Praise the Rain

Praise the Rain Praise the rain; the seagull diveThe curl of plant, the raven talk—Praise the hurt, the house slackThe … More

The most popular lifesaving poems

Earlier this year my Lifesaving Poems blog enjoyed something of a milestone. Not as momentous as Jimmy Anderson taking his … More

The Fear of Poetry In this moment when we facehorizons and conflicts widerthan ever before, we want our resources,the ways … More

Twilight Three minutes ago it was almost dark.Now all the darkness is in theleaves (there are no morelow garage roofs, … More

We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found … More

The Layers I have walked through many lives,some of them my own,and I am not who I was,though some … More

Young Poets’ Stories project update: Today we add a reading resources for young poets page to the Young Poets’ Stories website. … More

The Schoolchildren Like leaves startled by a gust of windthey peel away from the tight-knit group,one child, two, another, more,taking … More

Simply Lit Often toward evening,after another day, afteranother year of days,in the half dark on the way homeI stop … More

Dying Nothing to be said about it, and everything –The change of changes, closer or further away:The Golden Retriever … More

The washing never gets done.The furnace never gets heated.Books never get read.Life is never completed.Life is like a ball … More

Save Us From Save us from night,from bleak open highwayswithout end, and the fluorescentoases of gas stations,from the gunning of … More

I have always believed that poems come into your life when you need them most. (That was … More

Practice To weep unbidden, to wakeat night in order to weep, to waitfor the whisker on the face of the … More

Any Common Desolation can be enough to make you look upat the yellowed leaves of the apple tree, the fewthat … More

As Planned After the first glass of vodka you can accept just about anything of life even your own mysteriousness … More

Empathy and New Year A notion like that of empathy inspires great distrust in us, because it connotes a further … More

A Blessing in Disguise Yes, they are alive and can have those colors, But I, in my soul, am alive … More