POW: Censorship Poetry

Welcome to Poetry On Wednesday! Today I’m going to be self-promoting and share a poem I made by censoring the work of another author — okay, it’s not really censorship, but that sounds more fun than “Selectively-Editing-With-Sharpie Poetry” I took a page from a withdrawn library book, in this case Dragon’s Egg, by Robert L. [...]

POW: My new favorite poem about Nancy Drew

Whilst perusing Flavorwire’s list of the best new poets of 2011 I took a look at the work of Nancy Reddy and was blown away.  She’s written a poem about Nancy Drew that goes into the legendary sleuth’s life using the usual associations: You’re Nancy Drew and you drive a blue coupe. You drive fast. [...]

POW: Ardency, A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels by Kevin Young

Kevin Young was a player for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1992-2003, but there’s another Kevin Young you might want to get to know. He’s a poet from Nebraska and his poetry has been called “compulsively readable” by the New York Times Book Review. He writes about subjects and figures from American history, ranging from the [...]

Poetry On Wednesday: Winter Stars

My father once broke a man’s hand Over the exhaust pipe of a John Deere tractor. That’s how Larry Levis opens up the poem “Winter Stars”.  One of the more gripping opening lines of a poem, it’s also maybe not what you’d expect from a poem so entitled.  Perhaps “Winter Stars” called to your mind [...]

POW: Poems for Occasions

We are officially in the thick of Holiday Season.  Who knows, you may need just the right words for a card you’re writing to a relative, or a toast you have to give at a party or at the dinner table.  Why not look in Bartlett’s Poems for Occasions? It has selections ranging through the [...]

POW: The Man-Moth by Elizabeth Bishop

I just discovered Elizabeth Bishop this year. I don’t know why I hadn’t read her before – her poem “One Art” is pretty famous, she hung out with Marianne Moore and Robert Lowell, and she won a Pulitzer Prize in 1956 for her collection North & South, among other awards.  That’s the copy that I [...]

POW: Zachary Schomburg

Last time in my POW post I talked about poems using thee and thy. Today I’m going more modern… I’m going to discuss a poet we don’t  have in the library catalog.  Just because I love his stuff so much that I can’t not share it. (Don’t worry, though, I”ll give you links to his [...]

POW: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Hi! Welcome back to Poetry On Wednesday. Do these lines sound familiar to you? How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. That’s the first line of a sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, part of a book of sonnets about her love for her husband, Robert Browning (he was also a poet).  The [...]

POW: Poetry on Wednesday

If you haven’t read this poem already, there’s a 80% chance you would have come across it in  your life without me posting it here today. It’s a classic: This is Just to Say I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they [...]

Poetry Review: David Berman

I know from being on the Ralph Munn Creative Writing Contest Committee that there are many local teen poets and so, presumably, poetry readers out there. But sometimes trying to find new poets to read is overwhelming. So I’ve decided to do some poetry reviewing to introduce some of my favorites to you.  Maybe you’ll [...]