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The Most Important Love Poem Ever, by Derek Walcott
Or perhaps you thought it was sacrilege when Whitney Houston sang, “The Greatest Love of All?” I admit, back in my church days I thought the sentiment of self-love was, well, selfish. It seemed anti-love to me. But even then there was something to my mother’s admonishment. Maybe your mother said it too? “How can…
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Birds Fly Here: Two Poems by William Stafford
On Friday August 30th, just a few days ago, Ireland, the world really, lost a beloved poet. And just before that happened I was planning this post to remember possibly my most favorite American poet William Stafford, who passed away the same week, on August 28th twenty years ago. I cannot say there are many…
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When the Bird Sings Very Close: Two Poems by Seamus Heaney
Robert Lowell, one of my poetry heroes, called him “the most important Irish Poet since Yeats.” The Belfast Telegraph claims him as one of their own, since he grew up in Northern Ireland, in the village of Bellaghy, and will now be buried there in south Derry. Dublin seems to claim him since he lived, and now…
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A Brief Defense of Flying and Failing
In Jack Gilbert’s poem “Failing and Flying”, he makes the important point that despite the common word on the street, “anything / worth doing is worth doing badly.” So I am going to stop procrastinating and just post this reading now. See, I procrastinate when I feel I don’t have time to do justice to…
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From the august trees
Originally posted on some little crum creek: . Some parts of our nature we might never see. But under a rising moon, out from a waning season, an imploring eastern screech owl sounds — savor the mystery. .
