Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Tom Hennen: "The Life of a Day" [Prose Poem]


Like people or dogs, each day is unique and has its own personality quirks which can easily be seen if you look closely. But there are so few days as compared to people, not to mention dogs, that it would be surprising if a day were not a hundred times more interesting than most people. But usually they just pass, mostly unnoticed, unless they are wildly nice, like autumn ones full of red maple trees and hazy sunlight, or if they are grimly awful ones in a winter blizzard that kills the lost traveler and bunches of cattle. For some reason we like to see days pass, even though most of us claim we don’t want to reach our last one for a long time. We examine each day before us with barely a glance and say, no, this isn’t one I’ve been looking for, and wait in a bored sort of way for the next, when we are convinced, our lives will start for real. Meanwhile, this day is going by perfectly well-adjusted, as some days are, with the right amounts of sunlight and shade, and a light breeze scented with a perfume made from the mixture of fallen apples, corn stubble, dry oak leaves, and the faint odor of last night’s meandering skunk.



"The Life of a Day" by Tom Hennen, from Darkness Sticks to Everything: Collected and New Poems. © Copper Canyon Press, 2013.

Photography credit: "Rotting Apples," by Laura Berman (originally color).



Monday, November 4, 2013

William Stafford: "Security"
















Tomorrow will have an island. Before night
I always find it. Then on to the next island.
These places hidden in the day separate
and come forward if you beckon.
But you have to know they are there before they exist.

Some time there will be a tomorrow without any island.
So far, I haven't let that happen, but after
I'm gone others may become faithless and careless.
Before them will tumble the wide unbroken sea,
and without any hope they will stare at the horizon.

So to you, Friend, I confide my secret:
to be a discoverer you hold close whatever
you find, and after a while you decide
what it is. Then, secure in where you have been,
you turn to the open sea and let go.



"Security" by William Stafford, from Passwords: Poems. © HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.

Photography credit: "Middle of the North Atlantic Ocean," by Marcus Visic (originally color).


 

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Kay N. Sanders: "How to Let Go of a Kite"














Wait for a day rattled with wind
Climb the ladder to the attic
      stuffed with all
            you hang on to
Find the kite stored
      when your last child
             moved out

Take it to a field
      unbound by wires
Loosen the string
Love how it pirouettes in the wind
Run as though you could catch it

Stop and calm
      your ragged breathing
Relax your hold
Hear it sing
      through your fingers
See how it's carried
      on the wind’s own breath
Wave it over the horizon



"How to Let Go of a Kite" by Kay N. Sanders. Published in Free Verse (January 2009).

Image credit: "Red Kite," oil on canvas, by Lisa Lea Bemish (originally color).



Saturday, November 2, 2013

Grace Hughes Chappell: "Build Your House"


 











Build your house next to a tall tree
build your house
there
along the axis of its afternoon shade
and the morning sun.
Build a porch
around your house a wide porch
of welcome
and distance to your door.
Build a porch to stand on where you’ll watch
light climbing the tree trunk and the moon
snagging itself in the branches.



"Build Your House" by Grace Hughes Chappell. Published online at this link.  © Grace Hughes Chappell.  

Image credit: "Amber Moon," giclée print, by Fizzstudio (originally color).


 

Friday, November 1, 2013

Cindy Gregg: "Monday"


On this first day of November
it is cold as a cave,
the sky the color
of neutral third parties.
I am cutting carrots
for the chicken soup.
Knife against carrot
again and again
sends a plop of pennies
into the pan.
These cents,
when held to the gray light,
hold no noble president,
only stills
of some kaleidoscope
caught being pensive
and beautiful,
in the eye of this beholder,
who did not expect
this moment of marvel
while making an early supper
for the hungry children.



"Monday" by Cindy Gregg, from Suddenly Autumn. © Wordplay Press, 2010.

Photography credit: detail of a photo found at this link (originally color).



Thursday, October 31, 2013

Kathleen Norris: "Imperatives"












Look at the birds
Consider the lilies
Drink ye all of it
Ask
Seek
Knock
Enter by the narrow gate
Do not be anxious
Judge not; do not give dogs what is holy
Go: be it done for you
Do not be afraid
Maiden, arise
Young man, I say, arise
Stretch out your hand
Stand up, be still
Rise, let us be going…
Love
Forgive
Remember me



"Imperatives" by Kathleen Norris, from Journey: New and Selected Poems, 1969-1999. © University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001.

Photography credit: Untitled by h3images.com (originally black and white).



Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Theodore Roethke: "A Light Breather"


The spirit moves,
Yet stays:
Stirs as a blossom stirs,
Still wet from its bud-sheath,
Slowly unfolding,
Turning in the light with its tendrils;
Plays as a minnow plays,
Tethered to a limp weed, swinging,
Tail around, nosing in and out of the current,
Its shadows loose, a watery finger;
Moves, like the snail,
Still inward,
Taking and embracing its surroundings,
Never wishing itself away,
Unafraid of what it is,
A music in a hood,
A small thing,
Singing.




"A Light Breather" by Theodore Roethke, from The Waking: Poems, 1933-1953. © Doubleday, 1953.

