"Reading is the creative center of a writer's life." — Stephen King
The poet Ron Wallace can be described as “part Emily Dickinson and part Harpo Marx” because of his dark wit, which you can see in the opening of this sonnet:
The Bad Sonnet
It stayed up late, refused to go to bed,
and when it did it sang loud songs … Read More
The poem continues: “The earth never tires. The earth is rude, silent incomprehensible at first. . . be not discouraged, keep on. . . there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.” I once wrote these words on my kitchen wall so that my kids would grow up … Read More
If you read only one poem today (or this week, or this month), let it be “Ancestral Lights” by Deborah Digges. Here is more of the sentence that the quotation comes from: “And though I know now that heaven may be only the mind’s fear of the … Read More
Today, Thanksgiving Day, should not end before we think about the writers who have changed us. For me, the one who floats to the top this year is Mary Oliver. It’s hard not to say “wow” after reading a poem like “Wild Geese” . You might expect it to … Read More
This poem about tension and transition is classic Rainer Marie Rilke. He explored both of these dynamics frequently in a his letters, which were published in a book titled Letters to a Young Poet. (They are among the most famous, best -loved letters in all of literature.) In them, … Read More
This is the opening line of a poem written by the revolutionary William Wordsworth in 1804. He shook things up by experimenting with “real language” (as opposed to the formal style found in serious writing), and he wrote about feelings (as opposed to intellectual matters). This line has stuck with … Read More
