By:
On:
In: poetry
Tagged: , , ,

Today is April 15, Tax Day! And it’s still April, National Poetry Month, so after a few minutes of Googling “poems about taxes”, here’s one that’s actually not entirely pessimistic about whole affair. I could go on for a bit about Americans and their attitude on taxes, but I won’t, except to note that somehow American conservatives have managed to convince a great many Americans over the last few decades that the thing holding them back is what government takes out of their paychecks, which is a handy way of also getting Americans to now wonder what their employers aren’tDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: poetry
Tagged: ,

I read the poem below yesterday, and its simple theme resonated strongly with me. The poet, the great James Weldon Johnson (perhaps best known for penning the lyrics to “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, the hymn that has come to be known as “the Black national anthem”), is expressing the awful fact that death means that we will never get to see and hear the things we love again. Death doesn’t just rob others of us, it also robs us. “My City” When I come down to sleep death’s endless night, The threshold of the unknown dark to cross, What toDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: poetry
Tagged: ,

A poem by Dudley Randall: A poet is not a jukebox, so don’t tell me what to write. I read a dear friend a poem about love, and she said, “You’re in to that bag now, for whatever it’s worth, But why don’t you write about the riot in Miami?” I didn’t write about Miami because I didn’t know about    Miami. I’ve been so busy working for the Census, and listening to    music all night, and making new poems That I’ve broken my habit of watching TV and reading    newspapers. So it wasn’t absence of Black Pride that caused meDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: poetry
Tagged: ,

Born on this date: Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Tennyson has been my favorite poet–or second favorite, after Shakespeare–well, he might share that ranking with Poe–for as long as I’ve been aware of Tennyson’s work to any great degree. I’m guessing that was either my last year or two of high school, or sometime in college. More likely college. I love his lyricism, the rhythm of his verse, and his skill at evoking a scene that feels somehow present and distant. Tennyson is for the voice of things long ago, beautiful ancient cathedrals now partially fallen and shrouded in moss and mists. He’sDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: poetry, Uncategorized
Tagged: , , ,

You read my last post about why writers should read poetry, and now you’re thinking, “Gosh, I should do that and read some poetry. But I don’t know where to start or what books to buy or anything!” Well, as with anything, there are several ways to go about the job of reading more poetry. There are a lot of collections out there that are meant as introductions to poetry. Some of these are the school-textbook kind of thing where you’ll learn about rhyme and meter and the difference between a haiku and a sonnet and all that, and thoseDown the rabbit hole….