Michael T. Young | The Secular Sublime: An Appreciation of Gerald Stern
Stern’s poems are deceptively simple. He writes in a language completely devoid of pretense and yet dignified with the elegance of profound meditation.
Michael T. Young: How to Read a Poem
The experience of reading a poem should not start in the meaning first, but in the feelings it evokes just hearing those words, in the images, and rhythms carrying you along, much like a good song.
Michael T. Young: What the World Waits for
Like that day I sat in the yard
under the braids of summer light,
reading, weighing thought
against thought for what was right
or what was wrong
Michael T. Young: Two Poems
It begins not in the trees exactly
but in what they do to the light
Michael T. Young: The Need to Believe | The Poetry of Lisel Mueller
This is the power we need in a post-truth world, where political forces claim the right to manipulate our perceptions through distortions of language.
Michael T. Young: Two Poems
we never see that ball of light cradled
in their green palms
Michael T. Young: How to Survive the End of the World
these strangers random as bits of sea glass
collected and admired
Michael T. Young: The Spoils of War
A little girl grips the one toy she was
allowed to carry away through crowds
stumbling together from their homes.
Michael T. Young: Two Poems
When you’re not the target
you can ignore the gun.
Michael T. Young: To Fly
Maybe it’s a vision so clear the dark can’t darken it,
and the mountainous range of roadblocks
and barricades can’t dim the image of it. It’s fixed
and steady. An unchanging map in our blood
Michael T. Young: Reflections on Richard Hugo’s Poetry
I believed the necessity
of that suffering world, hoping it would learn not to do
it again. But I was young. The world never learns.
Michael T. Young: Dutch Hex Signs
They spoke a language that smelled of horsehair
and tasted of apple butter and red beet eggs
Michael T. Young: Sitting in the Dark
On the day another black man is shot
I sit with my family watching sparrows
pick through soil warmed in sunlight.
Michael T. Young: Concession Speech
People don’t understand that the road
to concession is paved with denial.
