Wednesday, October 28, 2020

New Anthology of African American Poetry

 

Kevin Young has edited a new anthology of African American poetry--just published by the Library of America. It includes poets not usually seen in anthologies as well as poems not usually seen by poets we're accustomed to seeing. It's a great book. 


African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song (LOA #333): A Library of America Anthology (The Library of America) edited by Kevin Young

"Thank God," by Orhan Veli Kanik

 Reading/video of a short poem by Turkish poet Orhan Veli Kanik:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJz9V9SKQaU

"The Secret Sits," by Robert Frost

 A couplet by Mr. Frost, reading and video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-KMBHfS3OU

Sunday, October 25, 2020

Saturday, October 24, 2020

"To a President," by Walt Whitman

 Reading/video of a short poem by Walt Whitman--the poem is directed to James Buchanan, widely thought to be the worst president in American history:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8KvBb1KXhM

"Woods," by Wendell Berry

 Reading/video of a short poem by farmer, environmentalist, poet, and essayist Wendell Berry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMlIVmuEnY4

Friday, October 23, 2020

"Once the Wind," by Shake Keane

 Reading/video of a short poem by Ellsworth McGlanahan "Shake" Keane (1927-1997), jazz trumpeter and poet from the island of St. Vincent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OiuxSUy8Gc

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Saturday, October 17, 2020

Beyond the Humptulips River

Sand daubers seem to skate
on the sheen left by retreating
surf. They move like freshly
hatched spiders. They were
called to be birds. We 
were called to be humans
and have names for birds
and everything else.

Yesterday, my love and I
crossed over the Humptulips
River, glancing past bridge
beams at a big muddy flow.
Today, we're watching 
gray waves, looking at
shivering stiff foam stacked
near driftwood. We're 
saying human things. 

It turns out we want 
more and less of life
simultaneously. Same
old story. The surf's steady
roar can be used as a
lullaby noise or heard as
the indifferent voice of reality:
that thing against which
we bump up. 


hans ostrom 2020