Photography credit: detail from "Re-hearted," by Marianne Sormunen (originally color).



Tuesday, October 29, 2013

James Hubbell: "Cathedral"


Awakening as if from a dream
I turn to the news
I hear the cracking,
the rumbling
of a cathedral falling
the footing forgotten
the stones laid carelessly.

Then,
I remember the hidden moon,
the breathing in and out of nature
And, I know that
the earth awaits
a new cathedral.
And, I know that I must
find my stone,
place it carefully
for Life waits, too.



"Cathedral" by James Hubbell. © James Hubbell. Found online at this link.

Photography credit: Detail from an image at this link taken by an unknown photographer (originally color).


 

Monday, October 28, 2013

Julie Cadwallader-Staub: "Midlife"


This is as far as the light
of my understanding
has carried me:
an October morning
a canoe built by hand
a quiet current

above me the trees arc
green and golden
against a cloudy sky

below me the river responds
with perfect reflection
a hundred feet deep
a hundred feet high.

To take a cup of this river
to drink its purple and gray
its golden and green

to see
a bend in the river up ahead
and still
say
yes.



"Midlife" by Julie Cadwallader-Staub. © Julie Cadwallader-Staub.

Photography credit: Detail from "Meltausjoki Canoe Trail, Finland," by Michael van Vliet (originally color).




Sunday, October 27, 2013

Dorianne Laux: "Dust"












Someone spoke to me last night,
told me the truth. Just a few words,
but I recognized it.
I knew I should make myself get up,
write it down, but it was late,
and I was exhausted from working
all day in the garden, moving rocks.
Now, I remember only the flavor—
not like food, sweet or sharp.
More like a fine powder, like dust.
And I wasn't elated or frightened,
but simply rapt, aware.
That's how it is sometimes—
God comes to your window,
all bright light and black wings,
and you're just too tired to open it.



"Dust" by Dorianne Laux, from What We Carry. © BOA Editions, 1994.

Image credit: detail of image found at this link.



 

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Stuart Kestenbaum: "In Praise of Hands"


It's not just the people
who live in the city

who've lost the thread
that ties them to the woven

world of stones and earth,
fields alive with pollen and wings.

Who among us understands
how oceans rise and fall,

currents swirling around the planet
with messages in bottles

floating on the water.
When the tide is out

we can go to the shore
dig clay with our bare hands

and make something beautiful from it,
a vessel with thin walls

that holds a canyon.
In both hands, like an offering,

we can hold the memory
of eroded stones and earth,

eons contained in this empty bowl.
We can fill it with water

that reflects the sky that has
witnessed everything since

time began, we can drink and be blessed,
clouds gathering over us.




"In Praise of Hands" by Stuart Kestenbaum, from Prayers & Run-On Sentences. © Deerbrook Editions, 2007.

Image credit: "Potter's Hands," found at this link (originally black and white).



Friday, October 25, 2013

Kirsten Dierking: "Sailing on Lake Superior"












Before us now the edge of the earth,
below us the nearly endless cold.
Around us nothing but shimmering
water,
the miles of empty and sparkling blue.

For a few hours, the sail fills on
toward infinity. Shadows of
our delicate bodies ebb and flow
across the deck of our delicate boat.

What if the beautiful days, the good
and pacific temperate moments,
weren't just lovely, but everything?
What if I could let it fall away
in the wake, that ache to extract
meaning from vastness?

Let this suffice; the ease of thinking
it all goes on, whether we're here
to see it or not. The splashing waves,
the suntipped gulls arcing across
the radiant world.



"Sailing on Lake Superior" by Kirsten Dierking, from Northern Oracle. © Spout Press, 2007.

Photography credit: Tom Stuart (originally color).



 

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Tami Haaland: "A Colander of Barley"














The smell, once water has rinsed it,
is like a field of ripe grain, or the grain held
in a truck, and if you climb the steel side,
one foot lodged on the hubcap, the other
on the wheel, and pull your body upward,
your hands holding to tarp hooks, and lift toes
onto the rim of the truck box, rest your ribs
against the side, you will see beetles
and grasshoppers among the hulled kernels.
Water stirs and resurrects harvest dust:
sun beating on abundance, the moist heat
of grain collected in steel, hands
plunging and lifting, the grain spilling back.



"A Colander of Barley" by Tami Haaland, from When We Wake in the Night. © WordTech Editions, 2012.  

Photography credit: detail of an image by Kalyn Denny (originally color).



Kalyn Denny
Kalyn Denny
Kalyn Denny
Kalyn Denny

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Mary Oliver: "Fall Song"















Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island
of this summer, this Now, that now is nowhere

except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries—roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water. This

I try to remember when time's measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay—how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures.



"Fall Song" by Mary Oliver, from American Primitive. © Back Bay Books, 1983.  

Photography credit: "Man Walking Through Dry Autumn Leaves on a Cold Day," by Stephen McCluskey (originally color).


 

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Stephen Sondheim: "Children Will Listen"




[Curator's Note: If you can't see the viewer above, click here to watch the video.]



