Poems for Aug. 30

Aug. 30

Elegy, Surrounded by Seven Trees  by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

The poems below  selected by John Lee Clark,the deaf-blind poet  who wrote How to Communicate.  This short interview explains his choices!

https://poets.org/July-2023-poem-a-day-guest-editor-john-leeclark?mc_cid=9815c49871&mc_eid=248758c95e

            Dear America by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

            A New National Anthem by Ada Limón 1976

            United by Naomi Shihab Nye

            Old South Meeting House by January Gill O’Neil

 I couldn’t resist sharing the selection of poems  in the forwarded message below—  so many inspiring lines as we draw close to the beginning of yet another new month.

I hope this note finds everyone well.  We have had a splendid reunion with family here in London, and will leave on the night train to Scotland at the end of today.

My head is reeling with all we have seen and experienced — especially yesterday, riding the boat past the centuries of history and modern skyline to get up to the Tate Modern… here’s a little taste of just one of the exhibits: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/capturing-the-moment  

Uncanny how the poems selected for discussion Aug. 30 seems to lend a similar thought-provoking lens!  Enjoy! Note that the bulk of them were selected by this month’s curator of “Poem a Day”, Deaf-Blind poet John Lee Clarke (to whom we were introduced to prepare for reading Kaminsky’s Deaf Republic). 

Sent with the poems, the Aug. newsletter from the American Academy of Poets:

“The Luzumiyat of Abu’l-Ala, CXIX” by Al-Ma‘arri, translated by Ameen Rihani “The Seedling” by Paul Laurence Dunbar  “Origin of Planets” by Jennifer Foerster “Remember” by Joy Harjo “Hello” by Sean Hill “Ahead and Around” by Laura Riding Jackson “Let Me Begin Again” by Major Jackson “Each year” by Dora Malech “Move” by Alicia Ostriker “Morning Song” by Sylvia Plath  “in our chant of the creation of the world” by leilani portillo “Beginnings” by Mahtem Shiferraw “Seed of Mango, Seed of Maize” by Lynne Thompson