Category: Poetry
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Post #116: Billy Collins
Billy Collins is probably the most famous living American poet whose name is not Maya Angelou. A pillar of American letters, he’s about as well regarded critically and popularly as it’s possible for a poet to be while still drawing breath, and living in a country that doesn’t much give…
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Post #41: A Poem a Week (Roughly) for National Poetry Month
Today, in continued honor of National Poetry Month, I share with you Walt Whitman’s “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer.” It’s long been a favorite of mine. Enjoy. “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged…
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Post #38: A Poem a Week for National Poetry Month, Part One
In honor of the first week of National Poetry Month, I’d like to share with you a personal favorite, Billy Collins’s “The Lanyard.” Billy Collins–The Lanyard The other day I was ricocheting slowly off the blue walls of this room, moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano, from bookshelf…
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Post #24: Take this Poem, and Listen to It
Alan Heathcock, a writer I admire, recently wrote a fabulous short essay for NPR about reading a poem a day to quiet his mind and steady himself against the bustling life he (and we all) leads. I listened to the audio version of Alan’s piece while waiting for the shower…
Benjamin Roesch 