Poetry Daily

The Ground

Caroline Bird

You lie and let your bones heal, looking up at the distance, experiencing plateau for the first time, cold, hard, real, the opposite of air.

from the book The Air Year / Carcanet

Interview: "The whole country seems to be in that kind of place right now, so quiet you can hear the collective heart." —Joy Harjo
(The Christian Science Monitor)
#pdnews

https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Author-Q-As/2020/0401/A-Q-A-with-Joy-Harjo-poet-laureate-of-the-United-States

Guide: "[I]f you're holed up at home and have burned through all the TV you can stand, you may just need some art to help you process that sadness or anger or fear. And this might be a good time to give poetry a try." (NPR)
#pdnews

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/30/823944128/we-need-art-right-now-heres-how-to-get-into-poetry

Column: A roundup of recent collections, including work from Justin Phillip Reed, Ellen Bass, and more. (The New York Times)
#pdnews

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/books/review/new-this-week.html

Essay: "It’s precisely the absence of those easy markers—the triumph of good over evil, truth lighting the way—that makes the poet and activist Carolyn Forché’s work chilling and unique."—Hilton Als (The New Yorker)
#pdnews

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/06/carolyn-forches-education-in-looking

Essay: "The document is a painful read. [Keats] had, of course, no way to know that, to far-distant readers like me, his life story would be triumphant, too." —Frances Mayes (The New York Times)
#pdnews

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/travel/coronavirus-essay-mayes-keats.html

What Sparks Poetry

Series Reprise

What Sparks Poetry is a serialized feature in which we invite poets to explore experiences and ideas that spark new poems. In Series Reprise, we will republish some of the most loved essays from our What Sparks Poetry series. We hope that you will find solace and comfort in revisiting these essays with us.

This week's issue: Sandra Lim on Emily Dickinson’s “[Water is taught by thirst.]”

Catch Up on Recent Poems

April 2, 2020

Illegible Cloud

Chad Bennett

Illegible cloud in the wind's stammer where your breath crossed me out

April 1, 2020

Blue Screen of Death

Adam Clay

Today I wonder who moved the high steeples of my childhood

March 31, 2020

Picnic

Donald Revell

We finished the wine, and the bee was still alive. I tapped him onto the ground, and he walked off Untangling antennae from wings and wine.

March 30, 2020

The Cheer

William Meredith

Words addressing evil won't turn evil back but they can give heart. The cheer is hidden in right words.

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