Category: Poetry Monday

POETRY MONDAY: March 4, 2024
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Good morning, everyone.  In keeping with our policy of re-visiting poets who were especially popular with our readers, we’ve chosen to say hello again to the late Maxine Kumin, who last appeared here in 2014.

Here, exactly as she appeared then, is the widely adored poet, Maxine Kumin.

— Irene Willis
Poetry Editor

POETRY MONDAY: May 5, 2014
Maxine Kumin: A Postlude

Those of us still mourning the loss of former U.S. Poet Laureate Maxine Kumin, who died on February 6 of this year at 88, have a welcome gift, knowing that she didn’t stop.  Her new book, And Short the Season (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2014) is available now, and her voice is as strong as it has always been. Sharp-eyed, keen-witted and ironic as ever, she shies away from nothing in this collection, dedicated to her daughter Judith, whom we Continue reading POETRY MONDAY: March 4, 2024

Poetry Monday: January 1, 2024
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Lewis Warsh  Photography by Max Warsh

Good morning, everyone — and a happy, hopeful New Year to you.  Poetry is truly medicine for the soul, and this is surely a time when our souls can use some healing.

Our poet today, Lewis Warsh, is one whose poems I confess I didn’t know until I went to a reading at The Bookstore in Lenox, Mass., where several of his longtime friends celebrated his work and life.

Lewis Warsh was not only a poet but also an editor, visual artist, educator and author of over thirty volumes of poetry, fiction, and autobiography.

The three poems that follow are from his last book, Elixir (Ugly Duckling Press, 2022).

BLUE MOON

There are some buzzwords you
need to know if you want to get on
in the world, keep up with
current events, for instance, but Continue reading Poetry Monday: January 1, 2024

POETRY MONDAY: NOVEMBER 6, 2023
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David Giannini

       

Good morning, everyone!  As we did last month, we’re sharing some readers’ favorites for those who may have missed them the first time.  David Giannini last appeared here in 2022.  Since then, his latest book, Already Long Ago (Dos Madres, 2023) is already garnering high praise.

                     –Irene Willis
                       Poetry Editor


A Woman in the Asylum on the River

Even in my mother’s womb
I sensed that

I could not escape without help; that there Continue reading POETRY MONDAY: NOVEMBER 6, 2023

Poetry Monday: September 4, 2023
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Good morning, everyone:  Soon you’ll be sending children or grandchildren off to school, and some of you will be off to school yourselves, as teachers or students  — and in some cases, as it was for me, both.

Those of us who love poetry are always ready to read and learn more about it.  I know that’s why, among all the collections on my shelves are books about fundamentals.  This morning I’d like to tell you about some of those I have recently found most valuable.

First is a recent little book that I will never part with: Musical Tables by former Poet Laureate of the United States, Billy Collins (Random House, 2022).  As critic Alice Fulton has said, he “puts the fun back in profundity.” This book of short, witty poems will bear — in fact, invite — repeated re-readings.  His own love of poetry, he tells us, might have begun with nursery rhymes; I know that mine did.

Which is why, whether you have young children at home or not, I invite you to go back to the enduring classics of your childhood: Mother Goose,  A Child’s Garden of Verses, those fairy tales with crayon-colored names, e.g., The Yellow Fairy Book, The Red Fairy Book — and a copy of Bible Stories for Children — if you can find them.  There is also a wonderful, small pocket-sized copy of Emily Dickinson (Modern Library, 2004), with an introduction by Collins himself.  It’s in my handbag now, and I’ve read and re-read it in many a doctor’s or dentist’s waiting-room.  I’m now rushing to put it away, for I never want to be without it — nor, I hope, will you. Continue reading Poetry Monday: September 4, 2023

Poetry Monday: August 7, 2023
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Merle Molofsky

Good morning, everyone.  We first met Merle Molosky on a cold winter’s day, and now, here we are, in full — and very hot or very rainy — summer!

Merle Molofsky, MFA, NCPsyA, is a psychoanalyst in private practice. She serves on the faculties of the Training Institute of NPAP and of Harlem Family Institute (HFI), and the Advisory Council of HFI.

Ms. Molosky is a member of the Editorial Board of The Psychoanalytic Review and of The International Journal of Controversial Discussions.  In 2012 she received the Gravida Award in Poetry from the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP). She is also a playwright and writer of fiction.  Her play, Koolaid, directed by Jack Gelber, was produced at Lincoln Center, and her novel, Streets 1970  (2015) and short-story collection, Necessary Voices (2019), both of which had introductions by Gerald J. Gargulio, were published by IPBooks.

It’s my pleasure to share the following three poems by Merle Molosky:

-IRENE WILLIS
POETRY EDITOR

ANCESTORS

All my ancestors
were once children Continue reading Poetry Monday: August 7, 2023