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!
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
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.
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.
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. :-).
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!
I love this.
This is a great idea!
You're doing great, Nishta. I like your approach.
“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
I had never read “Gate A-4” before. Thank you for sharing!
I love these! Thank you :-)
Yes! Love both of these!
One of my favorites, too.
"Will You?" Carrie Fountain https://poets.org/poem/will-you
YES! Actually, everything Carrie's ever written makes me glad to be alive.
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
Poetry is my bible! Thank you for this huge list, I will copy it and print it right this second ✨
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
So glad it helps and inspires Emily:)
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"
Well, this life affirming list could not have arrived at a better time. What a gift this has been today. Thank you, Maggie.
💚
Mary Oliver’s “At the River Clarion” is my favorite of all time 🙂
Love this one!
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
Alive Together, Lisel Muller
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/alive-together/
Oh yes. She’s one of my favorites.
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.
Wow! Wonderful list. Thank you so much.
Yes, “Joy is not made to be a crumb.”
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. :-).
I love Charlotte. And these are great additions, thanks!
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
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
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!