Dec 30 2022
[It would be neat if with the New Year] for Miguel It would be neat if with the New YearI could leave my loneliness behind with the old year.My leathery loneliness an old pair of work bootsmy dog vigorously head-shakes back and forth in its jaws,chews on for hours every day in my front yard—rain, …
Dec 25 2022
[little tree] little treelittle silent Christmas treeyou are so littleyou are more like a flower who found you in the green forestand were you very sorry to come away?see i will comfort youbecause you smell so sweetly i will kiss your cool barkand hug you safe and tightjust as your mother would,only don’t be afraid …
Sep 22 2022
For the Chipmunk in My Yard I think he knows I’m alive, having come downThe three steps of the back porchAnd given me a good once over. All afternoonHe’s been moving back and forth,Gathering odd bits of walnut shells and twigs,While all about him the great fields tumbleTo the blades of the thresher. He’s luckyTo …
Aug 29 2022
“I hear the first drops. Like the tapping of a stranger at the door of a dream, the rain changes everything.” -Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust
Aug 17 2022
Illustrator and author Ian Beck was born on this day August 17, 1947 in Brighton, England. “Few sounds were to be heard at that early hour, only the drone of the airship’s engines and the mournful mournful moans of the foghorns, which seemed almost to be searching for one another, somewhere along the silvered and …
Jul 02 2022
Morningside Heights, July Haze. Three student violists boardinga bus. A clatter of jackhammers.Granular light. A film of sweat for primerand the heat for a coat of paint.A man and a woman on a bench:she tells him he must be psychic,for how else could he sense, even before she knew,that she’d need to call it off? …
Jun 29 2022
Our planet’s lush tropics cover 40% of the land, and account for approximately 80% of Earth’s biodiversity, yet it is under constant threat from human activity and climate change. Today is International Day of the Tropics, which was created as a reminder to appreciate and respect our rich, tropical lands. Here is a poem by …
Jun 25 2022
Daisy Time See, the grass is full of stars,Fallen in their brightness;Hearts they have of shining gold,Rays of shining whiteness. Buttercups have honeyed hearts,Bees they love the clover,But I love the daisies’ danceAll the meadow over. Blow, O blow, you happy winds,Singing summer’s praises,Up the field and down the fieldA-dancing with the daisies.
Jun 22 2022
This World Rainforest Day I am celebrating novelist, poet, environmentalist, diplomat, and mother of five, Astrid Cabral, who sings the songs of her Amazon home in her exemplary poetry. Some of Cabral’s most well-known books include Through Water (2003), Anteroom (2007), and Cage (2008). In Cage, Cabral explores the real and symbolic animals of the Amazon. She …
Jun 21 2022
Today marks the longest day of the year, the summer solstice, also known as midsummer and the first day of summer. The sun reaches its highest point in the sky for the year on this day. To celebrate the start of the season, here is a poem by Carl Sandburg, “Back Yard” from The Chicago …
