by JoEllen Moldoff

“The Delight of Poetry” will run for six Tuesdays from Jan. 15 to Feb. 19, 1-3 p.m. at the Orcas Library, led by facilitator JoEllen Moldoff. Everyone is welcome.

Poems can touch the heart, spark the imagination, raise our awareness, evoke memories, entertain and surprise. We will read a selection of contemporary poems for the pleasure of reading aloud and sharing our responses to the writing.

In the process, we can learn how the language of a poem works to make meaning. Writing prompts will be offered, but writing will be optional. The fee is $20 and payable at the first class. Register by email at moldoff@rockisland.com. Class size is 10-18 participants. Here’s a sample of the kind of poems we will share, by former Poet Laureate Ted Kooser from his latest book, “Kindest Regards: New And Selected Poems.”

Moon Shadows

All night the moon was a lamp held steady

while an oak, alone on the crusted snow,

composed a long letter, thoughtfully forming

each word in the copperplate script

of its shadows. From a window halfway up

the stairs I watched it at work, the pale blue

airmail stationery smoothed and waiting

and the sentiments coming so slowly

that I grew impatient and climbed up to bed.

And I fell asleep wondering to whom

the tree might have been writing, and why,

and when I awoke the sky was gray

and cold, the sun hidden in clouds,

and the tree was just standing there,

reaching up into a few scattered snowflakes

beginning to fall, not trying to catch them,

but letting them slip through its branches,

and the letter, whatever its message, was gone.