What to read for National Poetry Month
April 18, 2023 3:04 PM Subscribe
The Michigan Daily's The Daily Book Review recommends for National Poetry Month: Devotions by Mary Oliver, Civil Service by Claire Schwartz, Be Holding by Ross Gay, and Asylum: A Personal, Historical, Natural Inquiry in 103 Lyric Sections by Jill Bialosky.
Although I spoiled the list for you, this is a great little article about several really wonderful books of poetry.
Orion's Seven Poems for National Poetry Month, which includes "Frequently Asked Questions: #6" by Camille Dungy, which reminded me of the post from earlier about questions female comedians are asked.
Chicago Tribune's "Column: It’s National Poetry Month. Here are 9 good poems to help you make it through life." which includes an excerpt from Naomi Shihab Nye:
Find poetry readings and events on the Academy of American Poets' Poetry Near You calendar, or check out their 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month.
Although I spoiled the list for you, this is a great little article about several really wonderful books of poetry.
*For best existential results: Read outside in the early morning or late evening, as the sun rises or sets. Under these conditions, poetry can enter your tender heart with ease.A few other round-ups:
Orion's Seven Poems for National Poetry Month, which includes "Frequently Asked Questions: #6" by Camille Dungy, which reminded me of the post from earlier about questions female comedians are asked.
Chicago Tribune's "Column: It’s National Poetry Month. Here are 9 good poems to help you make it through life." which includes an excerpt from Naomi Shihab Nye:
What you held in your hand,Brightly's "11 Great Audiobooks for National Poetry Month" explores poetry for kids, including Joy Harjo and Joseph Bruchac.
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
Find poetry readings and events on the Academy of American Poets' Poetry Near You calendar, or check out their 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month.
"And physicists rocketed
copies of the decree to paradise
in case God had anything to say,
the silence that followed being taken
for consent, and so citizens
readied for celestial ascent."
I've collected links about poetry in space/orbit, spoken in, etched, transmitted.
'Message to the gods: the space poetry that transcends human rivalries'
"Touchscreen"
posted by clavdivs at 12:58 AM on April 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
copies of the decree to paradise
in case God had anything to say,
the silence that followed being taken
for consent, and so citizens
readied for celestial ascent."
I've collected links about poetry in space/orbit, spoken in, etched, transmitted.
'Message to the gods: the space poetry that transcends human rivalries'
"Touchscreen"
posted by clavdivs at 12:58 AM on April 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid
posted by elkevelvet at 7:49 AM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by elkevelvet at 7:49 AM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
I am surprised by how few poems I like -- but also by how much those few can wrench my heart.
Emily Dickinson often grabs me, Shakespeare, some Whitman, Auden...but so many others just leave me cold. It was years after finishing an English degree that I actually found poetry that I liked.
(I mean, as a kid I loved Robert Service's "Cremation of Sam McGee" -- though that was probably because my ScoutMaster used to recite it in the dark around the campfire. I miss you, Mark!)
posted by wenestvedt at 10:29 AM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
Emily Dickinson often grabs me, Shakespeare, some Whitman, Auden...but so many others just leave me cold. It was years after finishing an English degree that I actually found poetry that I liked.
(I mean, as a kid I loved Robert Service's "Cremation of Sam McGee" -- though that was probably because my ScoutMaster used to recite it in the dark around the campfire. I miss you, Mark!)
posted by wenestvedt at 10:29 AM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm a little curious whether there are other communities that do this, because I haven't encountered it anywhere else but then there are a lot of places I haven't lived so how would I know?
Anyway.. our local public radio station celebrates National Poetry Month every year with a tradition called "One Poem a Day Won't Kill You." Before April begins, the station gets 30 volunteers to agree to go to the radio station, where they are each recorded reading a short poem - either one of their own works or else a poem that meets the program's criteria (chiefly length and lack of intellectual property rights encumbrances). One poem is scheduled for each day and the recording of it being read is slotted into the station's broadcasting twice during the morning and once during the afternoon.
It's kind of a fun way to increase awareness of poetry and it helps that we're a small enough community that there's a good chance you'll know the volunteer who's reading that day. And, as advertised, one poem a day won't kill you.
posted by Nerd of the North at 6:26 PM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
Anyway.. our local public radio station celebrates National Poetry Month every year with a tradition called "One Poem a Day Won't Kill You." Before April begins, the station gets 30 volunteers to agree to go to the radio station, where they are each recorded reading a short poem - either one of their own works or else a poem that meets the program's criteria (chiefly length and lack of intellectual property rights encumbrances). One poem is scheduled for each day and the recording of it being read is slotted into the station's broadcasting twice during the morning and once during the afternoon.
