February 4 is the birthday
of Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks.

Read Pulitzer-prize winning poet,
Rita Dove’s poem “Rosa”
[ This page also has a recording
of Dove reading the poem ]

On the Bus with
Rosa Parks: Poems
by Rita Dove.
Paperback: Norton, 2000.
Buy now: [ Amazon ]

Video of Rita Dove discussing this book with Charlie Rose
(She reads the poem and talks about it starting at 3:22):

(more…)

Song From the Fiery Furnace
Madeleine L’Engle

[ I meant to post this poem yesterday on
the 50th Anniversary of L'Engle's classic A Wrinkle in Time ]

St. Francis De Sales
William Edward Heygate

Why should I wish to have my will
And seeking good secure an ill
Mid life and age have only brought
Fresh proof of what youth’s trials taught

(more…)

St. Agnes’ Eve
Alfred Lord Tennyson

Rembrandt — Self Portrait

A Poem by Gregory Corso
1930-2001

” Rembrandt– Self Portrait ” is found in MINDFIELD: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS.

(more…)

I, too, sing America.
Langston Hughes

[ In remembrance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday ]

Langston Hughes [1902-1967] was one of the prominent American poets of the Harlem Renaissance.

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.

(more…)

“The Homely Labors”
Robinson Jeffers

From his 1916 Collection Californians -
Download as a FREE ebook
(Red button on Upper Left of Page)

Not merely falcon passions and the sweep
And sealike power of love;
Nor yet alone the dreams that dive hell deep
Or fly to heaven above;

(more…)

“An Old Man’s Winter Night”
Robert Frost

All out of doors looked darkly in at him
Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars,
That gathers on the pane in empty rooms.

(more…)

“Pray to what earth
does this sweet cold belong”
Henry David Thoreau

Pray to what earth does this sweet cold belong,
Which asks no duties and no conscience?

(more…)

The Old Year
John Clare

The Old Year’s gone away
To nothingness and night:
We cannot find him all the day
Nor hear him in the night:
He left no footstep, mark or place
In either shade or sun:
The last year he’d a neighbour’s face,
In this he’s known by none.

(more…)