During April, National Poetry Month, we are posting a poem a day. Our final poem is by local poet and MPS teacher Josh Coben. Mr. Coben is the author of Maker of Shadows and winner of the X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize 2009. Thank you Mr. Coben. And thanks to all who submitted works that mattered to them. Keep reading!
The Bath by Josh Coben
In the sink I wash you,
slippery as a dish,
and wrap you, kicking,
in a towel. It’s you
During April, National Poetry Month, we are posting a poem a day. If you would like to suggest one, please email it in. Here is a classic by William Carlos Williams who was a doctor in New Jersey.
This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
During April, National Poetry Month, we are posting a poem a day. If you would like to suggest one, please email it in. And now for some Shakespeare.
Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds by William Shakepeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me prov’d,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.
During April, National Poetry Month, we are posting a poem a day. If you would like to suggest one, please email it in. Today’s poem is by local poet and MPS teacher Josh Coben. Mr. Coben is the author of Maker of Shadows and winner of the X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize 2009.
Summer Solstice by Josh Coben
We lie long
and lazy in a short-
sheeted bed: night
is not endless
and will not cover us
past dawn.
You can view a list of previous poems here.
During April, National Poetry Month, we are posting a poem a day. If you would like to suggest one, please email it in. Today’s poem was submitted by Margaret Eberhardt. It is by Mary Oliver, a poet who moved to Proviincetown in the 60’s. Much of this Pulitzer Prize winner’s verse focuses on the natural world.
Percy and Books (Eight), by Mary Oliver
Percy does not like it when I read a book.
He puts his face over the top of it and moans.
He rolls his eyes, sometimes he sneezes.
The sun is up, he says, and the wind is down.
During April, National Poetry Month, we are posting a poem a day. If you would like to suggest one, please email it in.
Scientific Method by Adam Clay
Twenty-three percent when placed under
intense pressure did in fact kick
the door in. Soldiers creep on the other side
of the turn. Every little thing
is destined for ease. Music, be still.
During April, National Poetry Month, we are posting a poem a day. If you would like to suggest one, please email it in. This poem was submitted by Pete Jackson. Aldous Huxley, best known as the author of was also a poet who published numerous poetry collections.
Two Realities by Aldous Huxley
A wagon passed with scarlet wheels
And a yellow body, shining new.
“Splendid!” said I. “How fine it feels
To be alive, when beauty peels
The grimy husk from life.” And you
During April, National Poetry Month, we are posting a poem a day. If you would like to suggest one, please email it in. Today’s poem is by Eugene Field who was born in Missouri but raised in Massachusetts. He wrote verse in 1880’s and is perhaps best known for best known for Wynken Blynken and Nod. Though light and written for children his poems have a unique wistfulness as the one below demonstrates.
Little Boy Blue by Eugene Field
THE little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and stanch he stands;
The little toy sholder is covered with rust,
And his musket molds in the hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was new,
During April, National Poetry Month, we are posting a poem a day. If you would like to suggest one, please email it in. You do not need to be a romantic to appreciate the depth of feeling expressed in this E.E. Cummings classic. He is buried nearby here at Forest Hills Cemetary (see map).
[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in], E. E. Cummings
During April, National Poetry Month, we are posting a poem a day. If you would like to suggest one, please email it in. Today’s selection is by Tracy Smith who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry this week. Joel Brouwer, writing in the New York Times, called Smith “a poet of extraordinary range and ambition.”
Duende, by Tracy Smith
1.
The earth is dry and they live wanting.
Each with a small reservoir
Of furious music heavy in the throat.