Tag: poetry
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Knowing
In her poem “Tablets IV”, Dunya Mikhail writes: The homeless are not afraid to miss something. What passes through their eyes is how the clouds pass over the rushing cars, the way pigeons miss some of the seeds on the road and move away. Yet only they know what it means to have a home…
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More Bass; Less Treble
I’ve started reading a poem a day from the Poetry Magazine to which I recently subscribed. I keep the magazine on the nightstand beside my bed so I will reach for it as soon as my alarm goes off. When I get the chance, I reread the poem throughout the day, sometimes out loud, to…
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Poetry for the Nation
“Poetry comes from conflict,” the poet Dorianne Laux says. “If it’s all nostalgia and wonderful it’s a hallmark card. If it’s a political rant, it’s an essay. Poetry is somewhere in between.” On this Independence Day, I need something in between. So I was excited to discover www.lovesexecutiveorder.com where a poem will be posted every…
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Refusing to let God Vanish
A poet friend posted this quote to Facebook last week. It was the anniversary of a difficult miscarriage and she posted this as a prayer that her grief enlarges instead of diminishes her. This struck me as a beautiful sentiment and so typical of a poet. I keep turning to the poets for the way…
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What the Poets say about Mary
He tiptoes into the room almost as if he were an intruder. Then kneels, soundlessly. His white robe arranges itself. His breath slows. His muscles relax. The lily in his hand tilts gradually backward and comes to rest against his right shoulder. She is sitting near the window, doing nothing, unaware of his presence. Ah:…
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Holding each Moment
I am growing accustomed to an annual end-of-the-summer episode of the blues. I am wallowing in this place now, grieving the passage of time. Mourning the loss of the summer’s long days when I read and write and giggle with my children. All this and the summer isn’t even over yet. No stranger to anxiety…
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Nothing to Say: Master Class with Marie Howe
“We have nothing to say.” This was how Marie Howe began her Master Class at the writing conference I am attending this week. Her point was that words come to us, words write us, if we can open ourselves to receiving them. Marie, in her kind, encouraging manner, was determined to teach us something she…
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Serious Business
I enjoy reading the Paris Review’s interviews of writers because they are often inspiring. I ran across their interview of Maya Angelou the other day and was particularly struck by this question and answer exchange: INTERVIEWER You once told me that you write lying on a made-up bed with a bottle of sherry, a dictionary,…
Teri McDowell Ott 