CMP Review 2026-04-22

April 22, 2026

Do you believe in the power of poetry?

In high school I had an unconventional English teacher, much like the one portrayed by Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society. He captivated us with his recitations and poetry became as essential as air.

I’m currently wallowing in What We Know by Heidi Ehle. The cover illustration by artist Charles Jones stopped me in my tracks, but the words of the poet held me there.

“Poetry is, perhaps, the most searching and intimate of our teachers… Poetry, too, supplies us with tools for the modelling of our lives, and the use of these we must get at for ourselves. The line that strikes us as we read, that recurs, that we murmur over at odd moments-this is the line that influences our living…” (Volume 4, Book II, p. 71).

@rbaburina