My Childhood (Matthew Zapruder)

A grand title for this poem by Matthew Zapruder, but the poem reads simply and clear-eyed.

Each line seems almost like a distinct memory flash from childhood. It was like the poet just wrote the title and then recorded the first 10 or so images that came to mind. The collection of them is comforting and suburban. It reads like an adult thinking of being a child - the words/grammar are easy to understand (childish), but the mood and overall sense between the images is graver, more adult.

Favorite line: "the mother comes home and finds the child animal sleeping"

Sonnet Substationally Like the Words of F Rodriguez One Position Ahead of Me on the Unemployment Line (Jack Agueros)

Wow, that is one long title for today's poem by Jack Agüeros. Long like the seemingly endless line at the unemployment office, perchance?

I like the tone of this poem - the ridiculousness of bureaucracy and how not having a job can feel like a job in and of itself. It's simultaneously serious and hilarious.

I hadn't heard of the poet before tonight, but I really like this poem - it's well written and polished, political and yet human in nature and a hoot and yet bone dry serious at the same time. Cool cool.

Favorite line: "The faster you spin, the stiller you look. / There's something to learn in that, but what?"

But Men Loved Darkness Rather Than Light (Richard Crashaw)

I'd never heard of this poet before, but he's from the 1600s, so it would seem as though I should have. In this short poem of his, there is some rhyming, few images or 'pretty' language and, honestly, it seems rather like a puritan lesson. A be careful what you wish for, kind of thing.

Honestly, it's pretty boring. No?

Favorite line: "shine as it will"

Drunken Winter (Joseph Ceravolo)

It's a silly, slight of a poem by Joseph Ceravolo.

I like the drunk feeling of the random pairing of words and the sloppy s sounds. I also like the preponderance of nouns - the solid footholds in the poem - "oak", "paddle", "sky", "flea", "geese", "boy", "winter".

Favorite line: "Oak oak! Like like"

E. H. (John Koethe)

I've never seen Follies. I'm not 49. Nor am I 62. And yet, this poem by John Koethe explains exactly what I have been feeling lately. I don't really have more words, but to say that this poem is great and I really appreciate the first few lines since I've been trying to write lately and I too "search for ways in and can't find them."

Thanks for this one.

Favorite line: "I (whichever I this is) saw Follies last year."

I (whichever I this is) saw Follies last year.

A Crocodile (Thomas Lovell Beddoes)

A sonnet (by Thomas Lovell Beddoes) about a crocodile!

I wish it were as cute as it potentially could be. However, it reads stiffly (but with plenty of SAT vocab!) and despite having the occasional good phrase/description it really is as dreary as its oh so boring title.

Favorite line: "lightsomely flew"

lightsomely flew

Nonsense Alphabet (Edward Lear)

Again, I am le tired, but I couldn't resist this charming poem by Edward Lear.

It's like a primer for kindergarteners. I read it aloud (of course!) and the gait is so pleasant and fun. The little rejoinders of the lower case letters almost seem smirking they are so quick and sharp.

Delightful! It would go so well with illustration -- it simply must exist in that form somewhere. But even without pictures, the words are charming enough!

Favorite line: "I was some ice / So white and so nice, / But which nobody tasted; / And so it was wasted."

I I was some ice So white and so nice, But which nobody tasted; And so it was wasted. i All that good ice! - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22065#sthash.bArLvCsw.dpuf

Everyone Is Asleep (Enomoto Seifu-jo)

I am super-exhausted, so I went looking for a sleep poem and found this delightful haiku by Enomoto Seifu-jo.

"Everyone is asleep" and I hope to join that group very very soon. I like that in sleep neither the terrestrial ("everyone") nor the celestial ("the moon") can invade your sleeping form.

Deep, restful sleep. Is calm like this poem. Is satisfying like this poem.

Favorite line: "The moon and me."

Marriage (William Carlos Williams)

A short poem by William Carlos Williams.

It's a metephor, I suppose. Or a math equation. Marriage = man + woman = stream + field.

Both man and woman are unique individuals as a stream and field are unique entities, but both are needed to complete the scene, to make a marriage.

This poem seems fine, but also seems lazy.  I don't feel deeply as I read. I am not inspired by unique descriptors. Dunno, seems kind of dull to me.

Favorite line: "so different, this man"

So different, this man

Why Poetry Can Be Hard For Most People (Dorothea Lasky)

This poem by Dorothea Lasky gives me the shivers. Its talk of ghosts and its common language and its calm, kind tone as it explains why poetry is difficult and why reading and writing it can be hard and why relationships between people and between the past and present are so tangled and so complicated is why I think I love this poem.

Favorite line: "Because speaking to the dead is not something you want to do / When you have other things to do in your day"

Because speaking to the dead is not something you want to do
When you have other things to do in your day - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23690#sthash.8WxQ0MXc.dpuf