Yes, we need happy poems and comedy in today’s modern world and talented Florence of Miscellany Pages understood the necessity and created an anthology titled ‘Poetry, Comedy & The Modern World’.

Twelve poems and a bonus, Lysandra Furstenberg’s Right to Life.

Do head over and read for joy:

To experiment with the idea of making poetry more fun, I created an anthology entitled ‘Poetry, Comedy & The Modern World’ for a recent project on my English Literature degree. I thought I would share the twelve poems that made their way into the final anthology here on my blog! I hope you enjoy exploring and, hopefully, having a bit of a laugh along the way…

via Miscellany Pages

BONUS: Right to Life by Lysandra Furstenberg

And last but not least… I appealed for submissions related to poetry & popular culture on this blog before the theme had to be narrowed down to comedy specifically. The lovely Patricia Furstenberg suggested a poem written by her daughter Lysandra. While it deals with more serious themes than those above, it is powerful and worth sharing:

Right to Life

“Think about it…
How many stories in your LIFETIME have you heard,
About someone who has
Committed suicide,
Held captive,
Tortured,
Killed?

How many stories have you heard?
One, two, five stories?
We all have heard about one or another story that follows along these paths,
But have you heard about someone who was captivated emotionally,
Or worse; spiritually?

How many stories have you heard?

In our generation, we have this bad habit of
Concealing,
Forgetting,
Ignoring,
The pain that digs deep inside us and
Tortures,
Breaks,
Scars,
Our hearts, our minds, our souls.
How many stories have you heard?

Do you remember William, or Casper, even George?
No?
Don’t you remember making fun of
Willie, Casper the friendly ghost and Georgie Porgie?
Well, they certainly remember, if they are even still alive right now.
Oh, and if any of you are reading this right now, congratulations.
I applaud the content that you had, to just simply exist, you deserve it more than anyone else, even the favorite one.

And if any of you bullies have suddenly remembered, don’t worry,
You’re still special.
Everyone is,
Even the quiet girl that you never hear a word out of,
Even the guy who’s always dressed in black
And yes, even the girl who never eats, but is as thin as a golden leaf.

Now, this is no story, it’s all true, even though we all keep
Concealing,
Forgetting,
Ignoring,
The facts, the things that
Tortures,
Breaks,
Scars,
Our hearts, our minds, our souls.

But we are all more than these
Rumors,
Stories,
Lies,
We are all so much more.

Have you ever felt simply…
Alive?
In awe?
Amazed?
Have you ever felt that you were
On the top of the world?
That nothing could bring you down?

Well, if you haven’t,
You deserve it,
You deserve to live your life of freedom,
You deserve to follow YOUR dreams, YOUR wishes, YOUR heart.

You deserve to be that person that is
Happy,
Content,
Confident,
Alive,
Because that, my friends, is TRULY living.”

Lysandra’s poem received the 2017 Renee Duke Youth Award sponsored by Poets for Human Rights and was included on the Poets for Human Rights subscription list. It is also included in her debut poetry collection which you can buy here:

https://getbook.at/RightLife