that yellow caboose, the moon
disappearing over a ridge of cloud.I was the dog, chained in some fool’s backyard;
barking and barking:trying to convince everything else
to take it personal too.-Tony Hoagland





