Tag: poems
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October 14, 2020
The first poem I had to memorize was Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees.” That was in sixth grade. Later, in high school, came bits of Shakespeare and Frost and Berryman. As I aged, I became grateful for those words forced into the grooves of my brain. They were there whenever I needed them—illuminating, clarifying, comforting. I actually…
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November 20, 2019
One of my favorite Robert Frost poems is “Flower-Gathering.” It’s one of the few poems that I have by heart. For the past week and a half, I’ve been walking around the house muttering the same two lines of the poem over and over: “Do you know me in the gloaming/gaunt and dusty grey with…
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July 5, 2019
At the end of Flora and Ulysses, Ulysses the squirrel thinks how he wants to write poems—poems about horsehair sofas and vacuum cleaners and broken lamps. And also, poems about little fishes. Last week, I got a letter from Sarah who is nine years old. She remarked on Ulysses’ intention to write about little fishes,…
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April 25, 2019
People have handed me all kinds of things in signing lines: letters, candy, flowers, plants, books, bracelets, artwork, poems, toast with a great deal of butter on it (really), photographs, notes written on paper napkins, muffins, jars of pickles. I am amazed and moved by it all. More than anything, I am astonished by how…
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May 31, 2018
This book–Poems of Gratitude–has been my daily companion since I received it as a gift in March. It is sturdy enough to anchor me. It is small enough to slip into a suitcase. And every day, it opens my heart in a new way. Reactions: 845 Comments: 25 Original Post
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May 13, 2014
Every morning, I leave space and time to write in a journal and read some poetry. Right now, the morning poetry books are: Marilyn Nelson’s How I Discovered Poetry, Garrison Keillor’s anthology entitled Good Poems for Hard Times and a slim little book called A New Thought on Blue, An Ocean Poem Anthology. A New…