Coming down to the final two weeks of last year’s The Guardian photograph of the day poems, I’m finding it harder to limit my offering to three poems. Two poems from this collection will draw upon that infamous weed that terrorizes the perfect lawns of the gated communities: the dandelion (as photographed in Turkey and … More Photo of the Day Poems – Post #16
From the wonders of a steam engine crossing a trestled bridge to the twenty-nine cellphones that showcase mankind’s insatiable desire for distractions, and ultimately to the serene beauty and innocence of a young girl among a garden full of allium flowers, these poems capture the sometimes awe-inspiring wonder of our world, though not always with … More Photo of the Day Poems – Post #15
Rather than rush out my three photo inspired poems tonight, I felt we required a journey to the deepening ground of Denise Levertov. I fell in love with this poem when I first read it in the AP English Literature textbook I use by Edgar Roberts. In a time when how we move forward as … More What it Means to Live
The deepening wells of literature are abundant for those who still care to read, and though I have a long list of works I intend to share here, from T. S. Eliot to Herman Melville, I return to one of my favorites: Wendell Berry. If you’ve been to my site before, you’ll know Berry is … More The Eternal Timely Genius of Wendell Berry
Years ago I came upon W. H. Auden’s poem “The Unknown Citizen” in preparation for my AP English Literature course. I had been an Auden fan ever since I read “Musee des Beaux Arts” (another worthy read). Ironically, though I teach “Musee” nearly every year in at least one of my courses, I have rarely … More “Ballad of the Ideal Citizen”
Relationships. So much of poetry, whether directly or not, deals with relationships. As I scrolled through my poems from last year’s collection inspired by The Guardian Photograph of the Day offerings, I repeatedly encountered the theme of relationships. Since I’ve intentionally limited myself on this site to three poems a week from this collection, I … More Photo of the Day Poems – Post #14
This time last year, I was enjoying after-school baseball games at Forese Field in Grove City and winding down the school year in room 209, daily gazing at The Guardian‘s “Best Photographs of the Day” page as a source of poetic inspiration. Few of my poetry students took up the challenge to write a poem … More Photo of the Day Poems – Post #13
Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore. From Sir Francis Drake’s Prayer, 1577. Safety is overrated. I understand the need for caution, but I don’t want perfect … More “Sonnet of a Formerly Safe Man”
the deepening ground 