poetry Emily Dickinson, "The difference between Despair / and Fear" (305) The outstanding question of Dickinson's "The difference between Despair / and Fear" is why the difference has to be known.
poetry "Things Fall Apart," or Auden's Animals & Ryan Boyd's "Wolves" Ryan Boyd's poem "Wolves" elegantly testifies to our present madness.
poetry Rae Armantrout, "Anti-Short Story" In recent days, the problem of tone has asserted itself rather forcefully. Those subject to second-class citizenship meet a litany of demands about their tone.
poetry Victoria Chang, "Watchers" Your truest thoughts, developed in the intimacy of your mind by means of dialogue with the world, deserve better than to be ripped from your possession.
poetry Emily Dickinson, "If I can stop one heart from breaking" (919) Dickinson is practical, not obsessed with sounding practical.
poetry Jane Hirshfield, "Everything Has Two Endings" Grief and pain are tied to a loss of communication. There's a numbness in knowing you can't be heard.
poetry Matsuo Bashō, "Seek on high bare trails..." Can wisdom be summed up? Made into a brief but elegant legacy?
poetry Wendell Berry, "Be Still in Haste" "Be Still in Haste"—strictly, an imperative, but as it regards "Haste," an invitation to meditation.
poetry Jane Mead, "The Geese" So much of my being is wrapped up in places I am comfortable. I'm not always clear on how to achieve those places.
poetry Yosa Buson, "New Year's Day" When I first wrote on this poem, I thought it expressed how the newness of Spring, the promise of renewal, was nothing but a murky, wintery swamp...
poetry Humberto Ak'abal, "If Birds" Truth be told, in a world where noise-cancelling headphones are needed, the "mic drop" appears profoundly countercultural.
poetry William Stafford, "At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border" To hear there is not only the possibility, but the reality of a greater peace, that a place can be "hallowed by neglect and an air so tame"—I mean, I can't imagine how that isn't moving.
poetry Kyla Houbolt, "Be That As it May" For me, "you are your own worst enemy" ties to a deeper process of self-knowing, so deep I thought the advice useless once upon a time.
poetry Emily Dickinson, "A South Wind — has a pathos" (J 719) When you create something entirely your own, something no one else attends to, you could forget who you were.
poetry Arakida Moritake, "The fallen blossom" Since the result of growth matters so much, maybe growth should be treated as no less than a miracle.
poetry Naomi Shihab Nye, "Come with Me" I spent Valentine's Day thinking about Transformers branded Valentine's cards from grade school.
poetry Matsuo Bashō, "Winter solitude" I believe Bashō and Stevens have something to say about writers who are too comic.
poetry Jane Hirshfield, "All the Difficult Hours and Minutes" Hirshfield's poem brings us to a number of pains and frustrations. They are "difficult hours and minutes," "like salted plums in a jar."
poetry Louise Glück, "On Realism" What exactly do I get out of what I read? How can my reading be of value to others?
poetry Emily Dickinson and Political Philosophy: On "My Reward for Being," J343 I am so, so jealous of Dickinson's confidence in this poem.
poetry Robert Creeley, "Help Heaven" I think attention should be paid to how well Creeley uses phrases on the edge of cliche.
poetry Ted Kooser, "Starlight" ...there are desires connected with the unknowable, and those desires underlie things like religious belief.
poetry Robert Frost, "The Pasture" ...there's real value for real people in creating things which do not strive for immortal status.
poetry Yosa Buson, "Yearning for the Past" I believe most of us can relate to getting older, losing friends, and becoming lonelier.