Category Archives: Poetry

This Is a Poem That Heals Fish: An Almost Unbearably Wonderful Picture-Book About How Poetry Works Its Magic – Brain Pickings

Posted on March 26, 2017 by

“A poem … is when you are in love and have the sky in your mouth.” BY MARIA POPOVA “Poetry can break open locked chambers of possibility, restore numbed zones to feeling, recharge desire,” Adrienne Rich wrote in contemplating the … Continue reading →

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I Explain Winter to my Future Grandson

Posted on March 3, 2017 by

Originally posted on Sea Chanteys & Mexican Radio:
It was a window that kept out mosquitoes. A season both savage & dull, like a dog gnawing a bone out of boredom more than hunger. You were the bone, it the teeth…

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Leonard Cohen on Creativity, Hard Work, and Why You Should Never Quit Before You Know What It Is You’re Quitting. BY MARIA POPOVA on BrainPickings

Posted on November 12, 2016 by

“The cutting of the gem has to be finished before you can see whether it shines.” BY MARIA POPOVA Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, and novelist Leonard Cohen (b. September 21, 1934) is among the most exhilarating creative spirits of the past century. Recipient … Continue reading →

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The Third Self: Mary Oliver on Time, Concentration, the Artist’s Task, and the Central Commitment of the Creative Life – by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

Posted on October 16, 2016 by

“In the wholeheartedness of concentration,” the poet Jane Hirshfield wrote in her beautiful inquiry into the effortless effort of creativity, “world and self begin to cohere. With that state comes an enlarging: of what may be known, what may be … Continue reading →

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memoryslandscape: (Oh, heart, I would not dangle… | Thrive

Posted on September 26, 2016 by

(Oh, heart, I would not dangle you down into the sorry places, but there are things there as well to see, to imagine.) Mary Oliver, from section 2 of “Gravel,” The Leaf and the Cloud: A Poem (Da Capo Press, … Continue reading →

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Wendell Berry on How to Be a Poet and a Complete Human Being | Brain Pickings

Posted on May 17, 2015 by

Live a three-dimensioned life; stay away from screens. Stay away from anything that obscures the place it is in. There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places. via Wendell Berry on How to Be a … Continue reading →

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The second half of my life will be ice breaking up on the river, rain soaking the fields

Posted on March 16, 2015 by

The second half of my life will be black to the white rind of the old and fading moon. The second half of my life will be water over the cracked floor of these desert years. I will land on…

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On Being Awake | Searching Sophia’s Pockets

Posted on April 17, 2014 by

On Being Awake | Searching Sophia's Pockets. Such a beautiful reminder to live every single moment in amazement, to revel in every single beat of the heart.

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The Poem That Made Sherman Alexie Want to Drop Everything and Be a Poet – Joe Fassler – The Atlantic

Posted on October 28, 2013 by

Joy Harjo, who’s a Creek Indian poet and a jazz musician, was once asked by a white reporter why she played the saxophone, since it’s not an Indian instrument.And she said: “It is when I play it.”If “I’m in the … Continue reading →

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DailyGood: The Poetry of Childhood

Posted on August 23, 2013 by

“We are creators of images and caretakers of the images we perceive and communicate; it is the play of our imagining that allows us to inhabit aspects of the world seemingly distant from ourselves.” DailyGood: The Poetry of Childhood. Happy … Continue reading →

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