Valentine’s Day spending is up 6% this year over last even though fewer people are celebrating. Sad! Poems, of course, are the perfect antidote to the menace of all-consuming consumerism slouching towards Bethlehem. Poems cost nothing to give and last forever. Here’s a few to share with your lover, your mother, your friend or […]
MoreTo the mountain of tributes to the great Mary Oliver, I add this little pebble. In a world with so many hysterical people running loose, shouting and fighting and festering outrage, I miss her. Or I miss the idea of her, the poet walking along the shore in her barn jacket, quiet and […]
MoreAsk Much, the Voice Suggested by Jane Hirshfield Ask much, the voice suggested, and I startled. Feeling my body like the trembling body of a horse tied to its tree while the strange noise passes over its ears. I who in extremity had always wanted less, even of eating, of sleeping. Agile, the […]
MoreWhat the Gypsies told My Grandmother While She Was Still a Young Girl by Charles Simic War, illness and famine will make you their favourite grandchild. You’ll be like a blind person watching a silent movie. You’ll chop onions and pieces of your heart into the same hot skillet. Your children will sleep […]
MoreSong of the Heart by Cavafy With you, I think, all that is pleasant smiles on me, in the mirror of your eyes there is reflected joy. Stay, my light, and still I have not told you even half of all that presses down upon my heart so amorous, that rushes to my […]
MoreA few days ago I placed two poems of encouragement in a pretty park in northern Michigan. I was thinking about the cave rescue of the Thai boys’ soccer team (just underway as I posted), but I was also thinking about all the dis’s in the world—the disheartened, the dispirited, the discouraged, the distracted—anyone in […]
MoreMy eighth grade year was the Bicentennial year, and to celebrate our class put on a play. Our ever-enthusiastic music teacher Mrs. Enright put together a musical revue of U.S. history. The only part of the play I remember was singing the give-me-your-tired-your-poor portion of Emma Lazarus’ “New Colossus.” I can still sing it today, […]
MoreSympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar I know what the caged bird feels, alas! When the sun is bright on the upland slopes; When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass, And the river flows like a stream of glass; When the first bird sings and the first bud opes, And the faint perfume […]
MoreIt’s not much of a poem blitz when you only feature two poems (three if you count my giveaways) but this year I’m feeling a little disengaged from Mother’s Day, my mother being gone two years now. Even so, two poems are enough when they’re as good as these. I left Lucille Clifton’s […]
MoreThis is a picture of my sister Josie and her late husband Edison. The poem-elfing that follows is a private one, written and posted as a thank-you to my other sister, Mary K. With Josie’s and Mary K.’s permission, I’m sharing it with you. A little background before you read the poem. Until late […]
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