Tag archive for ‘National Poetry Month’
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 [...]
Riehlife Poem of the Day: Linda Hogan’s “The Avalanche”
The Avalanche
Linda Hogan
Savings
Just last month
the avalanches like good women
were headed for a downfall. I saw one
throw back her head
and let go of the world.
No more free soup bones for that one.
No more faces of friends at the door
with doilies and lace,
with ivory charms
carved of the elephant’s great collapse.
Once an avalanche makes up her mind
not to [...]
Riehlife Poem of the Day: Carol Coffee Reposa’s “Vegetable Love in Texas”
Vegetable Love in Texas
by Carol Coffee Reposa
Texas Poetry Calendar: 2008
Farmers say
There are two things
Money can’t buy:
Love and homegrown tomatoes.
I pick them carefully.
They glow in my hands, shimmer
Beneath their patina of warm dust
Like talismen.
Perhaps they are.
Summer here is a crucible
That melts us down
Each day,
The sky a sheet of metal
Baking cars, houses, streets.
Out in the country
Water-starved maize
Shrivels [...]
Riehlife Poem of the Day: Charles Olson’s “These Days”
These Days
by Charles Olson
from “Collected Poems of Charles Olson—Excluding Maximus Poems”
whatever you have to say, leave
the roots on, let them
dangle
And the dirt
Just to make clear
where they come from
Riehlife Poem of the Day: Jane Hirshfield’s “Bamboo” from Orion
Bamboo
by Jane Hirshfield
From “Orion”
What exists wants to persist.
Even the knock of bamboo on bamboo
spilled outward continues.
And you who have lived—restless, ambitious, aggrieved.
A Walter, a Shirley, a Tim.
A Carlos, a Teisha, a Haavo.
Do not think it unchanged, this world you are leaving.
Riehlife Poem of the Day: Levi Romero’s “Wheel’s” (dreams of New Mexico)
I lived in New Mexico for seven years in the 1980s. I recall the Saturday night car parades down the main street of Espanola…and have magical memories of Chimayo. I’m glad our National Poetry Month editor Stephanie Farrow chose this poem for us. It brings back happy memories of one of my heart homes. –Janet
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Wheels
by [...]
Riehlife Poem of the Day: Li-Young Lee’s “Early in the Morning”
Early in the Morning
Li-Young Lee
from Rose
While the long grain is softening
in the water, gurgling
over a low stove flame, before
the salted Winter Vegetable is sliced
for breakfast, before the birds,
my mother glides an ivory comb
through her hair, heavy
and black as calligrapher’s ink.
She sits at the foot of the bed.
My father watches, listens for
the music of [...]
Riehlife Poem of the Day: Naomi Shihab Nye’s “You Have to Be Careful,” from Yellow Glove
You Have to Be Careful
by Naomi Shihab Nye
from Yellow Glove
You have to be careful telling things.
Some ears are tunnels.
Your words will go in and get lost in the dark.
Some ears are flat pans like the miners used
looking for gold.
What you say will be washed out with the stones.
You look for a long time till [...]
Riehlife Poem of the Day: from Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice” (act 4, scene 1)
The Merchant of Venice (excerpt)
Act 4, Scene 1
by William Shakespeare
Portia:
The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of [...]
Riehlife Poem of the Day: Jane Kenyon’s “Happiness”
Happiness
by Jane Kenyon
There’s just no accounting for happiness,
or the way it turns up like a prodigal
who comes back to the dust at your feet
having squandered a fortune far away.
And how can you not forgive?
You make a feast in honor of what
was lost, and take from its place the finest
garment, which you saved [...]
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