“I, too, am America.”

I, Too {Langston Hughes} I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table When company comes. Nobody’ll dare Say to me, “Eat in the kitchen,” Then. Besides, They’ll seeContinue reading ““I, too, am America.””

Poem for a Sunday Morning

A Small Needful Fact {Ross Gay} Is that Eric Garner worked for some time for the Parks and Rec. Horticultural Department, which means, perhaps, that with his very large hands, perhaps, in all likelihood, he put gently into the earth some plants which, most likely, some of them, in all likelihood, continue to grow, continueContinue reading “Poem for a Sunday Morning”

Poem for a Sunday Morning

February 16                                               An early morning fog. In fair weather, the shy past keeps its distance. Old loves, old regrets, old humiliations look on from afar. They stand back under the trees. NoContinue reading “Poem for a Sunday Morning”

Poem for a Sunday Morning

The Facts of Life That you were born and you will die. That you will sometimes love enough and sometimes not. That you will lie if only to yourself. That you will get tired. That you will learn most from the situations you did not choose. That there will be some things that move youContinue reading “Poem for a Sunday Morning”

Poem for a Sunday Morning

blessing the boats {Lucille Clifton} (at St. Mary’s) may the tide that is entering even now the lip of our understanding carry you out beyond the face of fear may you kiss the wind then turn from it certain that it will love your back     may you open your eyes to water waterContinue reading “Poem for a Sunday Morning”

Poem for a Sunday Morning

Questions Before Dark{Jeanne Lohmann} Day ends, and before sleepwhen the sky dies down, consideryour altered state: has this daychanged you? Are the cornerssharper or rounded off? Did youlive with death? Make decisionsthat quieted? Find one clear wordthat fit? At the sun’s midpointdid you notice a pitch of absence,bewilderment that invitesthe possible? What did you learnfromContinue reading “Poem for a Sunday Morning”

Poem for a Sunday Morning

At Nightfall {Ted Kooser} In feathers the color of dusk, a swallow, up under the shadowy eaves of the barn, weaves now, with skillful beak and chitter, one bright white feather into her nest to guide her flight home in the darkness. It has taken a hundred thousand years for a bird to learn thisContinue reading “Poem for a Sunday Morning”

Poem for a Sunday Morning

Pocket Poem {Ted Kooser) If this comes creased and creased again and soiled as if I’d opened it a thousand times to see if what I’d written here was right, it’s all because I looked too long for you to put in your pocket. Midnight says the little gifts of loneliness come wrapped by nervousContinue reading “Poem for a Sunday Morning”

Poem for a Sunday Morning

from “Vacillation” {W.B. Yeats} My fiftieth year had come and gone, I sat, a solitary man, In a crowded London shop, An open book and empty cup On the marble table-top. While on the shop and street I gazed My body of a sudden blazed; And twenty minutes more or less It seemed, so great myContinue reading “Poem for a Sunday Morning”

Poem for a Sunday Morning

The Peace of Wild Things {Wendell Berry} When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and theContinue reading “Poem for a Sunday Morning”