Inspiration: Poems
“What the Living Do,” by Marie Howe
Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil probably fell down there. And the Drano won't work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes have piled up waiting for the plumber I still haven't called. This is the everyday we spoke of. It's winter...
Poem: “Color, Cast, Denomination,” by Emily Dickinson
Color -- Caste -- Denomination -- These -- are Time's Affair -- Death's diviner Classifying Does not know they are -- As in sleep -- All Hue forgotten -- Tenets -- put behind -- Death's large -- Democratic fingers Rub away the Brand -- If Circassian -- He is careless...
Poem: “Pray for Peace,” by Ellen Bass
Pray to whomever you kneel down to: Jesus nailed to his wooden or plastic cross, his suffering face bent to kiss you, Buddha still under the bo tree in scorching heat, Adonai, Allah. Raise your arms to Mary that she may lay her palm on our brows, to Shekhina, Queen of...
Poem: “Before you knew you owned it,” by Alice Walker
Expect nothing. Live frugally On surprise. become a stranger To need of pity Or, if compassion be freely Given out Take only enough Stop short of urge to plead Then purge away the need. Wish for nothing larger Than your own small heart Or greater than a star; Tame...
Poem: “Hymn,” a new poem by Sherman Alexie
Why do we measure people's capacity To love by how well they love their progeny? That kind of love is easy. Encoded. Any lion can be devoted To its cubs. Any insect, be it prey Or predator, worships its own DNA. Like the wolf, elephant, bear, and bees, We humans are...
Poem: “Do Not Be Ashamed,” by Wendell Berry
You will be walking some night in the comfortable dark of your yard and suddenly a great light will shine round about you, and behind you will be a wall you never saw before. It will be clear to you suddenly that you were about to escape, and that you are guilty: you...
Poem: “A Blessing For One Who Is Exhausted,” by John O’Donohue
When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic, Time takes on the strain until it breaks; Then all the unattended stress falls in On the mind like an endless, increasing weight, The light in the mind becomes dim. Things you could take in your stride before Now become...
Poem: “Traveler, There is no Road,” by Antonio Machado
Traveler, your footprints are the only road, nothing else. Traveler, there is no road; you make your own path as you walk. As you walk, you make your own road, and when you look back you see the path you will never travel again. Traveler, there is no road; only a...
Poem: “Sermons We See,” by Edgar A Guest
I'd rather see a sermon Than hear one any day; I'd rather one should walk with me Than merely tell the way. The eye's a better pupil And more willing than the ear, Fine counsel is confusing, But example's always clear. And the best of all the preachers Are the men who...
Poem: “Miracles,” by Walt Whitman
Why, who makes much of a miracle? As to me I know of nothing else but miracles, Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan, Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky, Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water, Or stand under...
Poem: “A Far Cry from Africa,” by Derek Walcott
A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt Of Africa. Kikuyu, quick as flies, Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt. Corpses are scattered through a paradise. Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries: “Waste no compassion on these separate dead!” Statistics justify and...
Poem: “On Buying and Selling,” by Kahlil Gibran
To you the earth yields her fruit, and you shall not want if you but know how to fill your hands. It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied. Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice, it will but lead some to...
Poem: “Smoke,” by Carl Sandburg
I SIT in a chair and read the newspapers. Millions of men go to war, acres of them are buried, guns and ships broken, cities burned, villages sent up in smoke, and children where cows are killed off amid hoarse barbecues vanish like finger-rings of smoke in a north...
Poem: “Democracy,” by Dorianne Laux
When you’re cold—November, the streets icy and everyone you pass homeless, Goodwill coats and Hefty bags torn up to make ponchos— someone is always at the pay phone, hunched over the receiver spewing winter’s germs, swollen lipped, face chapped, making the last tired...
Poem: “Perhaps the World Ends Here,” by Joy Harjo
The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live. The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been since creation, and it will go on. We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners. They scrape...
Poem: “Repression of War Experience,” by Sigfried Sassoon
Now light the candles; one; two; there's a moth; What silly beggars they are to blunder in And scorch their wings with glory, liquid flame— No, no, not that,—it's bad to think of war, When thoughts you've gagged all day come back to scare you; And it's been proved...
Poem: “Crucified Earth,” by Kurt Vonnegut
The crucified planet Earth, should it find a voice and a sense of irony, might now well say of our abuse of it, 'Forgive them, Father, They know not what they do.' The irony would be that we know what we are doing. When the last living thing has died on account of us,...
Poem: “A Man Went Before A Strange God,” by Stephen Crane
A man went before a strange God -- The God of many men, sadly wise. And the deity thundered loudly, Fat with rage, and puffing. "Kneel, mortal, and cringe And grovel and do homage To My Particularly Sublime Majesty." The man fled. Then the man went to another God --...
Poem: “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” by Robert Frost
Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.
Poem: “The Man in the Moon,” by Billy Collins
The Man In The Moon He used to frighten me in the nights of childhood, the wide adult face, enormous, stern, aloft I could not imagine such loneliness, such coldness But tonight as I drive home over these hilly roads I see him sinking behind stands of winter trees And...
Poem: “Relax,” by Ellen Bass
Bad things are going to happen. Your tomatoes will grow a fungus and your cat will get run over. Someone will leave the bag with the ice cream melting in the car and throw your blue cashmere sweater in the drier. Your husband will sleep with a girl your daughter’s...