Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore And Oprah Talk Poetry For O Magazine
I wonder if Oprah can do for poetry what she does for fiction: move it to the top of the bestseller lists (or her favorite things)? I don’t know, but in the April issue of ‘O Magazine’ a bunch of celebrities were rounded up to talk about their favorite poetry (you can read the entire poems here). Here are some of them:
Oprah:
“Phenomenal Woman, by Maya Angelou. Life defining.”Demi Moore:
“At first glance, Alfred Tennyson’s Flower in the Crannied Wall seems to be just a simple, lovely little reflection. But, in fact, it begs a question of such enormous magnitude that you could spend a lifetime seeking the answer: ‘Little flower but if I could understand / What you are, root and all, and all in all, / I should know what God and man is.’”Ashton Kutcher:
“I love What Are You Doing because it shows pain turning into peace. The poem was written by my father, Larry M. Kutcher, who joined the Marines at 17. When you recognize that your parents carry scars, you develop new appreciation for their love. Here’s the second stanza: ‘Where are you going, what are you doing, what is your five year plan? /They handed me a flag, sent me off to war, and said you’ll comeback a man.’”Click on the continue reading link below to see what Bono, Isaac Mizrahi, and Kate Capshaw had to say!
Do you read a lot of poetry?
Bono:
“For the statistics of extreme poverty to step off the page and become the sisters, brothers, mothers, and fathers they represent, the right language has to be found—an act of poetry is required. In meetings with high stakes, I’m always concerned words will fail me, so as a kind of talisman I take a book of Seamus Heaney along and leave it behind. I don’t know if these politicians ever take a look, but I think the transference of his stillness and stirrings would make their burdens feel lighter.”Isaac Mizrahi:
“I live for the Shakespeare sonnets. A special volume that I acquired when I was a teenager sits on my bedside table and I read from it often when I can’t sleep or when I get down, and every time I learn things.”Kate Capshaw:
“The first time I read David Whyte’s Self Portrait, I set the book down and wept. I wasn’t sad or lonely or frustrated with my life. I was simply moved—profoundly. Each time I read the poem, it turns me back to my “fierce heat of living.’”
imnotobsessed