PIA: from August 21, 2015.
For river paths and daughters, from poets.org’s Poem-A-Day today.
from Daughter / by Jon Pineda
all the way to the broken edge
that overlooks the bend,
& hold hands until
we can no longer tell
where the river ends
Poetry
DPF / Wright
PIA: from June 19, 2016.
For Ohio, from a fellow Ohioan, and from poetryfoundation.org.
from Youth / by James Wright
I know his ghost will drift home
To the Ohio River, and sit down, alone,
Whittling a root.
He will say nothing.
The waters flow past, older, younger
Than he is, or I am.
DPF / Dove
PIA: from August, 2015. For the season of school beginnings.
For 5th grade, from Poetryfoundation.org.
from Fifth Grade Autobiography / by Rita Dove
I was four in this photograph fishing
with my grandparents at a lake in Michigan.
My brother squats in poison ivy.
His Davy Crockett cap
sits squared on his head
DPF / Padgett
For one kind of lesson (from a repeat poem) on the night before all the lessons begin again for the 2016-2017 school year. Class of ’17+, your first day is tomorrow! From How to be Perfect.
from History Lesson / by Ron Padgett
I think that Geoffrey Chaucer did not move
the way a modern person moves.
He moved only an inch at a time, in what
we call stop action.
DPF / Sweeney
PIA: from August 26, 2014.
For sisters, from the 2009 James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poetry, How to Live on Bread and Music.
from The Three Sisters / by Jennifer K. Sweeney b. 1973
How many times have I peered
into the sloop and slag of childhood
as if shaking up a snow globe
DPF / Dickinson
PIA: from December 31, 2015.
For dear Emily. Her handshake was passed on to me through Richard Eberhart who shook a hand that shook hers then mine.
from “Hope” is the thing with feathers / by Emily Dickinson
‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all
DPF / Tate
For Emily Dickinson and feed stores, from Return to the City of White Donkeys.
from Of Whom and I Afraid? / by James Tate
At some point there was an
old, grizzled farmer standing next to me holding
a rake, and I said to him, ‘Have you ever read
much Emily Dickinson?’ ‘Sure,’ he said, ‘I
reckon I’ve read all of her poems at least a
dozen times. She’s a real pistol….’
DPF / Rosenthal
PIA: from August 31, 2014.
For roses in the season of roses, from Chicago Review, Volume 23, Number 4, and Volume 25, Number 1.
from Old Man with Shears Among Roses / by Abby Rosenthal
Roses tumble noiselessly
through air.
DPF / Carroll
For my sister, whose choice of quote is perfect for Back-To-School season, from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.
from The Walrus and The Carpenter / by Lewis Carroll
‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said,
‘To talk of many things:
Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–
Of cabbages–and kings–
And why the sea is boiling hot–
And whether pigs have wings.’
DPF / Tate
PIA: from June 10, 2016. Missing James Tate this week especially.
For poetry, from poetryfoundation.org.
from Poem to Some of my Recent Poems / by James Tate
you owe your beauty to your mother, who
resembled a cyclindrical corned beef
with all the trimmings
Daily Poetry Fragments {Semi-Daily} 