This is the eighth in a series of columns that feature a much-loved poem and a second poem that speaks to, or resonates with, that poem. This week’s poem is “Oatmeal,” written by Galway Kinnell in the late 1980s. Kinnell was Poet Laureate of Vermont from 1989 to 1993 and a Nobel prizewinner. A follower […]
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I’d previously excluded “The Lanyard” from these columns because of its length–it’s considerably longer than most of the poems I’ve included. But I was recently asked to read at a birthday party from a thankful daughter, and, after searching widely, I found and read one of my already-most-loved poems. It was so well received I’m giving it a column
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This continues the series of columns that highlights a much-loved poem and presents other poems that speak to, or resonate with, that poem. This week features “Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats, written in 1819, almost two hundred years ago. The two related poems are both by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Thousand and First Ship,” and
This continues the series of columns that highlights a much-loved poem and presents other poems that speak to, or resonate with, that poem. This week features “The Weary Blues,” crafted by Langston Hughes. The two related poems are “The Blues Don’t Change,” by Al Young and “Slow Drag Blues” by Kevin Young. (While they share the
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This is the second in a series of columns that feature a much-loved poem, and a poem that speaks to, or resonates with, that poem. This week’s poem is “The Love of Aged Horses” by Jane Hirshfield, first published in The Atlantic in 1994. Jane Hirshfield’s poetry speaks to the central issues of human existence—desire
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This is one in a series of columns that examines a much-loved poem, and poems that speak to, or resonates with, that poem. Featured is “Spring Day [Bath],” crafted by Amy Lowell (1874-1925) in 1914 or 15. The Poetry Foundation states: “An oft-quoted remark by poet Amy Lowell applies to both her determined personality and her sense of
This is number four in a series of columns that feature a much-loved poem, and a second poem that speaks to, or resonates with, that poem. This week’s poem is “Danse Russe” by William Carlos Williams, written in 1916. The Poetry Foundation states, “Williams’s deep sense of humanity pervaded both his work in medicine and
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This continues the series of columns which highlight a much-loved poem and present other poems that speak to, or resonate with, that poem. This week features “What I Learned from My Mother,” by Julia Kasdorf (from Sleeping Preacher, U. Pittsburgh, 1992). A related brief poem is a poem to his mother by Robert Louis Stevenson; the third poem, also
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This column’s primary poem is “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop, written in 1975. Although the first line of this poem is “The art of losing isn’t hard to master;” the same way Steven Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” isn’t about clowns, this isn’t about losing things, certainly not keys. Both follow Emily Dickinson’s edict: “Tell the
This is the seventh in a series of columns that feature a much-loved poem, and a second poem that speaks to, or resonates with, the first poem. This week’s poem is “Requiem,” written by Robert Louis Stevenson. This poem was carved into Stevenson’s gravestone. The line that attracted me was “Glad did I live and
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