Tag archive for ‘National Poetry Month’
Riehlife Poem of the Day: Connie Wanek’s “Radiator” from Bonfire
Radiator
by Connie Wanek
from Bonfire
Mittens are drying on the radiator,
boots nearby, one on its side.
Like some monstrous segmented insect
the radiator elongates under the window.
Or it is a beast with many shoulders
domesticated in the Ice Age.
How many years it takes
to move from room to room!
Some cage their radiators
but this is unnecessary
as they have [...]
Riehlife Poem of the Day: Seamus Heaney’s “The Cure at Troy”
The Cure at Troy (excerpt)
Seamus Heaney
Human beings suffer.
They torture one another.
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.
History says, Don’t hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a [...]
Riehlife Poem of the Day: Marilyn Nelson’s “Dusting” poem-prayer
Dusting
by Marilyn Nelson
from Magnificat
Thank you for these tiny
particles of ocean salt,
pearl-necklace viruses,
winged protozoans:
for the infinite,
intricate shapes
of submicroscopic
living things.
For algae spores
and fungus spores,
bonded by vital
mutual genetic cooperation,
spreading their
inseparable lives
from equator to pole.
My hand, my arm,
make sweeping circles.
Dust climbs the ladder of light.
For this infernal, endless chore,
for these eternal seeds of rain:
Thank you. For dust.
Riehlife Poem of the Day:Tess Gallagher’s “Yes”
Yes
by Tess Gallagher
from Moon Crossing River
Now we are like that flat cone of sand
in the garden of the Silver Pavilion in Kyoto
designed to appear only in moonlight.
Do you want me to mourn?
Do you want me to wear black?
Or like moonlight on whitest sand
to use your dark, to gleam, to shimmer?
I gleam. I mourn.
Riehlife Poem of the Day: Judith Harris’ “Gathering Leaves in Grade School”
Gathering Leaves in Grade School
by Judith Harris
from The Literary Review, Fall 2008
They were smooth ovals,
and some the shade of potatoes–
some had been moth-eaten
or spotted, the maples
were starched, and crackled
like campfire.
We put them under tracing paper
and rubbed our crayons
over them, X-raying
the spread of their bones
and black, veined catacombs.
We colored them green and brown
and orange, and
cut [...]
Riehlife Poem of the Day: A Good List by Brad Leithauser
A Good List
(Homage to Lorenz Hart)
Brad Leithauser
Curves and Angles
Some nights, can’t sleep, I draw up a list,
Of everything I’ve never done wrong.
To look at me now, you might insist
My list could hardly be long,
But I’ve stolen no gnomes from my neighbor’s yard,
Nor struck [...]
Riehlife Poem of the Day: Pablo Neruda’s Sonnets
Sonnet XVII
by Pablo Neruda
100 Love Sonnets
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light [...]
Riehlife Poem of the Day: Lucille Clifton’s “blessing the boats (at St. Mary’s” from Quilting: Poems 1987-1990
blessing the boats (at St. Mary’s)
by Lucille Clifton
Quilting: Poems 1987-1990
may the tide
that is entering even now
the lip of our understanding
carry you out
beyond the face of fear
may you kiss
the wind then turn from it
certain that it will
love your back may you
open your eyes to water
water waving forever
and may you in your innocence
sail [...]
Riehlife Poem of the Day: Christopher Buckley’s “Sparrows” from Dust Light, Leaves
Sparrows
by Christopher Buckley
from Dust Light, Leaves
Like the poor, they are with us always . . .
what they lack in beauty is theirs
in good cheer—tails like pump handles
lifting them first among songsters, chiding
city light or roadside to evening’s praise.
Gristmills, hardy gleaners, but for them
the weeds and thorns would find us wanting.
Ragmen to the wind, Sophists of [...]
Riehlife Poem of the Day: Galway Kinnell’s “St. Francis and the Sow” from Mortal Acts, Mortal Words
When I was in college in my 20s at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (commuting from my parents land), I was part of the editorial team for their literary magazine “Sou’wester.” My poem “Under Mama’s Yew Tree” (later published in “Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary”) was given some very encouraging words from Galway Kinnell. Because of [...]
Entries (RSS)