POEM OF THE DAY : THE WIDOW'S LAMENT IN SPRING TIME BY WILLIAMS CARLOS WILLIAMS

The Widow's Lament in Springtime

by William Carlos Williams

Sorrow is my own yard

where the new grass

flames as it has flamed

often before but not

with the cold fire

that closes round me this year.

Thirty-five years

I lived with my husband.

The plumtree is white today

with masses of flowers.

Masses of flowers

load the cherry branches

and color some bushes

yellow and some red

but the grief in my heart

is stronger than they

for though they were my joy

formerly, today I notice them

and turn away forgetting.

Today my son told me

that in the meadows,

at the edge of the heavy woods

in the distance, he saw

trees of white flowers.

I feel that I would like

to go there

and fall into those flowers

and sink into the marsh near them.

WHAT MAKES A POEM? - Ms MELISSA KOVACS

WHAT MAKES A POEM? - MELISSA KOVACS

939,487 views

Mar 20, 2017

TED-Ed

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View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-makes-...

What exactly makes a poem … a poem? Poets themselves have struggled with this question, often using metaphors to approximate a definition. Is a poem a little machine? A firework? An echo? A dream? Melissa Kovacs shares three recognizable characteristics of most poetry.

Lesson by Melissa Kovacs, animation by Ace & Son Moving Picture Co., LLC.

#poetry

Grateful thanks to Ms Melissa Kovacs, animation by Ace & Son Moving Picture Co., LLC. TED-Ed and YouTube.

POEM OF THE DAY: IF YOU FORGET ME BY PABLO NERUDA (READ BY TOM O'BEDLAM) 321,355 views Aug 5, 2011 SpokenVerse 82.5K subscribers Another of Pablo Neruda's simple love poems. The feelings he portrays aren't particularly laudable but they are very human and touching and realistic, reflecting what most people would feel... Grateful thanks to SpokenVerse, TOM O'BEDLAM and YouTube.

IF YOU FORGET ME BY PABLO NERUDA 

(READ BY TOM O'BEDLAM)

321,355 views

Aug 5, 2011

SpokenVerse

82.5K subscribers

Another of Pablo Neruda's simple love poems.  The feelings he portrays aren't particularly laudable but they are very human and touching and realistic, reflecting what most people would feel...

Grateful thanks to SpokenVerse, TOM O'BEDLAM and YouTube.

ON POETRY

*My poems: a handful of dust trying to get back to supernova. Like every longing, everything alive* : MARILYN NELSON 

Grateful thanks to MARILYN NELSON, MARIA POPOVA AND BRAIN PICKINGS. 

POEM OF THE DAY: "WHEN YOU ARE OLD" BY W B YEATS

"WHEN YOU ARE OLD" BY W B YEATS

Irish Poetry-Poems about life and Love-Spiritual-Sad-Beautiful-Romantic

70,102 views

Jul 23, 2012

johnnielawson

298K subscribers

The 12 most popular soundscapes in one great value bundle for you to purchase and download https://gum.co/mostpopularsoundscapec... Relaxing nature sounds from the forest, river, lake, ocean & waterfall with and without birdsong are great for meditation or mindfulness relaxation.

Grateful thanks to "johnnielawson" and YouTube.

Homage to W B Yeats.

POEM OF THE DAY

Poem of the day: CARRY YOUR HEART WITH ME BY E.E.CUMMINGS

I CARRY YOUR HEART WITH ME BY E.E.CUMMINGS

Poetry Reading

530,111 views

Jun 7, 2012

Pearls Of Wisdom

49.8K subscribers

About the poet -- Edward Estlin Cummings (1894 -- 1962) was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Cummings' poetry often deals with themes of love and nature, as well as the relationship of the individual to the masses and to the world. Modernism prevailed major part of his work.

For more videos log onto http://www.youtube.com/pearlsofwisdom 

Grateful thanks to Pearls Of Wisdom, Poetry Reading and YouTube.

POEMS OF THE DAY: 50 CLASSIC POEMS READ BY 12 CELEBRITIES

50 CLASSIC POEMS READ BY 12 CELEBRITIES: 

MORGAN FREEMAN, JODIE FOSTER, GARY SINISE & MORE

36,001 views•Aug 24, 2017

Poetry Reading

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50 Classic Poems Read By 12 Celebrities: 

Morgan Freeman, Jodie Foster, Gary Sinise & more

From John Lithgow, The Poets' Corner, 2007:

