This is the opening stanza of “Try to Remember Some Details.” I love the way Amichai gives great meaning to ordinary things. Try to remember some details. Remember the clothing of the one you love so that on the day of loss you’ll be able to say: last seen wearing such-and-such, brown jacket, white hat. […]
Tag Archives: poetry
Poetry Fix: Linda Gregg
Loss is balanced with possibility in this elegiac poem by Linda Gregg. Adult I’ve come back to the country where I was happy changed. Passion puts no terrible strain on me now. I wonder what will take the place of desire. I could be the ghost of my old life returning to the places I […]
Unstinting happiness: a reading by Mary Oliver
The world is glorious and holy, and that’s the first reason we should take care of it, not because we need it.—Mary Oliver On Sunday, Pulitzer Prize winner Mary Oliver shared her poetry at the State Theater in Minneapolis. She’s my favorite contemporary poet. Throughout the reading, I felt tremendous gratitude—both for her precise and […]
Easter Poetry Fix: Czeslaw Milosz
The Polish author’s first great poem—stark and austere, then stinging with emotion. Encounter We were riding through frozen fields in a wagon at dawn. A red wing rose in the darkness. And suddenly a hare ran across the road. One of us pointed to it with his hand. That was long ago. Today neither of […]
Poetry Fix: Thomas McGrath
Two short, crystalline poems by North Dakota native Thomas McGrath. * How could I have come so far? (And always on such dark trails?) I must have traveled by the light Shining from the faces of all those I have loved. * You out there, so secret. What makes you think you’re alone? *
Poetry Fix: Blake
An impassioned prologue by one of my favorite poets. A great Q & A at the end. O for a voice like thunder, and a tongue To drown the throat of war! When the senses Are shaken, and the soul is driven to madness Who can stand? When the souls of the oppressed Fight in […]
Poetry Fix: James Wright
A gently uplifting poem: epiphany puncturing alienation. “A Blessing” Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota, Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass. And the eyes of those two Indian ponies Darken with kindness. They have come gladly out of the willows To welcome my friend and me. We step over the barbed wire into […]