Tag: National Poetry Month

National Poetry Month: April 20th

April 20, 2013

Monet Refused the Operation by Lisel Mueller

Doctor, you say there are no haloes
around the streetlights in Paris
and what I see is an aberration
caused by old age, an affliction.
I tell you it has taken me all my life
to arrive at the vision of gas lamps as angels,
to soften and blur and finally banish
the edges you regret I don’t see,
to learn that the line I called the horizon
does not exist and sky and water,
so long apart, are the same state of being.

National Poetry Month: April 19th

April 19, 2013

Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams by Kenneth Koch

1
I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer.
I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do
and its wooden beams were so inviting.
.
2
We laughed at the hollyhocks together
and then I sprayed them with lye.
Forgive me. I simply do not know what I am doing.
                  .
3
I gave away the money that you had been saving to live on for the next ten years.
The man who asked for it was shabby
and the firm March wind on the porch was so juicy and cold.
                        .
4
Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg.
Forgive me. I was clumsy and
I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!

dance

This poem was selected by Dan T. (The Loft)

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National Poetry Month: April 18th

April 18, 2013

Something Missing by Shel Silverstein

something missingI remember I put on my socks,
I remember I put on my shoes.
I remember I put on my tie
That was painted
In beautiful purples and blues.
I remember I put on my coat,
To look perfectly grand at the dance,
Yet I feel there is something
I may have forgot–
What is it? What is it?
.

This poem was selected for Josie and Adam by Russell J. (Readers’ Services)

Poetry Copyright Notice

National Poetry Month: April 16th

April 16, 2013

Everything the Power of the World Does is Done in a Circle by Black Elk

Everything the Power of the World does
is done in a circle. The sky is round,
and I have heard that the earth is round
like a ball, and so are all the stars.
The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.
                .
Birds make their nests in circles,
for theirs is the same religion as ours.

National Poetry Month: April 15th

April 15, 2013

Family by Josephine Miles

When you swim in the surf off Seal Rocks, and your family
Sits in the sand
Eating potato salad, and the undertow
Comes which takes you out away down
To loss of breath loss of play and the power of play
Holler, say
Help, help, help. Hello, they will say,
Come back here for some potato salad.
                            .
It is then that a seventeen-year-old cub
Cruising in a helicopter from Antigua,
A jackstraw expert speaking only Swedish
And remote from this area as a camel, says
Look down there, there is somebody drowning.
And it is you. You say, yes, yes,
And he throws you a line.
This is what is called the brotherhood of man.

helping_hand1

This poem was selected by Susan R. (Collection Development Librarian)

Poetry Copyright Notice

National Poetry Month: April 14th

April 14, 2013

Spleen by Charles Baudelaire (translated by Norman R. Shapiro)

When, on our groaning, ennui-ridden soul,
The heavens hang low, weigh like a lid, pressed tight;
When, circling the horizon like a bowl,
They pour a daylight sad as blackest night;
 .
When earth turns dungeon dank, where Hope, much like
A bat, entrapped, in desperation seems
To flail the walls with timid wing, and strike
Her head against the ceiling’s rotting beams;

National Poetry Month: April 12th

April 12, 2013

Pachyderm by Sherman Alexie

1. Sheldon decided he was an elephant.
                       .
2. Everywhere he went, he wore a gray t-shirt, gray sweat pants, and gray basketball shoes.
                                       .
3. He also carried a brass trumpet that he’d painted white.
             .
4. Sometimes he used that trumpet as a tusk.
                          .
5. Then he’d use it as the other tusk.
         .
6. Sometimes he played that brass trumpet and pretended it was an elephant trumpet.

© Nick Brandt

This poem was selected by Jarrett D. (The Loft)

Poetry Copyright Notice

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