Let's Read Poetry - 1 poem at a time

[caseyquinn]

As much as I read poetry there is still a ton of it out there that I will never have the time to get to or know about. I wanted to try this out and see how it goes. Each day someone post a link to a poem by a poet that moved them.

Please do not post the poem in this thread only a link -

If you see a poem has already been posted for the day, just wait until the next day. One poem a day of a great poem that made you love poetry.

Here is one that I just read today by Raymond Carver in which I absolutely love the poem:
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/raymond_carver/poems/4591

[ddgryphon]

Interesting Casey. I just posted this in another thread. The poem that made me go from liking poetry okay, to truly believing in the power of poetry:

The Truth the Dead Know
by Anne Sexton

For my Mother, born March 1902, died March 1959
and my Father, born February 1900, died June 1959

Gone, I say and walk from church,
refusing the stiff procession to the grave,
letting the dead ride alone in the hearse.
It is June. I am tired of being brave.

We drive to the Cape. I cultivate
myself where the sun gutters from the sky,
where the sea swings in like an iron gate
and we touch. In another country people die.

My darling, the wind falls in like stones
from the whitehearted water and when we touch
we enter touch entirely. No one's alone.
Men kill for this, or for as much.

And what of the dead? They lie without shoes
in the stone boats. They are more like stone
than the sea would be if it stopped. They refuse
to be blessed, throat, eye and knucklebone.

[caseyquinn]

William Blake's A Poison Tree on today's 5/28 reading list:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15524

[caseyquinn]

Tess Gallagher - Little Match Box - 5/29 Reading List:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19133

[Duke]

One of my all-time favorites is by Stephen Vincent Benet:

http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/30298-Stephen-Vincent-Benet-The-Ballad-Of-William-Sycamore--1790-1871-


Duke
.

[caseyquinn]

Charles Bukowski - Bluebird

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/charles_bukowski/poems/12983

[caseyquinn]

William Carlos Williams on tap for today:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15537

[ajc]

Thanks for starting this, Casey. Just to let you know that I'm reading them. So far you have posted 4 of my favorite poets. I love that one by WCW.

[ddgryphon]

At the risk of being accused of flogging, I must bring up this thread (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37674&highlight=chicken).

William Carlos Williams on tap for today:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15537

[caseyquinn]

ha! i hadnt read that thread before - some funny poems in there ddgrphon! :)


here is a little walt whitman for the day's pleasure:


http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19418

[ajc]

Here's one I love:

http://www.webdelsol.com/Five_Points/issues/v7n1/collins.htm

for tomorrow...

[Duke]

Ogden Nash showed up on TV regularly and was posthumously honored on a US postage stamp. One of his popular works:

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-purist/

.

[Lyv]

What a wonderful thread. Thank you to everyone who has posted.

I have a printout of this poem over my desk:

Making a Fist (http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15682) by Naomi Shihab Nye

[ajc]

Oh, I like "Making a Fist". Thank you for sharing it; I had not read it.

[caseyquinn]

Some Dylan Thomas for today:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15381

[Dichroic]

A collection of Mary Oliver poems (http://www.english.illinois.edu/Maps/poets/m_r/oliver/online_poems.htm)- not too many to read at once. (I especially like The Journey.)

[caseyquinn]

another reason why Bukowski is great:

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/charles_bukowski/poems/12976

who else could pull this poem off?

[caseyquinn]

Carl Sandburg for today:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20752

[caseyquinn]

Here is a great poem by H.D. named Song

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15967


Enjoy!

[caseyquinn]

big fan of this walt whitman poem "when i heard the learned astronomer"

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16083

just so simple yet ... perfect -

[caseyquinn]

Hart Crane is up for reading today with "At Melville's Tomb"

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15442

[caseyquinn]

Bukowski as "the suicide kid"

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16975

[caseyquinn]

what a great poem this is by Walt W:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15816

[P.H.Delarran]

I enjoyed the first half of the poem by Walt Whitman very much, then it started to drag on and change, and I lost interest. on the sidebar on the webpage I read that he revised his Leaves of Grass over and over...now I'm assuming they mean the entire collection, but I can't help but wonder if this poem was also revised and changed.

[caseyquinn]

hey there, yea he republished that collection so many times, i would love to see the real progression of the poems, the edits he made as he matured as a poet. would be a learning experience i think.

here is a good one for today, a great one by Carl Sandburg:
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/carl_sandburg/poems/845

[Painted Wings]

One poem that I really like is Mad Girl's Love Song by Sylvia Plath

http://www.neuroticpoets.com/plath/poem/madgirl/

[Duke]

These few simple words by Sandburg captivate now as ever.

http://bartleby.com/231/0905.html


.

[Libbie]

Here's the poem that made me love poetry.

The Two-Headed Calf by Laura Gilpin. I cry every time I read it. I've read it probably a hundred times.

The Two-Headed Calf

Tomorrow, when the farm boys find this
freak of nature, they will wrap his body
in newspaper and carry him to the museum.

But tonight he is alive and in the north
field with his mother. It is a perfect
summer evening: the moon rising over
the orchard, the wind in the grass.
And as he stares into the sky, there
are twice as many stars as usual.

[coloneldax]

"Do not stand at my grave and weep" by Mary Frye:
http://www.poetseers.org/contemporary_poets/mary/

Daniel