W.D. Ehrhart: The Farmer
A farmer of dreams
knows how to pretend. A farmer of dreams
knows what it means to be patient.
Sharon Fagan McDermott: Sharon In Wonderland | Dandelion
The view from here? A prophecy
of how light, wind, and earth conspire
to play their role in dandelions’ flourishing—
then aids them in their vanishing.
Pema Chödrön: A Story about Fear
The student warrior stood on one side, and fear stood on the other. The warrior was feeling very small, and fear was looking big and wrathful. They both had their weapons.
Video: Praise Song for the Pandemic
Blessed are those in grief, especially who mourn alone, blessed are those who have passed into the Great Night
Dawn Potter: Concord Street Hymn
Yes, there will be
daffodils in every stanza of this poem
because it is spring in Maine
Video: Franny Choi recites “Split Mouth”
My mother’s tongue is a snipped string, a stripped stinger…
William Shakespeare: Sonnet 29
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate
David Huddle: Parable of the Same Scene Every Day for Years
Consider my mother gazing out her window
over the kitchen sink as she washes breakfast, lunch,
and dinner dishes for fifty-some years.
Leslie McGrath: Baby Hippos, the Rain & Other People’s Pain
There are worse ways to waste time
than watching videos of baby hippos…
Doug Anderson: Letter to Me
Yes, I said, to that other self that younger self that
swaggering young ass
who sewed up his heart with cat gut, yes
D.W. Fenza: The Uses of Poetry
The sorrow far apart from
history & the news. The anger
of writing that prevents no
official lie.
Video: “IN THIS PLACE (AN AMERICAN LYRIC)” by Amanda Gorman
“In This Place (An American Lyric)” features a stirring choral recitation of a protest-themed poem by Amanda Gorman who delivered the presidential inaugural poem on January 20, 2021.
Video: Universal Machine
Set to a score by Philip Glass and shot in the Arabian desert with a haunting backdrop of the Burj Khalifa, Universal Machine is set in a post-apocalyptic world where a gifted young girl must find a way to understand and overcome a violent encounter with a life-like android.
Amiri Baraka: Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note
And now, each night I count the stars,
And each night I get the same number.
And when they will not come to be counted,
I count the holes they leave.
