poetry - Encouragement (Page 5)

On Declaring Oneself: Charles Simic's "Tattooed City"

You could say calling yourself "an incomprehensible / Bit of doodle" has nothing to do with the birth of 17th century rationalism.

poetry

Irving Feldman, "The Recognitions"

One of the best gifts that can be given is paying attention to someone.

poetry

Kay Ryan, "Patience"

Kay Ryan does not bring us to the landscape, but the land itself.

poetry

Franz Wright, "Solution"

It's hard to identify, when living in an area which isn't working for you, what is and isn't knowledge.

poetry

The "Soul" in Emily Dickinson's "The Soul selects her own Society" (303)

Dickinson, even when choosing her own society, does not fail to remind herself of the cost of company, a cost not unlike isolation...

poetry

Kyla Houbolt, "Freedom Find You"

I want to talk about love, panic, and language.

poetry

from Marilyn Kallet's "You Can't"

I wouldn't say there's wisdom in everyday life, but seeds of wisdom.

poetry

Kyla Houbolt, "hold on"

Kyla Houbolt has been writing amazing poetry on a regular basis, and I regret I cannot give all her work the attention it deserves.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "Much Madness is divinest Sense"

When I encounter the sentence "Much Madness is divinest Sense," I think back to middle school and high school.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "The Sunset stopped on Cottages" (950)

I want Dickinson's confidence, though I can't help but think it hubris.

poetry

Kyla Houbolt, "morning"

A few of my more fateful encounters have been with those obsessed with simplifying.

poetry

Matsuo Bashō, "Lady Butterfly"

Bashō witnesses a butterfly with resplendent, patterned wings hovering over an orchid.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "To fight aloud is very brave" (126)

Dickinson says "To fight aloud is very brave," and "brave" catches me unguarded. I don't think I've ever been "brave."

poetry

D. Nurkse, "Psalm to Be Read with Closed Eyes"

The apocalypse was easier before.

poetry

Adam Zagajewski, “Auto Mirror”

Those who drive wherever they like, whenever they like—I've been jealous of them for so long.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "Our share of night to bear" (133)

...your literal self is on full display during a move.

poetry

Kyla Houbolt, "But What Do You Know?"

Parts. That's what Houbolt begins with. "[M]aybe the problem is that God has been split up / into parts."

poetry

Kay Ryan, "Pinhole"

"Hope is a discipline," Mariame Kaba says.

poetry

Andrea Cohen, "Night"

Andrea Cohen's "Night" sketches the mystery of night so well that I find myself lost in it.

poetry

Kobayashi Issa, "Mosquito at my ear"

Issa laments one of the more miserable summer experiences. A literal bloodsucker, not content with biting and stealing, makes its presence felt loudly.

poetry

Jane Hirshfield, "Sonoma Fire"

The world is burning.

poetry

Yehuda Amichai, "Forgetting Someone"

Yehuda Amichai takes an everyday error—leaving a light on too long—and finds it apt for describing one of our hardest pains, that of having to forget someone.

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

Kay Ryan, "Chop"

I've watched too many videos from those who follow waddling ducks.

poetry

"Things Fall Apart," or Auden's Animals & Ryan Boyd's "Wolves"

Ryan Boyd's poem "Wolves" elegantly testifies to our present madness.