Tag Archives: poetry

Sheila O’Malley marks the occasion of Billie Holiday’s birth date with a poem by Frank O’Hara, “The Day Lady Died”. Like many of the people Sheila writes about, I know entirely too little about Mr. O’Hara, who was a prominent … Continue reading →

When I was in 7th grade, my English teacher, Mrs. Havers, required us to memorize and recite a poem. That was bad enough. I’ve never really understood the pedagogical value of this exercise, but my teachers were all deeply conservative … Continue reading →

One of the best ways to build a poetry collection is to frequent used-book sales at local libraries. You can almost always find something good at those, and for my money, the real treasure is always the really old stuff, like … Continue reading →

She-Hulk has a joke for you! With apologies to Marvel and John Byrne, I’ve stolen this joke from a postcard that I remember reading about when I was a kid, in, of all places, The Guinness Book of World Records. According to … Continue reading →

An odd road to this one: my last two years of college, I lived in a rented house with a roommate, and thus I was off the campus meal plan as well. This meant cooking. As a college student with … Continue reading →

From a collection of love poetry that I own, an offering by John Donne. “The Good-Morrow”, by John Donne I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then? But sucked … Continue reading →

A poem about yesterday’s birthday composer: “Rachmaninoff” by Peter Halstead On top of fluted spines Between the massing pools Of dark chromatic lines And using blood for fuel Follow all the signs And signatures Read the fine print On the flapping … Continue reading →

I want to post a poem each day this month! Here is the first, a poem about writing poetry, by Seamus Heaney. Note how he compares his own work–writing, with the pen as his tool–with that of his father, who … Continue reading →