For going home, from Worldly Hopes. Okay, apologies that I had ALMONDS on my mind.
from I Went Back / by A.R. Ammons
I went back
to my old home
and the furrow
of each year
plowed like
surf
20th-Century American Poetry
DPF / Berryman
For infectious John, from Delusions, Etc.
from Lauds / by John Berryman
but ha (haha) I’ve bought myself a hat!
DPF / Kumin
For writing as salvation, from Nurture. I saw Maxine Kumin speak at the Key West Literary Seminar in January of 2010 (kwls.org). She had such a peaceful spirit and calming manner.
from On Being Asked to Write a Poem in Memory of Anne Sexton / by Maxine Kumin (1925-2014)
The elk discards his antlers every spring.
They rebud, they grow, they are growing
an inch a day to form a rococo rack
DPF / Howe
For waiting of all kinds, from The End.
from Lines Out to Silence / by Fanny Howe
How long I’ve waited, I can’t count
Long days in green — eternal advent —
DPF / Hugo
For small towns, fragments, and returns, from What Thou Lovest Well, Remains American.
from Reading at the Old Federal Courts Building, St. Paul / by Richard Hugo
That girl who laughed,
first trial, is teaching high school and she
didn’t know me when she said she loved my poems,
was using them in class to demonstrate how
worlds are put together, one fragment at a time.
DPF / Berryman
For work, from The Dream Songs.
from Dream Song #30 / by John Berryman
As a little boy I always thought
“I’m an archaeologist”; who
could be more respected peaceful serious than that?
DPF / Hugo
For the sky, from The Right Madness on Skye. Each day, the world is a completely different world, changed, as it is every day, by the people who are lost that day and by those who are born; the sky, in its never-exactly-the-sameness, teaches and reteaches this. Its singular fingerprint lives its whole swirling life in a day.
from The Clouds of Uig / by Richard Hugo
They never slow down and they never run out.
When one sky leaves, taking with it the rain
that couldn’t make anyone wet or leave grass
dry very long, another sky follows close behind
DPF / Harjo
For ocean and crows and souls, from poetryfoundation.org.
from Ah, Ah / by Joy Harjo
Ah, ah calls the sun from a fishing boat with a pale, yellow sail. We fly by
on our return, over the net of eternity thrown out for stars.
DPF / Wright
For a favorite poet and sweets, from Poetry Magazine, November 1981. Yes, this is the year I graduated from high school. And, prose poems, from a fellow Ohioan? Yes, again!
from Against Surrealism / by James Wright
In France, all the way down south in Avallon, people like to eat cake. The local bakers there spin up a little flour and chocolate into the shape of a penguin.
DPF / Wayman
PIA: from August 16, 2014.
One of my favorites for teachers, from Poetry 180. When a student asks if s/he missed anything when s/he was absent, you might consider referring the student (4th-12th grade+) to this poem. Full poem here:
http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/013.html
from Did I Miss Anything? / by Tom Wayman b. 1945
Nothing. When you are not present
how could something significant occur?
Daily Poetry Fragments {Semi-Daily} 