Indigo by Ellen Bass As I’m walking on West Cliff Drive, a man runs toward me pushing one of those jogging strollers with shock absorbers so the baby can keep sleeping, which this baby is. I can just get a
Enjoy Your Pint by Pádraig Ó Tuama At the bar, in an unknown part of Birmingham I bought two pints and paid with paper money from the northern part of Ireland. That’s not British money, the publican said. And I
Last week Thom Yorke (Radiohead), performed a haunting and beautiful song titled “Daily Battles”, on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. I just had to post is as I gone back to listen to it multiple times. The song is
Our Precarious Joy by Alok [support the author] feeling is dangerous because it requires us to dwell in anguish, rather than anesthetize it (as if it never happened). so many fear joy because they fear losing it. they hate us
The Singing Bowl by Malcolm Guite Begin the song exactly where you are, Remain within the world of which you’re made. Call nothing common in the earth or air, Accept it all and let it be for good. Start with
Words Could Not make it More True by Sarah Ellen Snyder Steinke We map the globe you’ve madeof my bellythe fullness of my breaststhe eagernessyou’ve grown in my coreand herewhere we love and eat and sleep and fighthereyou descendand every
I Loved You Before I Was Born by Li-Young Lee I loved you before I was born. It doesn’t make sense, I know. I saw your eyes before I had eyes to see. And I’ve lived longing for your ever
To the Girl who Works at the Starbucks down the Street from my House on Delmar Heights Road, Swear to God, I’m not a stalker by Rudy Francisco To the girl who works at the Starbucks down the street from
“Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.” Mary Oliver Mary Oliver, the great poet of presence died on January 17, 2019, she was 83
Last Night As I Was Sleeping by Antonio Machado Last Night As I Was Sleeping, I dreamt–a marvelous error!– that a spring was breaking out in my heart. I said: Along which secret aqueduct, Oh water, are you coming to
My Life Is a Memory by Rafael Arévalo Martínez, translated from Spanish by William George William When I met her I loved myself. It was she who had my best singing, she who set flame to my obscure youth, she
I first heard this song a couple of days ago and I haven’t been able to get it out of my heart. Some deep parts of me resonate with the feelings Bea Miller gives voice to… I’m guessing that maybe
This year marks the 25th anniversary or the release of R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People, which contained, “Everybody Hurts.” I must be getting old. Everybody Hurts by R.E.M. When your day is long And the night, the night is yours
Chance the Rapper, together with Daniel Caesar performed an unrecorded song on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. I think he’s calling it, “First World Problems.” So beautiful! First World Problems by Chance the Rapper, featuring Daniel Caesar I get
Pearl by Ted Kooser Elkader, Iowa, a morning in March, the Turkey River running brown and wrinkly from a late spring snow in Minnesota, a white two-story house on Mulberry Street, windows flashing with sun, and I had come a
What Comes by Carolyn Forché J’ai rapporté du désespoir un panier si ipetit mon amou, qu’on a pu le tresser en osier. I bought back from despair a basket so light, that it could have been woven of willow.
Disturb us, O Lord when we are too well-pleased with ourselves when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little, because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, O Lord when with the abundance of things
Starting Over – Fighting Back by Sheila Cassidy And so we must begin to live again, We of the damaged bodies And assaulted mind. Starting from scratch with the rubble of our lives And picking up the dust Of dreams
We Lived Happily During the War by Ilya Kaminsky And when they bombed other people’s houses, we protested but not enough, we opposed them but not enough. I was in my bed, around my bed America was falling: invisible house
Keep Breathing by Ingrid Michaelson The storm is coming but I don’t mindPeople are dying, I close my blindsAll that I know is I’m breathing nowI want to change the world, and instead I sleepI want to believe in more
A Brief for the Defense by Jack Gilbert Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils. But we enjoy our lives because that’s what God wants. Otherwise the
A Little Bit of Everything by Dawes With his back against the San Francisco traffic, On the bridges side that faces towards the jail, Setting out to join a demographic, He hoists his first leg up over the rail. And
So I was driving to Issaquah to meet a local leader about a possible new church and to walk around a couple of neighborhoods together. On my way, I was listening to KEXP radio…as I often do, when John Richards
“Tomorrow, & Tomorrow, & Tomorrow” By William Shakespeare (from Macbeth, spoken by Macbeth) Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,To the last syllable of recorded time;And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to
The Lanyard by Billy Collins The other day I was ricocheting slowlyoff the blue walls of this room,moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,when I found myself in the L section
“Swim Until You Can’t See Land” by Frightened Rabbit I salute at the threshold of the North Sea of my mindAnd I nod to the boredom that drove me here to face the tideAnd I swim, I swim, oh swimDip
Spring Song by Lucille Clifton the green of Jesus is breaking the ground and the sweet smell of delicious Jesus is opening the house and the dance of Jesus music has hold of the air and the world is turning
Praise Song for the Day A Poem for Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration. by ELIZABETH ALEXANDER Praise Song for the Day Each day we go about our business,walking past each other, catching each other’seyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All
Merger Poem by Judy Chicago And then all that has divided us will merge And then compassion will be wedded to power And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind And then both men and
We Have Not Come to Take Prisoners by Shams-ud-din Muhammad Hafiz We have not come here to take prisoners,But to surrender ever more deeplyTo freedom and joy.We have not come into this exquisite worldTo hold ourselves hostage from love.Run my
