Category: American Life in Poetry

• My Blue Shirt by Gary Whited

  American Life in Poetry: Column 621

  BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

  “The next time you open your closet, this poem will give you reason to pay a little more attention to what’s hanging inside. Gary Whited is from Massachusetts and his most recent book is Having Listened, (Homebound Publications, 2013).”

  My Blue Shirt

  hangs in the closet
  of this small room, collar open,
  sleeves empty, tail wrinkled.
  Nothing fills the shirt but air
  and my faint scent. It waits,
  all seven buttons undone,
  button holes slack,
  the soft fabric with its square white pattern,
  all of it waiting for a body.
  It would take any body, though it knows,
  in its shirt way of knowing, only mine
  has my shape in its wrinkles,
  my bend in the elbows.
  Outside this room birds hunt for food,
  young leaves drink in morning sunlight,
  people pass on their way to breakfast.
  Yet here, in this closet,
  the blue shirt needs nothing,
  expects nothing, knows only its shirt knowledge,
  that I am now learning—how to be private and patient,
  how to be unbuttoned,
  how to carry the scent of what has worn me,
  and to know myself by the wrinkles.
   

  We do not accept unsolicited submissions. 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© 2013 by Gary Whited, “My Blue Shirt,” from Having Listened, (Homebound Publications, 2013). Poem reprinted by permission of Gary Whited and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2017 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.

  February 13, 2017

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• Planting Peas from American Life in Poetry

  Lovely, lovely poem featured in American Life in Poetry today. I could read this over and over again. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. 

  BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

  The ancient Chinese poets used to say that at some point in each poem the poet ought to lift his (or her) eyes, ought to look beyond the surface of the present into something deeper and more meaningful. Here is just such a poem by Linda M. Hasselstrom, who lives in South Dakota.

  Planting Peas

  It’s not spring yet, but I can’t

  wait anymore. I get the hoe,

  pull back the snow from the old

  furrows, expose the rich dark earth.

  I bare my hand and dole out shriveled peas,

  one by one.

  I see my grandmother’s hand,

  doing just this, dropping peas

  into gray gumbo that clings like clay.

  This moist earth is rich and dark

  as chocolate cake.

  Her hands cradle

  baby chicks; she finds kittens in the loft

  and hands them down to me, safe beside

  the ladder leading up to darkness.

  I miss

  her smile, her blue eyes, her biscuits and gravy,

  but mostly her hands.

  I push a pea into the earth,

  feel her hands pushing me back. She’ll come in May,

  she says, in long straight rows,

  dancing in light green dresses.

  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 ©1984 by Linda M. Hasselstrom; http://www.windbreakhouse.com. Her most recent book of poems, written with Twyla Hansen, is Dirt Songs, The Backwaters Press, 2011. Poem reprinted by permission of Linda M. Hasselstrom and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2014 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. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

  August 11, 2014

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• First Morel by Amy Fleury #AmericanLifeinPoetry

  I love the immediacy of this poem. The raw feel of it~ Enjoy!

  American Life in Poetry: Column 474
  BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

  Let’s celebrate the first warm days of spring with a poem for mushroom hunters, this one by Amy Fleury, who lives in Louisiana.

  First Morel
  Up from wood rot,
  wrinkling up from duff
  and homely damps,
  spore-born and cauled
  like a meager seer,
  it pushes aside earth
  to make a small place
  from decay. Bashful,
  it brings honeycombed
  news from below
  of the coming plenty
  and everything rising.

  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. Copyright © 2013 by Amy Fleury from her most recent book of poems, Sympathetic Magic, Southern Illinois University Press, 2013. Poem reprinted by permission of Amy Fleury and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2014 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. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

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  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.

  April 22, 2014

  American Life in Poetry, poem, poetry

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• What It Looks Like To Us and the Words We Use by Ada Limon

  Take a look… disorderly, marvelous, ours. What a great way to cap off the week!

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  American Life in Poetry: Column 445
  BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

  Sit for an hour in any national airport and you’ll see how each of us differs from others in a million ways, and of course that includes not only our physical appearances but our perceptions and opinions. Here’s a poem by Ada Limón, who lives in Kentucky, about difference and the difficulty of resolution.

