DPF / Ovid

For the old year beginning to morph into the new, from Metamorphoses, translated by Charles Martin.

from Daedalus and Icarus / by Ovid

‘Though he may bar the earth
and seas,’ he said, ‘without a doubt, the sky
above is open; that is how we’ll go:
Minos rules everything except the air.’

DPF / Shockley

For the week, from poetryfoundation.org. The rest of the poem may be found here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/55670#poem.

from on new year’s eve / by Evie Shockley

       we make midnight a maquette of the year:
frostlight glinting off snow to solemnize
       the vows we offer to ourselves in near
silence: the competition shimmerwise

DPF / Johnston

For the week, from Poetry, December 2016.
from Poem for the New Year / by Devin Johnston
what have I read

how many words

what facts

statistics biometrics

what data aggregation

what news 

of wins and losses 

DPF / Clifton

For saying goodbye to family after the holidays, including goodbye to my sweet, wee little sis, from poetryfoundation.org.

from sisters / by Lucille Clifton

me and you be sisters.
we be the same.
me and you
coming from the same place.

DPF / Pfingston

For ladybugs, from poetryfoundation.org.

from December / by Roger Pfingston

Flies out of the tree
to try rum cake on a
plate of caroling cherubs.

DPF / Cummings

For a Merry Christmas or a happy whichever holiday you choose, from poetryfoundation.org.

from [little tree] / by e.e. Cummings

little tree 

little silent Christmas tree 

you are so little 

you are more like a flower 
who found you in the green forest 

and were you very sorry to come away? 

see i will comfort you 

because you smell so sweetly 
i will kiss your cool bark 

and hug you safe and tight 

just as your mother would, 

only don’t be afraid 

DPF / Jackson

For some days we need angels more than others, from poetryfoundation.org.

from Angel / by Angela Jackson

              I am

the angel who sweeps air in and out my own

dancing body. 

DPF / Gregg

For the season. This is not my home, but it sounds like a peaceful one, from poetry foundation.org.

from Winter Love / by Linda Gregg

I would like to decorate this silence,   

but my house grows only cleaner 

and more plain. 

DPF / Dove

For a fellow Ohioan, from poetryfoundation.org.

from Testimonial / by Rita Dove

Back when the earth was new
and heaven just a whisper,
back when the names of things
hadn’t had time to stick;
back when the smallest breezes
melted summer into autumn,
when all the poplars quivered
sweetly in rank and file . . .

DPF / Dickinson

PIA: from December 31, 2015.

Something needed in this year of rapid change and uncertainty.

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 –