Need Healing and a Lift? A Savannah Poet Describes Verse as a Soul Cleanser

I am holding my grandmother’s copy of Sonnets from the Portuguese, printed in 1915, long before an ISBN existed. Despite its flowery language, it sings to me. As I read the words my grandmother loved, I am in her warm embrace. Knowing my eyes are reading the same pages she turned—the leather cover that rested in her hands, I now caress. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnets have inspired composers for over two centuries. But in this world of hookups, are lovers still inspired by verse? Do men still pen poetry to their sweethearts as my grandmother's son, my rail-welder father, once did?

This op-ed appeared in Savannah Morning News. Click here to read the full piece.