This week’s guest on Poetry from Daily Life is Irene Latham, who lives on a lake in rural Alabama. Irene has loved poetry since childhood when her father introduced her to poems by Shel Silverstein.

What is it about life’s big and little moments that calls for a poem? At weddings. At funerals. On greeting cards. In church. On the radio. At moments of great happiness or deep sadness. At beginnings ...