April 26, 2014
The Applicant by Sylvia Plath
First, are you our sort of person?
Do you wear
A glass eye, false teeth or a crutch,
A brace or a hook,
Rubber breasts or a rubber crotch,
Stitches to show something’s missing? No, no? Then
How can we give you a thing?
Stop crying.
Open your hand.
Empty? Empty. Here is a hand Continue reading “National Poetry Month: April 26th”
April 25, 2014
Check out this wonderful clip of poet Matthew Dickman reading “Slow Dance.” Simply beautiful.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG0F2a3sw14]
End of Winter by Louise Gluck
Over the still world, a bird calls
waking solitary among black boughs.
You wanted to be born; I let you be born.
When has my grief ever gotten
in the way of your pleasure? Continue reading “National Poetry Month: April 25th”
April 24, 2014
Sweater Weather by Sharon Bryan
Never better, mad as a hatter,
right as rain, might and main,
hanky panky, hot toddy,
hoity-toity, cold shoulder,
bowled over, rolling in clover,
low blow, no soap, hope
against hope, pay the piper,
liar liar pants on fire,
high and dry, shoo-fly pie, Continue reading “National Poetry Month: April 24th”
April 23, 2014
Sonnet XXV by William Shakespeare
Let those who are in favor with their stars
Of public honor and proud titles boast,
Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars,
Unlooked for joy in that I honor most.
Great princes’ favorites their fair leaves spread
But as the marigold at the sun’s eye;
And in themselves their pride lies buried,
For at a frown they in their glory die.
The painful warrior famoused for fight,
After a thousand victories once foiled,
Is from the book of honor rased quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toiled.
. .Then happy I, that love and am beloved
. .Where I may not remove nor be removed.
This poem was selected by Russell J. (Adult Services’ Librarian)
April 22, 2014
Casey at the Bat by Ernest Lawrence Thayer
The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day;
The score stood four to two with but one inning more to play.
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.
A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought if only Casey could but get a whack at that–
We’d put up even money now with Casey at the bat. Continue reading “National Poetry Month: April 22nd”
April 21, 2014
The Whippoorwill by Conrad Aiken
Last night, as I lay half awake,
A whippoorwill was in this tree,
And sang, for the three-quarters moon,
Another whippoorwill, and me.
At first, I heard him far away —
A ghostly whiplash. Then I heard,
From the tall tree beneath the moon,
What seemed indeed a different bird —
so near, so loud, so sweet he sang;
and what, far off, seemed harsh and strange,
Grew to a beauty in the moon,
Even as I listened seemed to change.
“Why? Why:” he asked….And then was gone
Without a sound of wing or leaf.
And the tall tree stood carved in stone;
The moonlight night as still as grief.
This poem was selected by Laura H. (Adult Services Librarian)
April 20, 2014
As I Grew Older by Langston Hughes
It was a long time ago.
I have almost forgotten my dream.
But it was there then,
In front of me,
Bright like a sun—
My dream.
And then the wall rose,
Rose slowly,
Slowly,
Between me and my dream.
Rose until it touched the sky—
The wall.
Shadow.
I am black.
I lie down in the shadow.
No longer the light of my dream before me,
Above me.
Only the think wall.
Only the shadow.
My hands!
My dark hands!
Break through the wall!
Find my dream!
Help me to shatter this darkness,
To smash this night,
To break this shadow
Into a thousand lights of sun,
Into a thousand whirling dreams
Of sun!
This poem was selected by Lesley W. (Head of Adult Services)
April 19, 2014
Analfabeta by Jacqueline Osherow
. .for Laura Dondoli, in memory of her great-grandfather
I have a friend whose great-grandfather learned to read
From an uncle blinded in battle under Garibaldi;
He wanted Dante read to him aloud
And the boy learned to distinguish our unwieldy
Signs as simple sketches from his world,
Each with an unalterable melody:
Did he see two mountains touching, side by side?
They initiated Magic, Music, Mastery.
A three-pronged pitchfork’s unsupported head? Continue reading “National Poetry Month: April 19th”
April 18, 2014
Check out this amazing clip of legendary Beat poet Allen Ginsberg reciting a poem on William F. Buckley Jr.’s conservative talk show “Firing Line.” Enjoy!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCWbVl4IKpU]