It's kind of a fun way to increase awareness of poetry and it helps that we're a small enough community that there's a good chance you'll know the volunteer who's reading that day. And, as advertised, one poem a day won't kill you.
posted by Nerd of the North at 6:26 PM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
H.D. The Walls Do Not Fall
#33
Wistfulness, exaltation,
a pure core of burning celebration,
jottings in a margin,
indecipherable palimpsest scribbled over
with to many contradictory emotions,
search for finite definition
of the infinite, stumbling toward
vague cosmic expression,
obvious sentiment,
folder around a spiritual bank-account,
with credit-loss too starkly indicated,
a riot of unpruned imagination,
jottings of psychic numerical equations,
runes, superstitions, evasions,
invasion of the over-soul into a cup
too brittle, a jar too circumscribed,
a little too porous to contain the out-flowing
of water-about-to-be-changed-to-wine
at the wedding; barren search,
arrogance, over-confidence, pitiful reticence,
boasting, intrusion of strained
inappropriate allusion,
illusion of lost-gods, daemons,
gambler with eternity,
initiate of the secret wisdom,
bride of the kingdom,
reversion of old values,
oneness lost, madness.
posted by clavdivs at 3:19 PM on April 20, 2023
#33
Wistfulness, exaltation,
a pure core of burning celebration,
jottings in a margin,
indecipherable palimpsest scribbled over
with to many contradictory emotions,
search for finite definition
of the infinite, stumbling toward
vague cosmic expression,
obvious sentiment,
folder around a spiritual bank-account,
with credit-loss too starkly indicated,
a riot of unpruned imagination,
jottings of psychic numerical equations,
runes, superstitions, evasions,
invasion of the over-soul into a cup
too brittle, a jar too circumscribed,
a little too porous to contain the out-flowing
of water-about-to-be-changed-to-wine
at the wedding; barren search,
arrogance, over-confidence, pitiful reticence,
boasting, intrusion of strained
inappropriate allusion,
illusion of lost-gods, daemons,
gambler with eternity,
initiate of the secret wisdom,
bride of the kingdom,
reversion of old values,
oneness lost, madness.
posted by clavdivs at 3:19 PM on April 20, 2023
Might be worth adding a general tag for poetry, too, to make this post more easily found in the future.
posted by wicked_sassy at 3:45 PM on April 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by wicked_sassy at 3:45 PM on April 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
A Martian sends a Postcard home
Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings
and some are treasured for their markings -
they cause the eyes to melt
or the body to shriek without pain.
I have never seen one fly, but
sometimes they perch on the hand.
Mist is when the sky is tired of flight
and rests its soft machine on ground:
then the world is dim and bookish
like engravings under some tissue paper.
Rain is when the earth is television.
It has the property of making colours darker.
Model T is a room with the lock inside -
a key is turned to free the world
For movement, so quick there is a film
to watch for anything missed.
But time is tied to the wrist
or kept in a box, ticking with impatience.
In homes, a haunted apparatus sleeps,
that snores when you pick it up.
If the ghost cries, they carry it
to their lips and soothe it to sleep
with sounds. And yet, they wake it up
deliberately, by tickling with a finger.
Only the young are allowed to suffer
openly. Adults go to a punishment room
with water but nothing to eat.
They lock the door and suffer the noises
alone. No one is exempt
and everyone's pain has a different smell.
At night, when all the colours die,
they hide in pairs
and read about themselves -
in colour, with their eyelids shut.
-- Craig Raine
posted by storybored at 10:27 PM on April 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings
and some are treasured for their markings -
they cause the eyes to melt
or the body to shriek without pain.
I have never seen one fly, but
sometimes they perch on the hand.
Mist is when the sky is tired of flight
and rests its soft machine on ground:
then the world is dim and bookish
like engravings under some tissue paper.
Rain is when the earth is television.
It has the property of making colours darker.
Model T is a room with the lock inside -
a key is turned to free the world
For movement, so quick there is a film
to watch for anything missed.
But time is tied to the wrist
or kept in a box, ticking with impatience.
In homes, a haunted apparatus sleeps,
that snores when you pick it up.
If the ghost cries, they carry it
to their lips and soothe it to sleep
with sounds. And yet, they wake it up
deliberately, by tickling with a finger.
Only the young are allowed to suffer
openly. Adults go to a punishment room
with water but nothing to eat.
They lock the door and suffer the noises
alone. No one is exempt
and everyone's pain has a different smell.
At night, when all the colours die,
they hide in pairs
and read about themselves -
in colour, with their eyelids shut.
-- Craig Raine
posted by storybored at 10:27 PM on April 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
I was going to Raine today. 🙂
'Dead Solders'. James Fenton.
posted by clavdivs at 1:10 PM on April 21, 2023
'Dead Solders'. James Fenton.
posted by clavdivs at 1:10 PM on April 21, 2023
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"the singed fume/of things beautiful, noble, and wrong."
posted by Peach at 5:20 PM on April 18, 2023 [4 favorites]