Reading: Tattoo by Ted Kooser
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry book “Delights & Shadows” by Ted Kooser (b. 1939) today the poem ‘Tattoo’. Kooser was a life insurance executive for many years. He is now retired and teaches poetry part time at the University of Nebraska. He gets up at 4:30 in the morning and writes. Every day (which is …
Reading: Turtle by Kay Ryan
Today I read a poem by 2011 Pulitzer Prize winner Kay Ryan (b. 1945). Turtle is a poem with her signature ‘recombinant’ rhyme and mordant wit: Turtle Who would be a turtle who could help it? A barely mobile hard roll, a four-oared helmet, she can ill afford the chances she must take in rowing toward …
Reading: Pentecost by Derek Walcott
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A challenging poem by Derek Walcott (1930-2017), the magnificent poet and social activist from St. Lucia who received the 1992 Nobel Prize for literature. I read a complex poem entitled Pentecost: Pentecost Better a jungle in the head than rootless concrete. Better to stand bewildered by the fireflies’ crooked street; winter lamps do not show …
Reading: The Calves Not Chosen by Linda Gregg
Linda Gregg (b. 1942) lives in New York. The biography on Poetry Foundation only mentions the many awards she won and we don’t really care about awards. I found a poem of hers that I find interesting. Here goes: The calves not chosen The mind goes caw, caw, caw, caw, dark and fast. The orphan heart cries out, …
Reading: What Marked Tom by Tyehimba Jess
Tyehimba Jess (b. 1965) is the winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for his poetry book ‘Olio’. Born in Detroit, he currently teaches at the College of Staten Island in New York City. I was impressed with some pages of Olio, a complex and beautiful poetic journey into the life of African American performers from the Civil …
Reading: Ellis Island by Peter Balakian
Today I read a poem from Armenian-American poet Peter Balakian (b. 1951). He won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2016 and has been vocal about never forgetting the 1909 Armenian Genocide (death and expulsion of 1.5 million people in what was then the Ottoman Empire). Here’s a poem called Ellis Island, the island of …
Reading: Lydia You Old Whore by Leonard Nathan
Leonard Nathan (1924-2007), a fine poet and translator who was an important figure at the University of Berkeley, California. I read a graphic poem about the oldest profession because I found something appealing in its language: Lydia, you old whore after Horace Loaded, pubic boys no longer tap Your windows with their palms and beg …
Reading: A Dirge by Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was an American poet and Trappist monk in Kentucky who published over 70 books including a very popular autobiography. I selected a poem about the victims of war (Merton was a social activist) because I like its powerful language: A dirge Some one who hears the bugle neigh will know How cold …
Reading: The Unborn by Sharon Olds
Sharon Olds (b. 1942) is an American poet and a leading voice according to Poetry Foundation. She writes about the body and its pleasures and pains. She has won a Pulitzer prize (for Stag’s Leap, 2013) and the British T.S. Eliot prize. She (or her work?) is widely anthologized, if that’s the info you need. Today, I …
Reading: For The Anniversary Of My Death by W.S. Merwin
W.S. Merwin (b. 1927) is an American poet who became famous as an anti-war poet in the 1960s. He later developed an interest in buddism and deep ecology and moved to an old banana plantation on Maui, Hawai, which he restored to its original rainforest state. I read a timeless poem about celebrating the anniversary …
Reading: Ships by Tomaž Šalamun
Tomaž Šalamun (1941-2014) was an adventurous, I think people say ‘avant-garde’ poet from Slovenia. I like what I see (or could we say: read) because it is mysterious and our world feels sometimes like mystery has been painted over. Here’s ‘ships’ in a translation by Brian Henry: Ships I’m religious. As religious as the wind …
Reading: Strange Fruit by Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) was a giant of Northern Irish poetry. He translated Beowulf into lively, modern language. Heaney was an immensely popular ambassador of poetry. Today, I read ‘Strange fruit’ – what a muscular and earthly use of language: Strange Fruit Here is the girl’s head like an exhumed gourd. Oval-faced, prune-skinned, prune-stones for teeth. …
Reading: Old Couple by Charles Simic
Charles Simic (b. 1938) is an American poet born in Servia. His early childhood during World War 2 informed some of his poetry, that is said to be haunting and agonizing, but replete with gallows humor. He also wrote a lot of poems about everyday objects, such as spoons, knives and forks. I found this …
A dream in the office
they hover over their plastic faces to greet you and shake you with their immaculate prosthetics do not to disturb the raging polyps of trust you came here, dressed in a thin illusion to overdose your mind on fluorescent dayshifts to do jawflips for a crustaceous boss who wanks silently under his desk in the …
Reading: The Envoy Of Mr. Cogito by Zbigniew Herbert
Today, another Polish giant, Zbigniew Herbert (1924-1998). He has been called the most beloved Polish poet of his day, ahead of Milosz and Szymborska. I read a revolutionary poem set in a key that affects me, a poem about the stubborn messengers of our hollow truth, in a translation by Bogdana Carpenter: The Envoy Of Mr. …
Reading: The Harbor by Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) was a very American poet. He wrote a Lincoln biography and was the only poet who spoke for Congress. He was insanely famous in the US so we have to read one of his poems. Her goes: The Harbor Passing through huddled and ugly walls, By doorways where women haggard Looked from …
Reading: Impossible Friendships by Adam Zagajewski
Adam Zagajewski (b. 1945) is another famous Polish poet. Browsing his poetry, I found this endearing list of impossible friendships, and I quote: Impossible friendships For example, with someone who no longer is, who exists only in yellowed letters. Or long walks beside a stream, whose depths hold hidden porcelain cups—and the talks about philosophy …
Reading: On The Mountain by John Haines
John Haines (1924-2011) was a poet laureate of Alaska so imagine snow and huskies and winter cabins. I read a poem about a mountain that is praised for its precision. If you’ve ever walked on a serious mountain, this might remind you: On the mountain We climbed out of timber, bending on the steep meadow …