  What It Looks Like To Us and the Words We Use 

  All these great barns out here in the outskirts,
  black creosote boards knee-deep in the bluegrass.
  They look so beautifully abandoned, even in use.
  You say they look like arks after the sea’s
  dried up, I say they look like pirate ships,
  and I think of that walk in the valley where
  J said, You don’t believe in God? And I said,
  No. I believe in this connection we all have
  to nature, to each other, to the universe.
  And she said, Yeah, God. And how we stood there,
  low beasts among the white oaks, Spanish moss,
  and spider webs, obsidian shards stuck in our pockets,
  woodpecker flurry, and I refused to call it so.
  So instead, we looked up at the unruly sky,
  its clouds in simple animal shapes we could name
  though we knew they were really just clouds—
  disorderly, and marvelous, and ours.

  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 ©2012 by Ada Limón, whose most recent book of poems is Sharks in the Rivers, Milkweed Editions, 2010. Poem reprinted from Poecology, Issue 1, 2011, by permission of Ada Limón and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2013 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. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. 
  
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  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.

  October 4, 2013

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• Afterlife by Bruce Snider

  Exceptional, must-read poem from Bruce Snider, as featured on American Life in Poetry. “the rusty nail he hammered catches me, leaves its stain…” brilliant.

  American Life in Poetry: Column 435
  BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
  Perhaps there’s a kind of afterlife that is made up of our memories of a departed person, especially as these cling to that person’s belongings. Bruce Snider, who lives and teaches in California, suggests that here.

  Afterlife

  I wake to leafless vines and muddy fields,
  patches of standing water. His pocketknife

  waits in my dresser drawer, still able to gut fish.
  I pick up his green shirt, put it on for the fourth day

  in a row. Outside, the rusty nail he hammered
  catches me, leaves its stain on everything.

  The temperature drops, the whole shore
  filling with him: his dented chew can, waders,

  the cattails kinked, bowing their distress.
  At the pier, I use his old pliers to ready the line:

  fatheads, darters, a blood worm jig. Today, the lake’s
  one truth is hardness. When the trout bite,

  I pull the serviceable things glistening into air.

  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 ©2012 by Bruce Snider from his most recent book of poems, Paradise, Indiana, Pleiades Press, 2012. Poem reprinted by permission of Bruce Snider and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2013 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. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
  
  American Life in Poetry ©2006 The Poetry Foundation
  Contact: alp@poetryfoundation.org
  This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.

  July 22, 2013

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• "Old Men Pitching Horseshoes" by X. J. Kennedy

  Happy 4th of July everyone!! Can’t think of a more appropriate topic than horseshoes 🙂 Enjoy this pick from Ted Kooser.

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  American Life in Poetry: Column 432

  BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
  One of the most distinctive sounds in small-town America is the chiming of horseshoe pitching. A friend always carries a pair in the trunk of his car. He’ll stop at a park in some little town and start pitching, and soon, he says, others will hear that ringing and suddenly appear as if out of thin air. In this poem, X.J. Kennedy captures the fellowship of horseshoe pitchers.

  Old Men Pitching Horseshoes

  Back in a yard where ringers groove a ditch,
  These four in shirtsleeves congregate to pitch
  Dirt-burnished iron. With appraising eye,
  One sizes up a peg, hoists and lets fly—
  A clang resounds as though a smith had struck
  Fire from a forge. His first blow, out of luck,
  Rattles in circles. Hitching up his face,
  He swings, and weight once more inhabits space,
  Tumbles as gently as a new-laid egg.
  Extended iron arms surround their peg
  Like one come home to greet a long-lost brother.
  Shouts from one outpost. Mutters from the other.

  Now changing sides, each withered pitcher moves
  As his considered dignity behooves
  Down the worn path of earth where August flies
  And sheaves of air in warm distortions rise,
  To stand ground, fling, kick dust with all the force
  Of shoes still hammered to a living horse.

  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 ©2007 by X.J. Kennedy. Poem reprinted from In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus: New and Selected Poems, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007, by permission of X.J. Kennedy and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2013 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. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
  
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  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.
  
  
  

  July 3, 2013

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• "Little Girl" by Tami Haaland

  another lovely pick from Ted Kooser … enjoy!

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  American Life in Poetry: Column 430

  BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
  There are many fine poems in which the poet looks deeply into a photograph and tries to touch the lives caught there. Here’s one by Tami Haaland, who lives in Montana.

  Little Girl

  She’s with Grandma in front
  of Grandma’s house, backed
  by a willow tree, gladiola and roses.

  Who did she ever want
  to please? But Grandma
  seems half-pleased and annoyed.

  No doubt Mother frowns
  behind the lens, wants
  to straighten this sassy face.

