Inspiration: Poems

Poem: “Advice to Myself,” by Louise Erdrich

Poem: “Advice to Myself,” by Louise Erdrich

Leave the dishes. Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator and an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor. Leave the black crumbs in the bottom of the toaster. Throw the cracked bowl out and don't patch the cup. Don't patch anything. Don't mend....

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Poem: “Epitaph,” by Merrit Malloy

Poem: “Epitaph,” by Merrit Malloy

When I die Give what’s left of me away To children And old men that wait to die. And if you need to cry, Cry for your brother Walking the street beside you. And when you need me, Put your arms Around anyone And give them What you need to give to me. I want to leave...

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Poem: “Everything is waiting for you,” by David Whyte

Poem: “Everything is waiting for you,” by David Whyte

Your great mistake is to act the drama as if you were alone. As if life were a progressive and cunning crime with no witness to the tiny hidden transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely, even you, at times, have felt the...

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Poem: “What Kind of Times Are These,” by Adrienne Rich

Poem: “What Kind of Times Are These,” by Adrienne Rich

There's a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows near a meeting-house abandoned by the persecuted who disappeared into those shadows. I've walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of...

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Poem: “Escape,” by D. H. Lawrence

Poem: “Escape,” by D. H. Lawrence

When we get out of the glass bottles of our own ego, and when we escape like squirrels from turning in the cages of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright but things will happen to us so that we don't know ourselves. Cool,...

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Poem: “New Day’s Lyric,” by Amanda Gorman

Poem: “New Day’s Lyric,” by Amanda Gorman

May this be the day We come together. Mourning, we come to mend, Withered, we come to weather, Torn, we come to tend, Battered, we come to better. Tethered by this year of yearning, We are learning That though we weren't ready for this, We have been readied by it. We...

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Poem: “The Amaranth,” by  Vachel Lindsay

Poem: “The Amaranth,” by Vachel Lindsay

Ah, in the night, all music haunts me here. . . . Is it for naught high Heaven cracks and yawns And the tremendous Amaranth descends Sweet with the glory of ten thousand dawns? Does it not mean my God would have me say: — “Whether you will or no, O city young, Heaven...

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Poem: “Santa Claus,” by Howard Nemerov

Poem: “Santa Claus,” by Howard Nemerov

Somewhere on his travels the strange child Picked up with this overstuffed confidence man, Affection's inverted thief, who climbs at night Down chimneys into dreams, with this world's goods, Bringing all the benevolence of money, He teaches the innocent to want, thus...

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Poem: “The Clod and the Pebble,” by William Blake

Poem: “The Clod and the Pebble,” by William Blake

‘Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair.’ So sung a little Clod of Clay Trodden with the cattle’s feet, But a Pebble of the brook Warbled out these metres meet: ‘Love...

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Poem: “Gift of the Sloth,” by Debbie Lim

Poem: “Gift of the Sloth,” by Debbie Lim

To live like this demands a talent for hanging by toenails curved as a Balinese dancer’s for over a decade. For clinging the soft pendulum of your body to a tree (in wind, hail or heat) because your life depends on it. Even though your muscles are weak as ribbons,...

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