Welcome to the odd and whimsical poetery of the Peeps related to holidaze! Let’s investigate what today is, because we need all the holidaze we can celebrate, right?
Today is many holidays! So I will pick out a couple, and you can click the link above if you’re curious about the rest. This is an open thread, so please feel free to add your favorite illustrated pomes for today in the Comments!
Today is National Plan for Vacation Day
There are many benefits to taking vacations, and those who take them have a more fulfilled life overall. They help build bonds and relationships between family and friends and make workers more productive. Those who travel gain new perspectives which spark creativity, which also benefits work environments. Vacations benefit mental health by lessening depression and stress. They benefit physical health as well, such as heart health.
vacation
by Rita Dove
I love the hour before takeoff,
that stretch of no time, no home
but the gray vinyl seats linked like
unfolding paper dolls. Soon we shall
be summoned to the gate, soon enough
there’ll be the clumsy procedure of row numbers
and perforated stubs—but for now
I can look at these ragtag nuclear families
with their cooing and bickering
or the heeled bachelorette trying
to ignore a baby’s wail and the baby’s
exhausted mother waiting to be called up early
while the athlete, one monstrous hand
asleep on his duffel bag, listens,
perched like a seal trained for the plunge.
Even the lone executive
who has wandered this far into summer
with his lasered itinerary, briefcase
knocking his knees—even he
has worked for the pleasure of bearing
no more than a scrap of himself
into this hall. He’ll dine out, she’ll sleep late,
they’ll let the sun burn them happy all morning
—a little hope, a little whimsy
before the loudspeaker blurts
and we leap up to become
Flight 828, now boarding at Gate 17.
[Rita Dove was US poet laureate from 1993-1995. Also poet chancellor from 2005-2011. You can find her books on Amazon!] ‘