How do you say to your child in the night
Nothing's all black, but then nothing's all white?
How do you say it will all be all right
When you know that it might not be true?
What do you do?

Careful the things you say
Children will listen
Careful the things you do
Children will see and learn
Children may not obey, but children will listen
Children will look to you for which way to turn
To learn what to be
Careful before you say "Listen to me"
Children will listen

Careful the wish you make
Wishes are children
Careful the path they take
Wishes come true, not free
Careful the spell you cast
Not just on children
Sometimes the spell may last
Past what you can see
And turn against you
Careful the tale you tell
That is the spell
Children will listen

How can you say to a child who's in flight
"Don't slip away and I won't hold so tight?"
What can you say that no matter how slight
Won't be misunderstood?
What do you leave to your child when you're dead?
Only whatever you put in its head
Things that your mother and father had said
Which were left to them too
Careful what you say
Children will listen
Careful you do it too
Children will see
And learn, oh guide them that step away
Children will glisten
Tamper with what is true
And children will turn
If just to be free
Careful before you say
"Listen to me"



"Children Will Listen" by Stephen Sondheim, from Into the Woods, a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Debuted in 1986. 

Performance here by Maria Friedman and the BBC Concert Orchestra during "Sondheim at 80" at the Royal Albert Hall, London, England, August, 2010.



Monday, October 21, 2013

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi: "Begin"


This is now. Now is. Don’t
postpone till then. Spend
the spark of iron on stone.
Sit at the head of the table;
dip your spoon in the bowl.
Seat yourself next to your joy
and have your awakened soul
pour wine. Branches in the
spring wind, easy dance of
jasmine and cypress. Cloth
for green robes has been cut
from pure absence. You’re
the tailor, settled among his
shop goods, quietly sewing.



"Begin" by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, from The Soul of Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks. © HarperCollins Publishers, 2001.  

Photography credit: "Rustic Spoon and Bowl," by corbisrffancy (originally color).



Mark Jarman: "Coyotes"




















Is this world truly fallen? They say no.
For there's the new moon, there's the Milky Way,
There's the rattler with a wren's egg in its mouth,
And there's the panting rabbit they will eat.
They sing their wild hymn on the dark slope,
Reading the stars like notes of hilarious music.
Is this a fallen world? How could it be?

And yet we're crying over the stars again,
And over the uncertainty of death,
Which we suspect will divide us all forever.
I'm tired of those who broadcast their certainties,
Constantly on their cell phones to their redeemer.
Is this a fallen world? For them it is.
But there's that starlit burst of animal laughter.

The day has sent its fires scattering.
The night has risen from its burning bed.
Our tears are proof that love is meant for life
And for the living. And this chorus of praise,
Which the pet dogs of the neighborhood are answering
Nostalgically, invites our answer, too.
Is this a fallen world? How could it be?


"Coyotes" by Mark Jarman. Published in The Atlantic (May 2003).

Photography credit: "Howling Lesson," by Debbie DeCarlo (originally color).



 

Sunday, October 20, 2013

William Stafford: "An Afternoon in the Stacks"


Closing the book, I find I have left my head
inside. It is dark in here, but the chapters open
their beautiful spaces and give a rustling sound,
words adjusting themselves to their meaning.
Long passages open at successive pages. An echo,
continuous from the title onward, hums
behind me. From in here the world looms,
a jungle redeemed by these linked sentences
carved out when an author traveled and a reader
kept the way open. When this book ends
I will pull it inside-out like a sock
and throw it back in the library. But the rumor
of it will haunt all that follows in my life.
A candleflame in Tibet leans when I move.



"An Afternoon in the Stacks" by William Stafford, from The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems. © Graywolf Press, 1998.

Photography credit: "Book Cell: the inside of a sculpture by Matej Kren," by Sabine (originally color).



Saturday, October 19, 2013

Rita Dove: "Flirtation"


After all, there’s no need
to say anything

at first. An orange, peeled
and quartered, flares

like a tulip on a wedgwood plate.
Anything can happen.

Outside the sun
has rolled up her rugs

and night strewn salt
across the sky. My heart

is humming a tune
I haven’t heard in years!

Quiet’s cool flesh—
let’s sniff and eat it.

There are ways
to make of the moment

a topiary
so the pleasure’s in

walking through.



"Flirtation" by Rita Dove, from Museum. © Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1983.

Image credit: "Moonlight Topiary," by Peter Bond (originally color).


 

Friday, October 18, 2013

Jared Carter: "Geodes"












They are useless, there is nothing
to be done with them, no reason, only

the finding: letting myself down holding
to ironwood and the dry bristle of roots

into the creekbed, into clear water shelved
below the outcroppings, where crawdads spurt

through silt; clawing them out of clay, scrubbing
away the sand, setting them in a shaft of light

to dry. Sweat clings in the cliff's downdraft.
I take each one up like a safecracker listening

for the lapse within, the moment crystal turns
on crystal. It is all waiting there in darkness.

I want to know only that things gather themselves
with great patience, that they do this forever.



"Geodes" by Jared Carter, from Work, for the Night Is Coming. © Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 1995.

Photography credit: "Amethyst Landscape," by Jenwytch (originally color).