What Use Is the Poet? William T. Dawson’s “Snow Blindness”

The Poet gropes in the darkness for the switch knowing that the light that is sought lies within. –William T. Dawson
I met William Dawson when I told a story at last year’s Sunflower Festival in Mountainaire, New Mexico. We shared supper on his simple terrace as we gazed across the desert leading up to the [...]

Riehlife Poems of the Day:

Riehlife National Poetry Month Editor Stephanie Farrow writes:
Dear Friends,
It has been such a treat to share poetry during this past month. Thank you all for participating! Because today is the last day, I’d thought initially that the final poem should be deep and meaningful, inscrutable perhaps and profound—something along the lines of what the New [...]

Riehlife Poem of the Day: Martín Espada’s “Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100″

ALABANZA: IN PRAISE OF LOCAL 100
Martín Espada
Alabanza[excellent video!]
(for the 43 members of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees
Local 100 working at the Window on the World restaurant,
who lost their lives in the attack on the World Trade Center)
Alabanza.Praise the cook with a shaven head
and a tattoo on his shoulder that said Oye,
a blue-eyed Puerto Rican with [...]

Riehlife Poem of the Day: Galway Kinnell’s “Blackberry Eating,” from “Mortal Acts, Mortal Words”—poetry of sounds!

Blackberries “en bushed”
Sign of the times: Google “blackberry” and what comes up is a mechanical device, not a fruit. To find the fruit on Google, you must type in “blackberry fruit.” Vis: more people have likely held Blackberry devices in their hands these days than have gone berrying and experienced the pleasures Kinnell describes in [...]

Riehlife Poem of the Day: Wendell Berry’s “The Hidden Singer”

The Hidden Singer
by Wendell Berry
from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry (Copyright © 1998)
The gods are less for their love of praise.
Above and below them all is a spirit that needs nothing
but its own wholeness, its health and ours.
It has made all things by dividing itself.
It will be whole again.
To its joy we come together—
the [...]

Riehlife Poems of the Day from Sequoyah School, Pasadena, California

The Wildflowers Were In Bloom (photo by Sequoyah School)
My goddaughter Jennifer Delaquil’s son R. attends Sequoyah School in Pasadena. On my last trip out to Southern California, I visited them there. Josh Brody, Director Sequoyah School, sent out some wonderful poems and photos from a student outing in their newsletter called “News from Beyond [...]

Riehlife Poem of the Day: Turkish poet Crazy Ali recites “Do You Know”—recounted by Marcelline Burns

He introduced himself as “Crazy Ali”, and he wasn’t thinking about selling something to us. He wanted to share.

Crazy Ali, The Turkish Poet (Photo by Marcelline Burns)
I asked, “Who gave you that name?” to which he responded with obvious pride, “I gave it to myself more than a quarter century ago. I am Crazy [...]

Crazy Ali of Turkey: “The Village Poet,” by Marcelline Burns

Marcelline (Marcy) Burns is an author-friend I made through her response to “Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary” and continued penpal correspondence with both my father and myself. She is one of my role models I use when answering the question, “What kind of old woman do I want to be?” This was a question posed to [...]

Poem in Your Pocket plus 30 ways + 3 to Celebrate Poetry Month with Pop

Put a Poem in Your Pocket and share it. What a great idea…on this day, or any day.
Poets. Org lists 30 things to do to celebrate poetry month (April, right?).

31) But, here’s one they haven’t thought of. My father, Erwin A. Thompson, encloses a poem along with his bill to the Great Central Lumber Company. [...]

Poetic Asides—Robert Lee Brewer—Writers Digest—Prompts & Poetry

There’s lots of great poet participation going on over at Poetic Asides blog. Robert provides a poem and poetry prompt each day in April for National Poetry Month.