March 19

first cancelled session: sent March 13.  plenty of shamrocks to pick here:

Please tell me which of these 100 Irish great poems tickle your fancy.  https://ireland-calling.com/100-favourite-poems/.

We have discussed many of them over the years.  You’ll see I’ve picked #69 and #80.

The second poem appeared this morning on Poems for the Resistance: you can subscribe here:  https://tinyletter.com/poemsfortheresistance

Yesterday’s poem posted there however, irritated me no end as self-indulgent, even the “vague awareness of social injustice” couldn’t redeem it.  I enclose Cambell McGrath’s Capitalist Poem #5 and 5 responses to it.  Sometimes the healing power of poetry comes from workshopping someone else’s published work!  

Pegasus by Patrick Kavanagh
Instructions on Not Giving Up  by Ada Limon
But Men Loved Darkness rather than Light by Richard Crashaw**
Lines Written Near San Francisco BY LOUIS SIMPSON
Follower  by Seamus Heaney
Placement by Kitty Jospé--a golden shovel using title of painting "The Best is yet to come."

** apt for our times...

The world’s light shines, shine as it will, 

The world will love its darkness still. 

I doubt though when the world’s in hell, 

It will not love its darkness half so well