Yes, I'm still reading Robert Lowell. But I promise a new poet next time. (Next Friday is Good Friday, and I will offer lots of stunning words from the best of the word-makers on that day.) Today, however, I'm posting this, not because I understand it all. (Lowell is not the easiest.) But because I want to understand it all, because it feels significant for our preparation for Holy Week, and because it was written in 1945 and has the line: "The nineteen-hundred forty-fifth of grace," which I … [Read more...]
Poem-a-Day Friday: Robert Lowell
March 23, 2012 By 1 Comment
I have this very heavy, beautiful, hard covered block of pages, also known as Robert Lowell's Collected Poems. Chris gave it to me for Christmas nine years ago and there's something about it--Its beauty? Its big words? Its scholarly poet on the front cover?--that makes me scared too really get into it. And that's crazy because Robert Lowell's poems on their own are always powerful to me. That's why for my poem a day, for at least a while, I'm going to be forcing myself to open up that book and … [Read more...]
Poem-a-Day Friday: Gerard Manley Hopkins
March 9, 2012 By 7 Comments
Friends, I can't talk long about poetry without begging you to love my bestest favorite poet-priest ever, the great Gerard Manley Hopkins. I know why he has all my poetry-love. The first time I ever heard his words, they were recited to me by my grad professor Mary while we sat in her office talking about my poems. His words on her tongue were stunning. They were so...what's the word? Robust. Full. She spoke these words from "Carrion Comfort": But ah, but O thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude … [Read more...]
Poem-a-Day Friday: Sarah C. Harwell
March 2, 2012 By 4 Comments
I haven't been reading my poem-a-day this week. But I've been thinking about a poem by my friend Sarah Harwell. She wrote this poem back when we studied together at Syracuse. When I first read it, I loved it. But it hasn't been until now, years later, where I've come to understand the ritual and struggle of begging a child into sleep: the pushing toward and holding on all at once. The past three nights in my parents' house have been ridiculous attempts at swaying my son to close his eyes. "But … [Read more...]
Poem-a-Day Friday: Thomas Heise
February 24, 2012 By 7 Comments
Several years ago, Chris bought me a couple of books of poetry for Christmas. They were both new poets (their first books) and Chris had read an article recommending them. At some point I read Thomas Heise's book Horror Vacui. I know this because my ugly boy-handwriting is scratched all over several pages in pencil. I picked it back up this week after it has sat on the shelf for years. It's completely new to me. How did I wait so long to read this? I wish I could tell you something about Thomas … [Read more...]
Poem-a-Day Friday: Rainer Marie Rilke
February 17, 2012 By 2 Comments
(My New Year's resolution was to read one poem a day. Every Friday, I share one of those poems with you.) This week I read Rainer Marie Rilke with my writer's group and discussed one of his poems from The Book of Hours (which I should really read). All that discussing Rilke got me a mood to read back through his selected poems. I don't remember reading this poem when I read him in grad school. But, this time around, it struck me. Rilke, who wrote at the turn of the 20th century, was Austrian … [Read more...]
A Very Valentine-y Thankful Tuesday
February 14, 2012 By 11 Comments
It's Valentines Day! If you are reading this in the morning, I am probably in my smiliest morning mood, the one I reserve only for special days. August and I will be popping open the can of cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Then we'll move quick from them into a mid-morning mixing and baking of "pink velvet" cupcakes (box-mix courtesy of World Market). Ahhh, the sugar intake of Valentines Day! I love Valentines Day for its heartfelt kid-ness. I love handmade valentines. I love candy and cookies. I … [Read more...]
Poem-a-Day Friday: Wallace Stevens
February 10, 2012 By 6 Comments
Wallace Stevens is another poet whom I really ought to know better. But, ain't gonna lie, he's difficult for me. Any time I read a poet who obviously knows more than I do, I tend to shut down. I want to feel something, not learn something. (I'm an ENFP! Sue me!) So, he's among the intellectuals who sit in my bookshelf taunting me because I have to look up so many ideas to even understand what they're getting at. (Robert Lowell: Collected Poems, I'm looking at you, you massively big, … [Read more...]
Poem-a-Day Friday: Wislawa Szymborska
February 3, 2012 By 24 Comments
In graduate school I took a course on 20th century Polish poets (Poland has produced some of the world's best poetry in the past 100 years). It was a fantastic class. In it, I studied Wisława Szymborska, a woman whose poems were moving and full of delicate images that always cut hard. I love what little I know of her work because of it the way it pulls me toward emotion. It builds and builds and builds until I can't help but fall with her to the other side. I amazed that her poems, … [Read more...]
Poem-a-Day Friday: “The World as Will and Representation”
January 27, 2012 By 12 Comments
I'm still working my way through Robert Hass' Time and Materials so you get another Hass poem this week. (Next week I'll give you something new, I promise.) This book is beautiful. There are several poems I could have chosen (some that are probably an easier subject matter). However, I picked this one because, of all that I read of his this week, it stunned me most and continues to haunt me. I'd love to know that you think about it in the Comments... The World as Will and Representation by … [Read more...]
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