Poetry poems
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Nest by Marianne Boruch: American Life in Poetry #127 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006
© Ted Kooser
Poet Marianne Boruch of Indiana finds a bird's nest near her door. It is the simplest of discoveries, yet she uses it to remind us that what at first seems ordinary, even âmade a mess of,â? can be miraculously transformed upon careful reflection.
Nest
Then And Now
© Madison Julius Cawein
When my old heart was young, my dear,
The Earth and Heaven were so near
The Song Of Songs
© Madison Julius Cawein
I HEARD a Spirit singing as, beyond the morning winging,
Its radiant form went swinging like a star:
In its song prophetic voices mixed their sounds with trumpet-noises,
As when, loud, the World rejoices after war.
Grandpa Vogt’s—1959 by Ben Vogt : American Life in Poetry #247 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Lau
© Ted Kooser
Family photographs, how much they do capture in all their elbow-to-elbow awkwardness. In this poem, Ben Vogt of Nebraska describes a color snapshot of a Christmas dinner, the family, impatient to tuck in, arrayed along the laden table. I especially like the description of the turkey.
Grandpa Vogt’s-1959
The food is on the table. Turkey tanned
Satyr V. Verse
© Thomas Parnell
Thou soft Engager of my tender years
Divertive verse now come & ease my cares
The Poetry Of Spenser
© George Meredith
Lakes where the sunsheen is mystic with splendour and softness;
Vales where sweet life is all Summer with golden romance:
Forests that glimmer with twilight round revel-bright palaces;
Here in our May-blood we wander, careering 'mongst ladies and
knights.
After Work by John Maloney: American Life in Poetry #184 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006
© Ted Kooser
I hope it's not just a guy thing, a delight in the trappings of work. I love this poem by John Maloney, of Massachusetts, which gives us a close look behind the windshields of all those pickup trucks we see heading home from work.
After Work
Bread Soup: An Old Icelandic Recipe by Bill Holm: American Life in Poetry #90 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet
© Ted Kooser
Anyone can write a poem that nobody can understand, but poetry is a means of communication, and this column specializes in poems that communicate. What comes more naturally to us than to instruct someone in how to do something? Here the Minnesota poet and essayist Bill Holm, who is of Icelandic parentage, shows us how to make something delicious to eat.
Poetry And Reality
© Jane Taylor
THE worldly minded, cast in common mould,
With all his might pursuing fame or gold,
Occurrence on Washburn Avenue by Regan Huff : American Life in Poetry #212 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet La
© Ted Kooser
We've published this column about American life for over four years, and we have finally found a poem about one of the great American pastimes, bowling.
Occurrence on Washburn Avenue
Alice's first strike gets a pat on the back,
The Poetry Of Southey
© George Meredith
Keen as an eagle whose flight towards the dim empyrean
Fearless of toil or fatigue ever royally wends!
Vast in the cloud-coloured robes of the balm-breathing Orient
Lo! the grand Epic advances, unfolding the humanest truth.
A Damascene Moon
© Nizar Qabbani
Green Tunisia, I have come to you as a lover
On my brow, a rose and a book
For I am the Damascene whose profession is passion
Whose singing turns the herbs green
O Navio Negreiro Part 1. (With English Translation)
© Antonio de Castro Alves
Stamos em pleno mar… Doudo no espaço
Brinca o luar dourada borboleta;
E as vagas após ele correm… cansam
Como turba de infantes inquieta.
A Book
© Emily Dickinson
There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away.
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
Austerity Of Poetry
© Matthew Arnold
That son of Italy who tried to blow,
Ere Dante came, the trump of sacred song,
In his light youth amid a festal throng
Sate with his bride to see a public show.
Credidimus Jovem Regnare
© James Russell Lowell
O days endeared to every Muse,
When nobody had any Views,
A Dandelion for My Mother by Jean Nordhaus: American Life in Poetry #131 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laure
© Ted Kooser
Sometimes beginning writers tell me they get discouraged because it seems that everything has already been written about. But every experience, however commonplace, is unique to he or she who seizes it. There have undoubtedly been many poems about how dandelions pass from yellow to wind-borne gossamer, but this one by the Maryland poet, Jean Nordhaus, offers an experience that was unique to her and is a gift to us.
Laundry by Ruth Moose: American Life in Poetry #105 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006
© Ted Kooser
I've talked often in this column about how poetry can hold a mirror up to life, and I'm especially fond of poems that hold those mirrors up to our most ordinary activities, showing them at their best and brightest. Here Ruth Moose hangs out some laundry and, in an instant, an everyday chore that might have seemed to us to be quite plain is fresh and lovely.
