Carpe Diem Poems

Perhaps one of my top ten movies of all-time, Dead Poets Society was released the summer after my freshman year at boarding school. While I will never be the charismatic character, Mr. John Keating, that Robin Williams plays, I've tried my best over the last eleven years in the English classroom. My true inspiration are real teachers - not Hollywood depictions. In my four years at Andover, I was blessed with many great teachers as well as a few professors at Penn. Four summers at Middlebury's Bread Loaf School of English, I had incredible professors. Here at WRA, I have worked with many dedicated teachers.

For this assignment, I asked the seniors to select a book of poems from the library - an actual book rather than a Google search. For almost an hour students read poems by one author and found many with the theme.  I too read from John Updike, a collection of 40 years of poetry. His poems were chronologically order and shared a lifetime of reflections - some funny, some sweet, some nostalgic, some candid and even crass. All are an honest window to a man's soul - a timeless legacy left for readers to find words to speak their thoughts.

Lately, carpe diem has been more than a theme in dusty books. I hope the following poems resonate with you - inspire you.