1: Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach

read by Eileen Atkins 0:06

2: W.H. Auden, Musee des Beaux Arts

read by Jodie Foster 2:13

3: John Berryman, Henry's Confession

read by Gary Sinise 3:41

4: Elizabeth Bishop, Filling Station

read by Glenn Close 4:55

5: William Blake, The Tyger

read by Helem Mirren 6:48

6: Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool

read by Morgan Freeman 8:23

7: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

read by Helen Mirren 9:08

8: Robert Burns, To a Mouse

read by Billy Connolly 10:18

9: George Gordon, Lord Byron, I would I were a careless child

read by Robert Sean Leonard 12:29

10: Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky

read by Eileen Atkins 15:17

11: Geoffrey Chaucer, The General Prologue

read by Lynn Redgrave 16:48

12: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan

read by Robert Sean Leonard 19:31

13: Hart Crane, To Brooklyn Bridge

read by Sam Waterston 22:13

14: e.e. cummings, if everything happens that can't be done

read by Eileen Atkins 25:17

15: Emily Dickinson, 1263 (There is no Frigate like a Book)

read by Glenn Close 26:41

16: John Donne, Song (Go and catch a falling star)

read by John Lithgow 27:14

17: T.S. Eliot, Rhapsody on a Windy Night

read by Morgan Freeman 28:28

18: Robert Frost, Birches

read by John Lithgow 32:01

19: William S. Gilbert, Love Unrequited, or The Nightmare Song

read by John Lithgow 35:40

20: Allen Ginsberg, A Supermarket in California

read by Gary Sinise 39:16

21: Robert Herrick, The Beggar to Mab, The Fairy Queen

read by Billy Connolly 41:48

22: Gerald Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty

read by Kathy Bates 43:09

23: A.E. Housman, When I Was One and Twenty

read by Robert Sean Leonard 44:02

24: Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues

read by Morgan Freeman 44:57

25: Randall Jarrell, Death of a Ball Turret Gunner

read by Gary Sinise 46:42

26: Ben Jonson, Inviting a Friend to Supper

read by Robert Sean Leonard 47:19

27: John Keats, To Autumn

read by Lynn Redgrave 49:52

28: Philip Larkin, Days

read by Susan Sarandon 52:00

29: Edward Lear, The Owl and the Pussycat

read by Billy Connolly 52:39

30: H.W. Longfellow, A Psalm of Life

read by John Lithgow 54:10

31: Robert Lowell, The Public Garden

read by Billy Conolly 55:58

32: Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress

read by John Lithgow 57:39

33: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Love is Not All

read by Jodie Foster 1:00:00

34: Marianne Moore, Poetry

read by Kathy Bates 1:01:07

35: Ogden Nash, No Doctor's Today, Thank You

read by John Lithgow 1:02:55

36: Dorothy Parker, Afternoon

read by Glenn Close 1:04:29

37: Edgar Allen Poe, Annabel Lee

read by Sam Waterston 1:05:27

38: Ezra Pound, The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter

read by Jodie Foster 1:07:50

39: Christina Rosetti, Up-Hill

read by Helen Mirren 1:09:43

40: Carl Sandburg, Chicago

read by Gary Sinise 1:10:56

41: Shakespeare, Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun

read by Lynn Redgrave 1:13:04

42: Percy Bysshe Shelley, To a Skylark

read by Glenn Close 1:14:28

43: Edmund Spenser, Sonnet 75 (One day I wrote her name upon the strand)

read by Susan Sarandon 1:18:55

44: Gertrude Stein, If I Told Him

read by Kathy Bates 1:20:00

45: Wallace Stevens, The Emperor of Ice-Cream

read by Kathy Bates 1:24:28

46: Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night

read by Susan Sarandon 1:25:25

47: Walt Whitman, There was a Child went Forth

read by Sam Waterston 1:26:44

48: William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow

read by Jodie Foster 1:31:38

49: William Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

read by Helen Mirren 1:32:06

50: William Butler Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree

read by Eileen Atkins 1:33:25

Grateful thanks to Poetry Reading, John Lithgow, The Poets' Corner, 2007 and all the celebrities who recite these poems and YouTube.

POEM OF THE DAY: "I Hear America Singing" : Walt Whitman

"I Hear America Singing" :  Walt Whitman poem

TWO VOICES compare/contrast

149,946 views•Jun 19, 2013

Tim Gracyk

14.5K subscribers

I Hear America Singing

By Walt Whitman

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,

Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,

The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,

The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,

The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand

     singing on the steamboat deck,

The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,

The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or

     at noon intermission or at sundown,

The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of

     the girl sewing or washing,

Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,

The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows,

     robust, friendly,

Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

Grateful thanks to Tim Gracyk and YouTube.