  Maybe laughs, too.
  Little girl with her mouth wide,
  tongue out, yelling
  at the camera. See her little
  white purse full of treasure,
  her white sandals?
  She has things to do,
  you can tell. Places to explore
  beyond the frame,
  and these women picking flowers
  and taking pictures.
  Why won’t they let her go?

  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. “Little Girl” from When We Wake in the Night, by Tami Haaland, ©2012 WordTech Editions, Cincinnati, Ohio. Poem reprinted by permission of Tami Haaland and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2013 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. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
  
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  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.

  June 18, 2013

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• The Vacation by Wendell Berry

  Great piece featured by Ted Kooser today~ and great advise for me as I get ready for my next big adventure. Taking the family to Italy/Sicily! WOO! So if you don’t hear from me until June, you’ll know why 🙂

   

  American Life in Poetry: Column 425

  BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

  If we haven’t done it ourselves, we’ve known people who have, it seems: taken a vacation mostly to photograph a vacation, not really looking at what’s there, but seeing everything through the viewfinder with the idea of looking at it when they get home. Wendell Berry of Kentucky, one of our most distinguished poets, captures this perfectly.

  The Vacation

  Once there was a man who filmed his vacation.

  He went flying down the river in his boat

  with his video camera to his eye, making

  a moving picture of the moving river

  upon which his sleek boat moved swiftly

  toward the end of his vacation. He showed

  his vacation to his camera, which pictured it,

  preserving it forever: the river, the trees,

  the sky, the light, the bow of his rushing boat

  behind which he stood with his camera

  preserving his vacation even as he was having it

  so that after he had had it he would still

  have it. It would be there. With a flick

  of a switch, there it would be. But he

  would not be in it. He would never be in it.

  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 ©2012 by Wendell Berry, whose most recent book of poems is New Collected Poems, Counterpoint, 2012. Poem reprinted from New Collected Poems, Counterpoint, 2012, and used with permission of Wendell Berry and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2013 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. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

  May 13, 2013

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• "Burning the Book" by Ron Koertge

  Hi friends, been in a creative slump recently but hoping to get back to writing soon. Busy busy but as the weather turns, hopefully, so will the ideas. Until then~ enjoy Ron Koertge’s piece below. Wonderfully expressive imagery.
  
  
  American Life in Poetry: Column 419

  BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

  It pains an old booklover like me to think of somebody burning a book, but if you’ve gotten one for a quarter and it’s falling apart, well, maybe it’s OK as long as you might be planning to pick up a better copy. Here Ron Koertge, who lives in Pasadena, has some fun with the ashes of love poems.

  Burning the Book

  The anthology of love poems I bought
  for a quarter is brittle, anyway, and comes
  apart when I read it.

  One at a time, I throw pages on the fire
  and watch smoke make its way up
  and out.

  I’m almost to the index when I hear
  a murmuring in the street. My neighbors
  are watching it snow.

  I put on my blue jacket and join them.
  The children stand with their mouths
  open.

  I can see nouns—longing, rapture, bliss—
  land on every tongue, then disappear.

  
  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 ©2012 by Ron Koertge, whose most recent book of poems is Fever, Red Hen Press, 2006. Poem reprinted by permission of Ron Koertge. Introduction copyright © 2013 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. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

  April 8, 2013

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• "Living Tree" by Robert Morgan

  LOVED this poem. Enjoy my friends! And your mission today: pass on the joy of poetry to one other person. Let’s start a movement!

  American Life in Poetry: Column 418
  BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

  Robert Morgan, who lives in Ithaca, New York, has long been one of my favorite American poets. He’s also a fine novelist and, recently, the biographer of Daniel Boone. His poems are often about customs and folklore, and this one is a good example.

  Living Tree

  It’s said they planted trees by graves

  to soak up spirits of the dead

  through roots into the growing wood.

  The favorite in the burial yards

  I knew was common juniper.

  One could do worse than pass into

  such a species. I like to think

  that when I’m gone the chemicals

  and yes the spirit that was me

  might be searched out by subtle roots

  and raised with sap through capillaries

  into an upright, fragrant trunk,

  and aromatic twigs and bark,

  through needles bright as hoarfrost to

  the sunlight for a century

  or more, in wood repelling rot

  and standing tall with monuments

  and statues there on the far hill,

  erect as truth, a testimony,

  in ground that’s dignified by loss,

  around a melancholy tree

  that’s pointing toward infinity.

  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 ©2012 by Robert Morgan, whose most recent book of poems is Terroir, Penguin Poets, 2011. Poem reprinted from The Georgia Review, Spring 2012, by permission of Robert Morgan and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2013 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. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

  March 25, 2013

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