poetry - Encouragement (Page 3)

Kyla Houbolt, "to go or stay"

Kyla Houbolt wrote "to go or stay" for a recent Small Poem Sunday, and I've found myself pondering her little lyric quite a bit.

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Kobayashi Issa, "Writing shit about new snow" (translation Robert Hass)

"Writing shit about new snow / for the rich / is not art" is a blunt instrument, clear about its stand and too short to be a rant.

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Marie Ponsot, "Bliss and Grief"

"No one / is here / right now." That's it. That's "Bliss and Grief," a short poem by Marie Ponsot.

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Kay Ryan, "Bait Goat"

...I can't help but feel the pull of the words "Bait Goat."

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Kay Ryan, "Salvage"

I am not in the mood for Kay Ryan's "Salvage."

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Emily Dickinson, "A nearness to Tremendousness" (963)

What shattering, colossal lines: "A nearness to Tremendousness – / An Agony procures."

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Joy Harjo, "Granddaughters"

Harjo means in her lyric to build a grandmother/granddaughter whose experiences are inextricable from myth.

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Kathyrn Cowles, "Keeping Track"

There are times you're paying so much attention to detail you miss the obvious.

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Kate Colby, "How far I've come"

These lines riddle with a Janus-like structure.

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Emily Dickinson, "There's a certain Slant of light" (258)

I want to begin 2024 by talking about Dickinson's "There's a certain Slant of light."

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Kevin Young, "Colostrum"

I'll start with Young's electric first sentence, "We are not born / with tears."

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Li-Young Lee, "One Heart"

Li-Young Lee's "One Heart" commands us to "[l]ook at the birds."

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Jane Kenyon, "Otherwise"

In "Otherwise," Jane Kenyon deals with the unimaginable with every step.

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Adam Zagajewski, "Moths"

The poem excels at creating unease in a situation which typically denies it even exists.

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Gabrielle Calvocoressi, "At Last the New Arriving"

So much joy in Gabrielle Calvocoressi's "At Last the New Arriving." So much joy you might miss the struggle.

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Martin Espada, "The Florida Citrus Growers Association Responds to a Proposed Law Requiring Handwashing Facilities in the Fields"

I have been thinking lately about how we survive and thrive in our own little dreamworlds.

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Kyla Houbolt, "Mirror"

What if a life well-lived was nothing but running as fast as you can, whenever you could?

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Amy King, "Ivywall of Sparrows"

Joy has been difficult this week. Difficult to indulge, difficult to share.

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Emily Dickinson, "The things we thought that we should do" (1293)

This Thanksgiving, I forgot to count my blessings.

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Katia Kapovich, "Apartment 75"

I want to talk about light in Katia Kapovich's "Apartment 75" (CW: suicide).

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Emily Dickinson, "Because I could not stop for Death"

I never thought I'd see a world dominated this thoroughly by big babies who have the magic power of making the unacceptable seem rational.

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Zena Agha, "Elegy for Return #1"

Zena Agha's "Elegy for Return #1" stunned me for a number of reasons, some of them selfish.

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The "otherwise peaceful quiet:" Kyla Houbolt, "early"

Busy-ness and its associated anxieties, I believe, can be an amplified effect.

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On Burdens: Kay Ryan, "Atlas"

"Extreme exertion / isolates a person / from help, / discovered Atlas."

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Against Ableist Religiosity: On John Milton's Sonnet 19 & Nate Klug's "Milton's God"

I am thinking about service.