Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “poetry”
A gorgeous poem by Naomi Shihab Nye: Letters swallow themselves in seconds. Notes friends tied to the doorknob, transparent scarlet paper,sizzle like moth wings,marry the air. So much of any year is flammable, lists of vegetables, partial poems. Orange swirling flame of days, so little is a stone. Where there was something and suddenly isn’t, an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space. I begin again with the …
How I love this poem by Carol Ann Duffy, former Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom. Mrs. Midas It was late September. I’d just poured a glass of wine, begunto unwind, while the vegetables cooked. The kitchenfilled with the smell of itself, relaxed, its steamy breathgently blanching the windows. So I opened one,then with my fingers wiped the other’s glass …
The following is an excerpt from the poem To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donoghue. It resonates today: especially its urging to pause and reflect in the quarantine winter. This is the time to be slow,Lie low to the wallUntil the bitter weather passes. Try, as best you can, not to letThe wire brush of doubtScrape from your …
Gwendolyn Brooks died on this day in 2000, 20 years ago. She is one of the most admired, influential, and widely-read poets of 20th-century American poetry. She had the distinction of being the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. She also was poetry consultant to the Library of Congress—the first Black woman to hold that position—and Poet Laureate …
This mopey winter poem, complete with collywobbles, was one of my favorites as a kid. This is just a portion of the perfect poem in which to wallow when depressed. You can read the full poem here (scroll down). Aroint thee, sweetness and light! I want to be dark and sour! Away with the bird that twitters! All that glitters …
“When you’re asking what is the role of a poet in a society, in a culture, in a country, in a community, it is to respond in a way that only poetry can.” ~ Jane Hirshfield Which brings me to one of my favorite poets, June Jordan. Her poems have inspired me to write plays, to be active in politics. …
Every morning, I walk in my neighborhood for about four or five miles. This month I’m greeted by skeletons rising up out of front lawns, bony dogs and owls on neighbors’ stoops, headstones dotting suburban yards. It’s never been my favorite holiday. Enjoy All Hallows’ Eve, a poem by Dorothea Tanning. Be perfect, make it otherwise.Yesterday is torn in shreds.Lightning’s …
Enjoy this poem, Divine, by Kim Addonizio. Oh hell, here’s that dark wood again.You thought you’d gotten through it –middle of your life, the ogre turned into a mousemonsters hammered downinto their caves, werewolves outrun.You’d come out of all that, into a field.There was one man standing in it.He held out his arms.Ping went your iHeartso you took off all …
How I love this poem, “Theatre Impressions, by Wisława Szymborska! For me the tragedy’s most important act is the sixth:the raising of the dead from the stage’s battlegroundsthe straightening of wigs and fancy gownsremoving knives from stricken breasts,taking nooses from lifeless necks,lining up among the livingto face the audience. The bows, both solo and ensemble –the pale hand on the …
In this time of death and grieving, I enjoyed this poem by Naomi Shihab Nye: For the first time, on the road north of Tampico,I felt the life sliding out of me,a drum in the desert, harder and harder to hear.I was seven, I lay in the carwatching palm trees swirl a sickening pattern past the glass.My stomach was a …