For all the readers out there and for those readers headed back to work after any summer vacation, I hope you got to enjoy some great summer reads, from poets.org.
from Dear Reader / by Billy Collins
Baudelaire considers you his brother,
and Fielding calls out to you every few paragraphs
as if to make sure you have not closed the book,
and now I am summoning you up again,
attentive ghost, dark silent figure standing
in the doorway of these words.
For our lived-in house renovation, from poets.org; the diy part is not as easy as it looked on paper!
from Regardless of Disaster / by Jessica Greenbaum
Only through a disaster or a renovation
does the entire brick side of a house come down
and in this case the workmen threw stoves and refrigerators
out the windows, letting them bounce
off the fire escapes into the little Brooklyn yard.
For a bit more summer, from poets.org.
from A Lesson for This Sunday / by Derek Walcott
The growing idleness of summer grass
With its frail kites of furious butterflies
Requests the lemonade of simple praise
In scansion gentler than my hammock swings
For poetry, which sits on the shelves with feet dangling down, calling to us all year long, from poets.org.
from The Poet / by Ralph Waldo Emerson
The etymologist finds the deadest word to
have been once a brilliant picture. Language is
fossil poetry.
For one summer activity that I hope you were able to enjoy this year, from poets.org.
from Fishing on the Susquehanna in July / by Billy Collins
I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna
or on any river for that matter
to be perfectly honest.
Not in July or any month
have I had the pleasure—if it is a pleasure—
of fishing on the Susquehanna.
For the end of students’ and teachers’ summers is near, and from a poet whose age is the same as mine in this poem, from poets.org, 1935.
from After Reading Tu Fu, I Go Outside to the Dwarf Orchard / by Charles Wright
East of me, west of me, full summer.
How deeper than elsewhere the dusk is in your own yard.
Birds fly back and forth across the lawn
looking for home
As night drifts up like a little boat.
For travel days, from the pedestrians.
from the other city / by Rachel Zucker
‘Yes,’ she thought, through a haze of jet lag, ‘there should be no limits placed on the value of a very fine cheese.’
For a favorite poem from poets.org.
from To My Favorite 17-Year-Old-High-School Girl / by Billy Collins
For memory, which sometimes deepens and sometimes disappears along the way, and for wishing the best parts would always stay, from poets.org. This poem is for the missing memories of the everyone-and-everyday kind.
from Forgetfulness / by Billy Collins
For August and the last few summertime days, from the pedestrians. Also, if you like podcasts, please try Rachel Zucker’s podcast, https://www.commonpodcast.com/, “Commonplace: Conversations with Poets (and Other People)”. The episodes are sometimes more than 90 minutes, and always more than you’d ever expect in the best ways.
from ocean / by Rachel Zucker
She sat on the deck, face in the shade, legs in the sun, reading books by people in the faraway city.
poetry, publishing, and mentoring
A periodic, open discussion of particular poems
a resource for moving poetry
from lined paper, to Royal, to Smith Corona, to floppy disk, to 1TB hard drive...it's all a result of the passing wind.
Writer & Visual Artist
Reading Around The World
A blog about books, writing and mental health
a journal of contemporary poetry
Original poetry, commentary, and fiction. All copyrights reserved.
Global issues, travel, photography & fashion. Drifting across the globe; the world is my oyster, my oyster through a lens.
Rare Books from 1st Editions and Antiquarian Books
"I am offering this poem to you, since I have nothing else to give." ~Jimmy Santiago Baca
another site about the arts and writing ...
Fine traditional letterpress printing and hand bookbinding.
"We're all out there, somewhere, waiting to happen."
Daily Poetry Fragments {Semi-Daily} 