Category Archives: Poetry

Exiled Clay

John Donahue I am not sure youlive anywhere, nocord of clay holdsyou moored. The air is brittleand cannot settlenear your attention. Your cell hasno cloister forabandon anoints you. To what placebelongs the red bushof your blood? Who could travelyour mountains … Continue reading

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

“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

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

“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

“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

(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

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

Originally posted on Live & Learn:
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…

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On Being Awake | Searching Sophia’s Pockets

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

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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