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Nishta J. Mehra's avatar

YAY. A few years ago, I started copying poems out longhand and mailing them to friends and loved ones. It's become a kind of spiritual practice for me, and I'm always on the lookout for new poems to share - I am familiar with many on this list, but not all. Thank you!

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Maggie Smith's avatar

I love this.

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Megan Wicks's avatar

This is a great idea!

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Sabrina's avatar

You're doing great, Nishta. I like your approach.

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A Cox's avatar

“Gate A-4” by Naomi Shihab Nye

https://poets.org/poem/gate-4

“Instructions on Not Giving Up” by Ada Limon

https://poets.org/poem/instructions-not-giving

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Erin Mount's avatar

I had never read “Gate A-4” before. Thank you for sharing!

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Lise's avatar

I love these! Thank you :-)

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Joel Showalter (he/him)'s avatar

Yes! Love both of these!

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Kathryn A. LeRoy's avatar

One of my favorites, too.

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Violeta Maftei's avatar

"Will You?" Carrie Fountain https://poets.org/poem/will-you

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Maggie Smith's avatar

YES! Actually, everything Carrie's ever written makes me glad to be alive.

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Lloyd Miner's avatar

Thank you for this! Love this list, espeically Ross Gay.

Here are mine:

"We Real Cool," Gwendolyn Brooks https://poets.org/poem/we-real-cool

"Coal" Audre Lorde https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42577/coal

Maybe the following are cheating, but I consider them poems!

"Things have changed," Bob Dylan https://genius.com/Bob-dylan-things-have-changed-lyrics

"Keep ya head up," Tupac Shakur https://genius.com/2pac-keep-ya-head-up-lyrics

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Charissa Steyn's avatar

Poetry is my bible! Thank you for this huge list, I will copy it and print it right this second ✨

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Emily Style's avatar

Charissa Steyn, thank you for that wonderful phrasing: "Poetry is my bible!" I think mine too, now that you bring that image/thought/notion into view. Bless you for it! I may use it as an epigram for a poem a-bubbling up in me. If so, will credit you on 3/13/23. Thank you ongoingly. With respect, Emily Style

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Charissa Steyn's avatar

So glad it helps and inspires Emily:)

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Joel Showalter (he/him)'s avatar

What a list! Thank you.

A couple more, off the top of my head:

Ellen Bass's "Gate C22" <https://poets.org/poem/gate-c22>

Richard Wilbur's "Praise in Summer"

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Brad Montague's avatar

Well, this life affirming list could not have arrived at a better time. What a gift this has been today. Thank you, Maggie.

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Maggie Smith's avatar

💚

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torri blue's avatar

Mary Oliver’s “At the River Clarion” is my favorite of all time 🙂

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Allison's avatar

Love this one!

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The Small Bow's avatar

Thomas Lux, "Poem in Thanks," which if I read it before 7 a.m. after two cups of coffee, makes me want to run through a goddamn wall and swim in a cold lake.

http://inwardboundpoetry.blogspot.com/2006/03/70-poem-in-thanks-thomas-lux.html

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Lizzie Purkis's avatar

Alive Together, Lisel Muller

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/alive-together/

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Maggie Smith's avatar

Oh yes. She’s one of my favorites.

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Claire Ivers's avatar

Grateful to have found this today.

Amazing how during times of stagnation, frustration and mornings that begin under the weight of grief, a simple poem can pick your head up and reposition perspective toward the light, even if it is briefly. Bonus for when it sparks a desire to share the lines that move you with someone else and relay the love forward. Thank you for this. Keep Moving.

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Janet McLain Smith's avatar

Wow! Wonderful list. Thank you so much.

Yes, “Joy is not made to be a crumb.”

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Lise's avatar

This is such an amazing list- thank you! I'll add "I Went Out to Hear" Leila Chatti, and the short story (not a poem, but her prose is so poetic) "Woman Hollering Creek" by Sandra Cisneros. Also, Charlotte Clymer used "Good Bones" in her review of Ted Lasso Season 3 on her Charlotte's Web Thoughts substack today. :-).

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Maggie Smith's avatar

I love Charlotte. And these are great additions, thanks!

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Steve Dempsey's avatar

Two that spring to mind immediately for me...

'Fucking in Cornwall', Ella Frears. https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/fucking-in-cornwall/

'Coconut', Paul Hostovsky https://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=988

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Sarah Ann Winn's avatar

So good to see Alison Luterman's name on this list! I think joy frequently figures in her work, but my favorite of hers is "Some Girls" for exactly this reason. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/magazine/poem-some-girls.html

*Thank you so much for this glory of poetry riches! <3

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Kathy Rolland's avatar

Thank you, Maggie Smith, for this. Old favorites I’d forgotten about -new favorites to be discovered -and SO many of this community sharing their joy.

What a living, breathing gift. 💕 THANK YOU ALL!

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