#poetryinisolation

I skipped a day yesterday. A little lie to continue calling these Viral Dailies under those circumstances. But, alas, here we go all the same for National Poetry Month’s penultimate offering. Today’s comes from 2012 Washington State Poet Laureate, Kathleen Flennikan.

Kathleen Flenniken is the author of three poetry collections.  Plume (University of Washington Press, 2012) Her first book, Famous …

Viral Dailies, Day 27

The role of art isn’t merely to inject beauty into ugliness. That’s decoration. Art plays a uniquely prophetic role in the culture. It must help us to see ourselves sufficiently to become not just self-aware, but fully aware of injustice and imbalance needing adjustment.

In this remarkable poem, written shortly after Trump’s inauguration (crowning), it holds truer today after four years of this…

Viral Dailies, Day 26

Today’s poem is by Brooke Matson.

Brooke Matson is a poet and educator in Spokane, Washington. Eight years of teaching and mentoring at-risk youth deepened her study of physical science and the psychological effects of violence and loss. Her current poems explore the intersection of physical science—particularly chemistry, physics, and astrophysics—with human experiences of loss, violence, and…

Viral Dailies, Day 25

Just five days to go until the quarantine version of National Poetry Month comes to its virtual end. I’m marking the occasion by posting gems from a few of our own Pacific Northwest poets.

We see life a little different here in the PNW. A bit more aloof and distant at times, perhaps to highlight our sense of entrancement at the beauty and danger of our surroundings. Perhaps because the only…

Viral Dailies, Day 24

Today’s Viral Dailies, my recognition and celebration of National Poetry Month in isolation, is by the unforgettable Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda.

He was a contemporary Shakespeare when writing about love. Below is one of his best. Enjoy!

______________________________________

If you forget me

I want you to know one thing.

You know how this is: if I look at the crystal moon, at the red branch of the…

One more new day

A spot returned to an otherwise muted sun.

“I’ll not be waylaid”, she said, panting warily

in her suffusing bathtub of light, coughed up

and thick, like an overworked calendar.

“There’s much to lose on these days

of quarantined madness.” 

So, without another word, she sighed

and winked, baring her breasts to

suckle one more new day.

  Picture found here

Our National Poetry Month/#poetryinisolation initiative continues apace. Today belongs to Christine Valters-Paintner. Christine is our online abbess at Abbey of the Arts. 

On the Abbey website (which you are hitherto strongly urged to frequent and muck about in!) we read the following:

“The Abbey is a virtual global online monastery offering pilgrimages, online classes & retreats, reflections,…

Today’s Viral Dailies comes to us by way of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Still one of my all time favourite poets. He was a Jesuit priest who never totally felt comfortable as a poet.

His earthly work with the pen ensured a better, richer ministry as priest.

As a Jesuit minister of the Gospel, his poems are infused with the breath of heaven.

There is a sadness afoot in the following poem. It seems…