Tuesday is chock full of issues I just can’t stand to talk about! So let’s read some poetry, instead.
Oh yarr, my husband and I do a chatty, drinky podcast once a week, and we almost always end with a short poem. We’re done almost forty of these suckers, but I haven’t indexed them carefully (she mentioned while wiping pink donut frosting off the space bar), but here are many of them, anyway. If you’re looking for something thoughtful, gracious, and evocative to read, you could do worse than these:
End of Summer by Stanley Kunitz
Faith by Maria Terrone
Gazebos by Roger McGough
maggie and milly and molly and may by e e cummings
Eulogie by Sherman Alexie
Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas
Walking West by William E. Stafford
The Gift by Louise Gluck
Examination at the Womb-Door by Ted Hughes
The Lesson of the Moth by Don Marquis
There Is a Gold Light in Certain Old Paintings by Donald Justice
No Time by Billy Collins
What else are the podcasts about? Almost anything, except politics. YES. NO POLITICS. Some cussing. The podcasts are available to patrons who pledge as little as a dollar a month to help keep my site afloat. Check out Patreon for more information. It’s so easy! It’s so only a dollar a month! And we can read poems together.
Here are a few other lists of recommended poems:
Poetry-ize your house for the summer
Image: Les Chatfield via Flickr (Creative Commons) [I know you’re craning your neck sideways to read the titles, but these are not my books, so you’re just spying on the reading habits of a complete stranger, rather than on those of a near-stranger, ha.]
I might sign up for the poems. I’m surprised you didn’t have any Jane Kenyon in your list. This is my favorite of hers: https://m.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/twilight-after-haying
If you’re looking for an antipodean flavour, there is an absolutely delightful poem by John O’brien written in the 1920s called ‘Trimmings on the Rosary’. It vividly captures Irish spirituality in Australia and it is just simply a beautiful portrayal of family traditions and the power of prayerful mothers. 🙂
http://www.australianculture.org/the-trimmins-on-the-rosary-john-obrien/
Kunitz, End of Summer, oh my. Thanks. Wow. As the kids say (hilarious, though, for this): “No words.”
Y’all should support Simcha on Patreon. Because then you get to listen to her podcasts, and they are even better than you would expect them to be! So funny, so good. Do it!!!
Wisdom! Wisdom!