Love of Poetry

I grew up with a mother who loved literature and would often quote lines of famous poems,(and Shakespeare,too.) As a school boy, it just did not excite me; English Literature was a dreaded class especially if it was an afternoon one. I struggled to stay awake as we ploughed through Silas Marner or an equally tedious novel. Or a poem that simply had little to link it to the real world in my limited experience. Then one day, our sweet English teacher, Miss Wyatt, with her shock of grey hair tied up in a french bun, the epitome of an "old-school Ma'm " made us read Rupert Brook's The Great Lover.

"I have been so great a lover: filled my days
So proudly with the splendour of Love’s praise,"

Those opening lines that get your attention, then go on to a list of wonderful everyday things described with love. It is not about romantic love but seeing the wonders of the world around you. It ends as follows - 

"This one last gift I give: that after men
Shall know, and later lovers, far-removed,
Praise you, ‘All these were lovely’; say, ‘He loved.'"
Rupert Brooke's existence on Earth will be remembered by future "Lovers" who notice the things he named and remember that he, too, loved them.
It struck me as an amazing way to be remembered. Not by inventing great things or creating Art, but by loving the ordinary and viewing those things rapturously.
I had a new appreciation for poetry. It became a life long love that I shared with my mother. She opened up many great poems for me. That specific poem also led to one of the greatest friendships of my life, when a friend's girlfriend, later his wife, saw me reading it one day, and squealed how much she loved it too. It became a bond with us for the rest of our lives. And so many more wonderful poems, books, art and other creative endeavors.
Rupert Brooke's sentiment remains a touchstone of all that I have done and experienced later. I keep hoping that others, following on after me, will see a frozen waterfall in winter or open a forgotten space and see a beautiful, but dusty, Blue Willow china plate and think "Oh, Michael would have loved this."
Thank you, Miss Wyatt.