Naomi Shihab Nye: Every day as a wide field, every page
And there were so many more poems to read!
Countless friends to listen to.
We didn’t have to be in the same room—
the great modern magic.
Luray Gross: Small Fists Knocking
Is a poem a teaspoon of salt in the ocean,
one grain of sand placed carefully
on a turret of the castle
just before the wave rushes in?
Helge Torvund: The Hand
This poem contains
all the poems I have felt
moving inside me
but never wrote down
Archibald MacLeish: Ars Poetica
A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.
George Drew: Federico García Lorca, You Have Ruined My Day
this, in the end, might as well have been a poem about savage reckonings
Stephen Dobyns: Can Poetry Matter?
Heart feels the time has come to compose lyric poetry.
No more storytelling for him. Oh, Moon, Heart writes,
sad wafer of the heart’s distress. And then: Oh, Moon,
bright cracker of the heart’s pleasure.
Katy Giebenhain: Forget Beauty
Forget family, inheritance,
the name
of any mountain, holler,
creek, county, neighbor you know.
But especially, forget beauty.
Rachel Hadas: Lyric Leap
lacuna, hiatus, sidebar,
sudden swerve, and you are far
along already toward surprise.
W.D. Ehrhart: The Farmer
A farmer of dreams
knows how to pretend. A farmer of dreams
knows what it means to be patient.
Stephen Dobyns: The Poet’s Disregard
He ponders composing an ode
to his long time sidekick Death, but as his
own departure draws near their friendship
has grown problematic.
Cornelius Eady: Charlie Chaplin Impersonates a Poet
Here is the little tramp, standing
On a stack of books in order
To reach the microphone
Mike James: What I Know About Poetry
some things keep happening a rock rolls down a hill, bounces, bounces, rolls along makes a sound every time it bumps the dirt cracks itself and the silence … Continue reading
