poetry - Encouragement

poetry

Kobayashi Issa, "On a branch…"

An insect makes their own boat and then launches into their opera, like a Venetian gondolier.

poetry

Kei Miller, "Book of Genesis"

God creates, exercising their freedom, and frees.

poetry

Natalie Diaz, "From the Desire Field"

"From the Desire Field" is most certainly living in the fullest sense, a sense I want.

poetry

Carol Snow, "Tour"

The recognition that everything is sacred means recognizing the beauty and necessity of the fallen blossoms.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "When I have seen the Sun emerge" (888)

Dickinson's "When I have seen the Sun emerge" is an easy poem to indulge.

poetry

Carolina Ebeid, "letter to the Corinthians"

She lets "magnificent" sit on a line all by itself, as if the word alone deserves as much space as it can get.

poetry

Kevin Young, "Resume"

The poem is not shy about life emerging from dirt. Worse than dirt, truth be told.

poetry

Lorine Niedecker, "Transition"

There are supple lines in poetry, lines with a breezy flexibility and realized grace.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "A Thought went up my mind today" (701)

Dickinson says she had a thought – "A Thought went up my mind today" – and then narrates its unique horror.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "Pain — has an Element of Blank" (650)

Dickinson claims "Pain – has an Element of Blank." I can't help but think how uncomfortable we are with that notion.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "I worked for chaff and earning Wheat" (J 1269)

The question for us is our devotion to the worthless.

poetry

Graham Foust, "The Only Poem"

I'm staring at Foust's last lines of "The Only Poem:" Even in danger, / you're a writer, liar.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "There is no Frigate like a Book"

...how to respond to someone determined to tell you everything you're reading is worthless?

poetry

Jane Hirshfield, "A Chair in Snow"

I thought I should share Jane Hirshfield's "A Chair in Snow" because it so beautifully illustrates the weight of the season.

emily dickinson

Emily Dickinson, "The power to be true to You" (464)

Dickinson does not inch toward the cosmic.

poetry

Five Short Meditations on Rae Armantrout's "Djinn"

Armantrout's first stanza, about the terrain ghosts create, brings into relief the strange world-building of lying.

poetry

Jane Hirshfield, "I sat in the sun"

Jane Hirshfield opens the sacredness of the everyday in "I sat in the sun."

poetry

Elisa Gabbert, "In Nature"

Elisa Gabbert's "In Nature," for me, remarks upon a scholarly problem, if not a philosophical one.

poetry

Kay Ryan, "Shoot the Moon"

Kay Ryan's "Shoot the Moon" is a tough poem.

poetry

A. R. Ammons, "Uppermost"

The sacred is earthly, and the earth itself the mystery.

poetry

Osip Mandelstam, "The Poem"

Knowing the most essential part of your experience can find words is freedom.

poetry

Kay Ryan, "Poetry is a Kind of Money"

"Poetry is a kind of money." I can't imagine writing that and not saying to yourself man I wish.

poetry

Mara Pastor, "Left"

I would advise you to read this poem by the prominent Puerto Rican poet Mara Pastor a few times, inhaling its ferocity.

poetry

Rae Armantrout, "Decor"

This text serves as the intersection of a few complicated themes: the cheapness of capitalism, relationships, and identity.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "I had no time to Hate"

...this little poem starts with trying to look into a quiet, lush landscape painting and wish yourself there.