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Category Archives: poetry
“Shall this leave us bitter? Or better? Grieve. Then choose.”
In an interview with Michelle Obama, Amanda Gorman says that for the last six years, she has been challenging herself to write what she called the “Inauguration poem” that is “worthy of a new chapter in the country.” Her goal … Continue reading
Best of 2021: Book Prescriptions
As we finish this difficult year, I’m wondering how I can thank my readers for sticking with me. Blogs can’t offer hugs, a place to go scream, a few extra hours of sleep, or stiff drinks. However, I can prescribe … Continue reading
“A black dream weighs upon me like lead, / For my foreordained death is approaching, / and great wars and great fires lie ahead.”
The great Russian poet Alexander Block wrote these words in 1902, when he was 22 years old. It seemed as if he knew that in less than 20 years, he would die of heart failure brought on by malnutrition. He … Continue reading
Posted in poetry
Tagged Alexander Blok, last poet in the Romantic period of Russia, Selected Poems
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“We must accustom ourselves to talking without orating, and to writing without achieving Paradise Lost.”
It’s clear to me that times like these – frigid temperatures, fights in Washington, and February flatness — call for help from William Stafford. Why? He is a poet who knows what to do when times are hard. Press on, … Continue reading
Posted in poetry
Tagged Lower your standards, National Book Award for Poetry, Press on, Robert Bly, William Stafford
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“The inexplicable is all around us. So is the incomprehensible.”
Are you as astonished as I am by the events in Washington this week? During uncertain times like this, I like to reach for the works of the wise poets who are drawn to things that they find inexplicable because … Continue reading
Posted in poetry
Tagged Carl Sandburg, Harvest Poems, Inexplicable, Pulitizer Prize winner
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“At the end of my suffering there was a door.”
It’s best to eat chocolate, I think, when reading the strong poetry of Louise Glück, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature this week. She goes for the jugular. Glück is known for her clarity and her interest in the … Continue reading
Posted in poetry
Tagged clarity in poetry, death, Louise Glück, Nobel Prize in Literature, The Wild Iris
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“This was when I was sailing close to the shore of my life. That boat capsized, thank my lucky stars…”
Poet Marjorie Saiser continues “…and since then I’ve been bobbing in the deep, splashing, coughing, water in my throat at times, learning to swim.” What would you pick for a title of a poem about that describes a wedding day … Continue reading
Posted in poetry
Tagged American Life in Poetry, contemporary poet, Learning to Swim, Marjorie Saiser
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“The power of poetry is, by a single word perhaps, to instill that energy into the mind which compels the imagination to produce the picture.”
The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge gave a series of lectures on Shakespeare in 1811-1812. In this particular lecture, Coleridge says that he considers The Tempest to be “among the ideal” plays because it “appeals to the imagination.” Coleridge believes that … Continue reading
Posted in poetry
Tagged Imagination, person and circumstances, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Shakespeare
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“For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.”
The poet Mary Oliver died this week, and I’m convinced that if we all would take a break to read her poetry, we would be strengthened by it. The level of anger – about the shut-down, the bickering, the brutal … Continue reading
“Whether teaching or writing, what I really am doing is shepherding revelation; I am the midwife to epiphany.”
It’s the dead of winter, which is a hard time to begin something new. And yet, that’s exactly what those of us who are preparing to start a new semester must do. That’s why this is a perfect time for … Continue reading
Posted in Pedagogy, poetry
Tagged epiphanies, Parker Palmer, shepherding revelations, Taylor Mali, Teaching with Heart
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“I see the point of poets now. They notice things.”
This is what the poet Ruth Padel’s mother said after she was “dragged” to her first poetry reading. The truth is that many have to be “dragged” to poetry because of the technical issues with rhyme and rhythm or with … Continue reading
Posted in poetry
Tagged 52 Ways of Looking at a Poem, poetry in newspapers, Ruth Padel, understanding poetry
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“There is something missing in our definition, vision, of a human being: the need to make.”
Frank Bidart, who won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, explores this “need to make” in the twenty-part poem “Advice to the Players.” Yes, that’s right: twenty parts. He’s known for psychological complexity and paradoxical observations, and this poem provides … Continue reading
“I learned that the poem was made not just to exist, but to speak – to be company.”
The school year is drawing to a close now, and so for me it’s time to revisit my goals and consider the extent to which we met them. On the top of my list is the wish that students will … Continue reading