poetry wednesday : the middle passage
The Middle Passage by Robert Hayden I Jesús, Estrella, Esperanza, Mercy: Sails flashing to the wind like weapons, sharks following the moans the fever and the dying; horror the corposant and compass rose. Middle Passage: voyage through death to life upon these shores. “10 April …
poetry wednesday: poets know maps
Christmas, 1970 BY SANDRA M. CASTILLO We assemble the silver tree, our translated lives, its luminous branches, numbered to fit into its body. place its metallic roots to decorate our first Christmas. Mother finds herself opening, closing the Red Cross box she will carry into 1976 like an unwanted door prize, …
poetry wednesday : state bird
On place, belonging, love. “But, love, I’ll concede this: whatever state you are, I’ll be that state’s bird, the loud, obvious blur of song people point to when they wonder where it is you’ve gone.” State Bird by Ada Limón Confession: I did not want to live here, not among the …
poetry wednesday: the river of girls
The River of Girls by Tishani Doshi i.m. India’s missing girls This is not really myth or secret. This murmur in the …
poetry wednesday: invisible dreams
Toi Derricotte is a national treasure. Both as a poet and as a human being. Co-founder of Cave Canem, she has also influenced, supported, and mentored countless other Black poets, leading to a special award from the National Book Award for that work in handing one another along. Invisible Dreams …
poetry wednesday
Poetry Wednesday is back! You might not love poetry, or feel you can’t understand it, and that’s okay. Just luxuriate in the words that help us see the world in a new way. Write them down, copy the poems, read or sing them aloud. Dive in. Don’t worry about meaning …
poetry wednesday : come into the presence of still water
The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his …
poetry wednesday : you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing
Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know how desolate …
Poetry Wednesday : The Art of Disappearing
I, too, carry this poem with me to remind me of the “no,” of all those times I should become a cabbage in order to remember what is important.
poetry wednesday : the only thing I’m sure I want is what I have.
I Wish I Want I Need BY Gail Mazur The black kitten cries at her bowl meek meek and the gray one glowers from the windowsill. My hand on the can to serve them. First day of spring. Yesterday I drove my little mother for hours through wet snow. Her eightieth …
