The Main and the Robert Crown Branches of EPL will be closed Dec. 24th & Dec. 25th. We will reopen Dec. 26th for regular library hours.
April 5, 2011
Happy As The Day Is Long by James Tate I take the long walk up the staircase to my secret room. Today’s big news: they found Amelia Earhart’s shoe, size 9. 1992: Charlie Christian is bebopping at Minton’s in 1941. Today, the Presidential primaries have failed us once again. We’ll look for our excitement elsewhere, […]
April 4, 2011
Early Spring by Rainer Maria Rilke Harshness vanished. A sudden softness has replaced the meadows’ wintry grey. Little rivulets of water changed their singing accents. Tendernesses, hesitantly, reach toward the earth from space, and country lanes are showing these unexpected subtle risings that find expression in the empty trees. This poem was selected by Rika […]
April 3, 2011
You can hear poet and memoirist Mary Karr give a poetry reading at the Art Institute of Chicago, Rubloff Auditorium (230 S Columbus Dr) on Tuesday, April 5 at 6pm. As fans of Karr’s widely read memoir Liars’ Club will know, Karr follows the dictum of her mentor, Tobias Wolff, to “tell a bit more […]
April 3, 2011
River by John Ashbery It thinks itself too good for These generalizations and is Moved on by them. The opposite side Is plunged in shade, this one In self-esteem. But the center Keeps collapsing and re-forming. The couple at a picnic table (but It’s too early in the season for picnics) Are traipsed across by […]
April 2, 2011
raccoon prayer by Lucille Clifton oh Master Of All Who Take And Wash And Eat lift me away at the end into evening forever into sanctified crumples of paper and peelings curled over my hand i have scavenged as i must among the hairless now welcome this bandit into the kingdom just as you made […]
April 1, 2011
Dreams by Langston Hughes Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow. This poem was selected by Rika G. (Reference Librarian) Poetry Copyright Notice
April 1, 2011
Hey all you poetry lovers and likers, happy days are here again! National Poetry Month has finally arrived, and in response to overwhelming popular demand, we’re bringing back our Poem-a-Day feature to properly mark the occasion. That’s right, we’re having a poetry party right here on Off the Shelf where each and everyday of April you can drop by to enjoy a fresh, […]
January 25, 2011
The TS Eliot Prize for poetry by a writer from the UK has been awarded to Derek Walcott, who won the Nobel for literature in 1992. His work White Egrets won acclaim for being ” a moving, risk-taking and technically flawless book by a great poet,” according to the judges. It even includes two poems […]
July 12, 2010
To check out some poems by Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the United States, that have been set to animation, go to the Billy Collins action poetry. (M. Boylan, Reader’s Services)
June 8, 2010
Last week, John Wooden, one of the greatest baskeball coaches of all time, passed away at the age of 99. In this article he wrote for Poetry Magazine, he describes his love of poetry and how he “constantly incorporated bits of poetry, rhymes, and maxims” throughout his long and distinguished career.
