The Last Day of National Poetry Month 2017

This has been a great National Poetry Month, with lots of superb works by poets (here, here, here, and here) as well as songwriters in the Poetry of Rock n' Roll series (here, here, here, and here). Let's celebrate the close of this year's Poetry Month with a yearning work by Dorothea Lasky who kicked off last year's National Poetry Month here.

Promised Years
by Dorothea Lasky

I would tell her
Except she wouldn’t care
I’d write him
Except he’d never write me back
There is a rat they left hanging
I’d save it
Except it’s dead
What is the force that swirls me
I asked of the wind
There was no reply
It was beyond me
And I was floating in it
Circles and circles
I’ve seen them throughout my life
I tried to answer them
They bled their mouths on me
Call me call me I begged of the moon
It did not listen
It had left me alone
So many years ago
And as the world collapsed
I mouthed the empty rhetoric of my time period
Call me call me
I begged of the wind

http://www.dorothealasky.com/

Happy National Poetry Month 2016

April is National Poetry Month! Sponsored by the Academy of American Poets, this year's celebration marks the twentieth anniversary of this delightful event. This year's poster starts with the poem "Maggie Says There's No Such Thing As Winter" by Janet McNally.

How to celebrate?

Read your favorite poet again.
Read some new poetry.
Find a new favorite poet.
Write some poetry.
Leave poems for people to find in public places.
Read poetry out loud to family and friends.
Dream a poem.

And in honor of National Poetry Month, let's start things off with a lovely, expansive poem by Dorothea Lasky.

There Is No Name Yet

Until I find a name
I will not put it in the soul calculator
I will leave it free and open and unnamed
And not limit my expectations for the kind of person
That goes in one direction of the wind
I will keep all lines of the wind open
And place all my days free and empty
And re-envision what it means to be unencumbered
Or bereft
Not crying but the expanse of numbers
That go beyond the grave to what is left
And it may be true
I said it could be true
That the sunny days do stick to walls
And then enter you
It may be true that the purple bells do chime
Everyday you let them
It may be true that the sweet juice
I put across my lips would not be my last
But that the nights could get better and better
Until the evil is banished until the day
When the sun would crush it anyway
It was true without a set of things like letters
It was true the air was free and open
And I saw things as they were
Without violence
For the first time


https://www.poets.org

http://www.dorothealasky.com/