Duty

After a life, or most of one,

of doing his duty, meeting

his responsibilities and obeying

their orders, he found he couldn't

relax as others did. He made

too much even of small tasks,

compelled himself to follow

through, stay strong, be there.

Voices of authorities past

gabbed in his head. He vowed

that one day he would not do

what he was supposed to do. 

But would he follow through?

hans ostrom 2020

A Thin Smile in the Rain

 When you wait a long time

for something that will never arrive,

you're not waiting. You're

hoping. You're pretending. 

Or: something about you 

likes that feeling of disappointment,

the sense in which the world

is unforgivably hard

but you're not giving in. 

You find it's a bit like walking

in rain without hat, coat, or

umbrella and not minding--

your hair, face, clothes, 

and shoes soaked. People

look at you and look away.

They act like you don't know

you're wet. You set your 

thin smile. And keep walking.

hans ostrom 2020

"Ghosts," by Elizabeth Jennings

 Just in time for Halloween, a poem by British poet Elizabeth Jennings, "Ghosts," video/reading:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pLo6dsMSoI

"I Loved You," by Alexander Pushkin

 Reading/video of a short poem by the great Russian writer. The poem was translated by Babette Deutsch, American writer, critic, poet, and translator. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCpYPF_B290

"Wisdom and War," by Langston Hughes

 Reading/video of short Hughes poem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RUeXUbudNY

"Devotion," by Robert Frost

 Reading/video of a four-line poem (I think we call that a quatrain) by Robert Frost:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbumjaDcVAg

"Gift," by Czeslaw Milosz

 Reading/video of a short poem by Milosz, the Nobel Prize winning Polish poet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxWdfBviYQI

The Pink Pistil

a resting cat

opens its mouth

wide so I

can see its

narrow wet tongue

lengthen then curl

like the pink

pistil of a

tropical flower and

I hear hordes

of birds singing

chirping laughing safely

in the canopy.

hans ostrom 2020

In Which Small Creatures Crawl

  

With time, after time, success

and failure blend into

a warm tide pool 

in which small creatures

crawl. "That's all?"

can be asked, rhetorically,

of both success and failure

and even doing just all right. 

Asking it just might be a sign 

of spiritual growth or of

something less grandiose,

like relaxing or looking 

outward, or earned indifference

to worldly weights and standards. 

hans ostrom

"At the Bottom of Things," by Karin Boye

 A poem by Swedish Modernist poet Karin Boye (1900-1941), translated by David McDuff, who translated her Collected Poems from Bloodaxe Books. Reading/video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1setqhR1spI

Poet's Musings: "For Librarians," by Hans Ostrom

Re-posting one from 10 years ago, since we're celebrating libraries/librarians:

Poet's Musings: "For Librarians," by Hans Ostrom

"Library Ode," by Philip Larkin

 Libraries seem more important than ever in these anti-intellectual, anti-science times. Here's a short tribute-poem to them by Philip Larkin--reading/video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CszitvjKl5M

"Friends Within the Darkness," by Charles Bukowski

 reading/video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wAhohx6YWQ