American Life in Poetry-204: "Anniversary" by Ted Kooser

American Life in Poetry: Column 204

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

Memories form around details the way a pearl forms around a grain of sand, and in this commemoration of an anniversary, Cecilia Woloch reaches back to grasp a few details that promise to bring a cherished memory forward, and succeeds in doing so. The poet lives and teaches in southern California.


Anniversary

Didn't I stand there once,
white-knuckled, gripping the just-lit taper,
swearing I'd never go back?
And hadn't you kissed the rain from my mouth?
And weren't we gentle and awed and afraid,
knowing we'd stepped from the room of desire
into the further room of love?
And wasn't it sacred, the sweetness
we licked from each other's hands?
And were we not lovely, then, were we not
as lovely as thunder, and damp grass, and flame?


American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c) 2008 by Cecilia Woloch. Reprinted from "Narcissus," by Cecilia Woloch, Tupelo Press, Dorset, VT, 2008, by permission of Cecilia Woloch. Introduction copyright (c) 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.

******************************

American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the columns; we do require that you register your publication here and that the text of the column be reproduced without alteration.

Poem of the day-135: Lines Written in Early Spring By William Wordsworth

I heard a thousand blended notes,

While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And 'tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:-
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature's holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?

How To-29: "How to Write a Limerick Poem"

How to Write a Limerick Poem

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

This is how to write a Limerick. They are usually witty or humorous, and have five lines: the first two rhyme, the two in the middle rhyme, and the last line rhymes with the first two lines. (Rhyme-scheme: AABBA)

Steps

1. Pick what you would like your limerick to be about. It could be about mice, a tree, a person, whatever.
   


2. Start your first line. Don't end it with something you can't rhyme--like 'orange'. Start it like "there once was a man who ate limes" or something like that.
   


3. your next line has to rhyme with the first line. If you were using "there once was a man who ate limes", your second line could be like, "he ate them all the time" or "And sampled various wines" your limerick would now be like there once was a man who ate limes/ and sampled various wines.
   


4. The third and fourth lines have to be related to the first part of your limerick, but with not the same rhyme. they could be like, he wouldn't touch a tomato/ it tasted too much like potato or something along those lines.
   


5. The fifth (last) line must rhyme with the first two lines. your last line could be like, "and potatoes, you know, do not shine" or something like that.
   


6. your entire limerick would be kind of like this
   

There once was a man who ate limesand sampled various wineshe wouldn't touch a tomatoit tasted too much like potatoand potatoes, you know, do not shine.

Tips

• if you don't like your limerick, you can always go back and change it. It's not permanent.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Write a Limerick
  


• How to Write Limericks
  


• How to Create a List of Rhyming Words for a Poem or Song
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Write a Limerick Poem. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

POEM OF THE DAY : SOMEBODY'S MOTHER

*Somebody's Mother by Mary Dow Brine*

 

The woman was old and ragged and gray

And bent with the chill of the Winter's day.

The street was wet with a recent snow

And the woman's feet were aged and slow.

She stood at the crossing and waited long,

Alone, uncared for, amid the throng

Of human beings who passed her by

Nor heeded the glance of her anxious eye.

Down the street with laughter and shout,

Glad in the freedom of 'school let out,'

Came the boys like a flock of sheep,

Hailing the snow piled white and deep.

Past the woman so old and gray

Hastened the children on their way.

Nor offered a helping hand to her—

So meek, so timid, afraid to stir

Lest the carriage wheels or the horses' feet

Should crowd her down in the slippery street.

At last came one of the merry troop,

The gayest lad of all the group;

He paused beside her and whispered low,

"I'll help you cross, if you wish to go."

Her aged hand on his strong young arm

She placed, and so, without hurt or harm,

He guided the trembling feet along,

Proud that his own were firm and strong.

Then back again to his friends he went,

His young heart happy and well content.

"She's somebody's mother, boys, you know,

For all she's aged and poor and slow,

And I hope some fellow will lend a hand

To help my mother, you understand,

If ever she's poor and old and grey,

And her own dear boy is far away."

"Somebody's mother" bowed low her head

In her home that night, and the prayer she said

Was, "God be kind to the noble boy,

Who is somebody's son, and pride and joy!"

POEM OF THE DAY : SOLITUDE

Poem of the day

Poem of the day

POEM OF THE DAY

Poem of the day-:

GOOD-NIGHT

*Percy Bysshe Shelley*

Good-night? ah! no; the hour is ill

Which severs those it should unite;

Let us remain together still,

Then it will be good night.

How can I call the lone night good,

Though thy sweet wishes wing its flight?

Be it not said, thought, understood—

Then it will be—good night.

To hearts which near each other move

From evening close to morning light,

The night is good; because, my love,

They never say good-night.