Poem in Your Pocket...

We're celebrating Poetry Week at school this week and today was "Poem in Your Pocket" Day. At the start of class I asked if anyone had a poem in their pocket to share. Pinar had three. This one, it was clear, had been in her pocket for longer than today... Four years, she told me. I carry poems in my wallet, too - for the longest time it was a Michelangelo poem on the torture of painting the Sistine Chapel, and last year a brilliant and haunting Louise Gluck poem. We carry valuables in our wallets - identification, money, cards; isn't it nice to know that some of us count poetry to be as defining as our picture ids or as worthy as our dollars?