Some Verse for the Earth

April 22, 2010

If after waking this morning you noticed a palpable buzz in the air, fear not for your senses do not deceive you and your coffee is not to blame.  Today is simply a big day.  As you are almost certainly aware after three weeks of non-stop poetic feasting, National Poetry Month is still going strong.  […]


National Poetry Month: April 21st

April 21, 2010

A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the streets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon. In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations! What peaches […]


National Poetry Month: April 20th

April 20, 2010

Zhao Mengfu, a 14th century Chinese government official, was wondering how his wife, Guan Daosheng, might react to his thoughts about getting a concubine. A revered painter and poet, he wrote her this lyric poem: I’m a scholar-official and you are the official wife. Haven’t you ever heard that scholar-official Wang had Peach Leaf and […]


National Poetry Month: April 19th

April 19, 2010

Everything in Its Place by Arthur Guiterman The skeleton is hiding in the closet as it should, The needle’s in the haystack and the trees are in the wood, The fly is in the ointment and the froth is on the beer, The bee is in the bonnet and the flea is in the ear.


National Poetry Month: April 18th

April 18, 2010

Class Picture, 1954 by Billy Collins I am the third one from the left in the third row. The girl I have been in love with since the 5th grade is just behind me to the right, the one with the bangs. The boy who pushes me down in the playground is the last one […]


National Poetry Month: April 17th

April 17, 2010

Excerpted from Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law by Adrienne Rich Well, she’s long about her coming, who must be more merciless to herself than history. Her mind full to the wind, I see her plunge breasted and glancing through the currents, taking the light upon her at least as beautiful as any boy or helicopter, poised, […]


National Poetry Month: April 16th

April 16, 2010

Quarantine by Eavan Boland In the worst hour of the worst season   of the worst year of a whole people a man set out from the workhouse with his wife. He was walking north–they were both walking–north.   She was sick with famine fever and could not keep up.   He lifted her and put […]


Rock You Like a Quatrain

April 16, 2010

Jeff Tweedy wrote one.  Billy Corgan and Jewel did too.  2Pac and Jim Morrison have posthumous collections, and Bob Dylan’s began as an underground bootleg.  What, you may ask, is the connection between this diverse group of musical artists?  The answer may surprise you.  Believe it or not, all of the aforementioned rockers and rappers have a published […]


National Poetry Month: April 15th

April 15, 2010

I Knew A Woman by Theodore Roethke I knew a woman, lovely in her bones, When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them; Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one: The shapes a bright container can contain! Of her choice virtues only gods should speak, Or English poets who grew […]


National Poetry Month: April 14th

April 14, 2010

Reunion by Ethan Coen Say, you look great! Well, you look great We both look great! How long’s it been? How long’s it been?– A long, long time. A long, long time. Well, you look great! 


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