I confess that I bought this to qualify for Amazon free super saver shipping. It was only $1.50 and I couldn't resist the temptation to save on the shipping. But this is not just an ordinary, cheap book, it's an offering from the American Poetry and Literacy Project, compiled to introduce new readers to American poetry. Former national Poet Laureate Joseph Brodsky believed that poetry "is not just a luxury for the privileged few, but a necessity for us all," according to Andrew Carroll, executive directory of The American Poetry and Literacy Project. This volume, deliberately economical, was prepared to provide more Americans with an introduction to poetry. Verse within from the 19th and 20th centuries, includes Poe's "The Raven," Whitman's "I Hear America Singing," and poems by Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, Marianne Moore and many more, 101 poems in all. So this seems perfect for a bookcrossing journey. There's something here for just about every reader.

The Arrow and the Song
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, that sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

With this book, may you become a friend of a poetry.

This is at the Varsity. Have a poem and a pie!

This poem flew away from the Varsity a while ago. I hope it found good reading adventures.