Tag Archives: poetry

A Lonely Sort of Poem

Posted on April 22, 2012 by

“The Best Moment of the Night” by Tony Hoagland (originally published in The Sun Magazine, April 2012) You had a moment with the dog, down near the base of the butcher-block table just as the party was getting started. Just as … Continue reading →

Posted in quotations, poems | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Nemerov Got This One Right – a Poem

Posted on March 24, 2012 by

“Because You Asked About the Line Between Prose and Poetry” by Howard Nemerov Sparrows were feeding in a freezing drizzle That while you watched turned into pieces of snow Riding a gradient invisible From silver aslant to random, white, and … Continue reading →

Posted in poems | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“For Allen Ginsberg” by Dorothea Grossman

Posted on March 18, 2012 by

Among other things thanks for explaining how the generous death of old trees forms the red powdered floor of the forest.

Posted in books, country life, gratefulness, poems, quotations | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Although the Wind” by Izumi Shikibu

Posted on February 29, 2012 by

Although the wind blows terribly here, the moonlight also leaks between the roof planks of this ruined house.

Posted in gratefulness, poems, quotations | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden

Posted on February 18, 2012 by

Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I’d wake and … Continue reading →

Posted in country life, poems | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A Poem for Whitney Houston

Posted on February 12, 2012 by

“Her Kind” by Anne Sexton  (1960) I have gone out, a possessed witch, haunting the black air, braver at night; dreaming evil, I have done my hitch over the plain houses, light by light: lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind. … Continue reading →

Posted in celebrities, poems, quotations | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Today, Langston Hughes

Posted on February 4, 2012 by

“Motto” (1951) I play it cool And dig all jive That’s the reason I stay alive. My motto, As I live and learn,        is: Dig And Be Dug In Return.

Posted in books, celebrities, poems, quotations | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

“To Poems” by Arseny Tarkovsky

Posted on January 22, 2012 by

translated from the Russian by Philip Metres & Dimitri Psurtsev My poems:  fledglings, heirs, Plaintiffs and executors, The silent ones, the loud, The humble and the proud. As soon as the shovel of time Threw me onto the potter’s wheel— … Continue reading →

Posted in poems, quotations | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“The Secret” by Denise Levertov

Posted on January 15, 2012 by

Two girls discover the secret of life in a sudden line of poetry. I who don’t know the secret wrote the line. They told me (through a third person) they had found it but not what it was not even … Continue reading →

Posted in books, poems | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A Summery Poem for a Cold Day

Posted on January 11, 2012 by

It’s January in Minnesota, and there’s no snow, but it got cold and windy today. Seems like a nice chilly night for a summery poem by Mark Twain. Well, it’s not really about summer, but that’s perfectly fine. Even better, … Continue reading →

Posted in books, poems, quotations | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment