poem – Kit Stolz

Wounded Earth: poem and photograph

The late great C.K. Williams thinks through the suffering of the earth — whose suffering is it really? Is it as I suspect not that rare for you to be wounded ravaged stripped of so much of what you wore with seeming pride your seething glittering oceans your forests nothing new for you meteors cometsContinue reading “Wounded Earth: poem and photograph”

2014 Poem of the Year: “A Moment in a Room”

Of course yours truly "achange" has not read a thousandth of the poems published this year, and this poem I submit below as poem of the year doesn't even come from 2014. But it's great, it's by Tennessee Williams, and it's never been published before, I don't believe. It comes from a magisterial biography ofContinue reading “2014 Poem of the Year: “A Moment in a Room””

You do not have to be good: Mary Oliver

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver You do not have to be good.You do not have to walk on your kneesfor a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.Meanwhile the world goes on.MeanwhileContinue reading “You do not have to be good: Mary Oliver”

Tweets: bird poems, by the season, from Marie Harris

These days when we hear the word "tweets" we may not think of birds. But Marie Harris, former poet laureate for New Hampshire, reminds us of the real thing with a quartet of lovely but tough poems about birds and their lives. I'll cite just the first, and encourage readers to search out the rest:Continue reading “Tweets: bird poems, by the season, from Marie Harris”

Funny-but-wise poem about Paris and dogs

You don't come across too many funny-but-wise poems in the world today, for whatever reason. Sharp, cutting, intense, brilliant, shocking poems, sure, but funny? Not so much. So here — let's celebrate one such surprise winner, from Poetry Daily: Disgust There's a preponderance of dog shit in Paris but no one says so, attracted toContinue reading “Funny-but-wise poem about Paris and dogs”