The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Thu 4/2/2009)

[RetroLounge]

Poem on a Line by Anne Sexton, 'We are All Writing God's Poem'

Today, the sky's the soft blue of a work shirt washed
a thousand times. The journey of a thousand miles
begins with a single step. On the interstate listening
to NPR, I heard a Hubble scientist
say, "The universe is not only stranger than we
think, it's stranger than we can think." I think
I've driven into spring, as the woods revive
with a loud shout, redbud trees, their gaudy
scarves flung over bark's bare limbs. Barely doing
sixty, I pass a tractor trailer called Glory Bound,
and aren't we just? Just yesterday,
I read Li Po: "There is no end of things
in the heart," but it seems like things
are always ending—vacation or childhood,
relationships, stores going out of business,
like the one that sold jeans that really fit—
And where do we fit in? How can we get up
in the morning, knowing what we do? But we do,
put one foot after the other, open the window,
make coffee, watch the steam curl up
and disappear. At night, the scent of phlox curls
in the open window, while the sky turns red violet,
lavender, thistle, a box of spilled crayons.
The moon spills its milk on the black tabletop
for the thousandth time.

Barbara Crooker

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The author of more than 625 poems published in over 1925 anthologies, books, and magazines such as Yankee, The Christian Science Monitor, Smartish Pace, The Beloit Poetry Journal, Nimrod, The Denver Quarterly, The Tampa Review, Poetry International, The Christian Century, and America, Barbara Crooker is the recipient of the 2007 Pen and Brush Poetry Prize, the 2006 Ekphrastic Poetry Award from Rosebud, the 2004 WB Yeats Society of New York Award, the 2004 Pennsylvania Center for the Book Poetry in Public Places Poster Competition, the 2003 Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award, the 2003 "April Is the Cruelest Month" Award from Poets & Writers, the 2000 New Millenium Writing's Y2K competition, the 1997 Karamu Poetry Award, and others, including three Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships, thirteen residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and a prize from the NEA. A twenty-six time nominee for the Pushcart Prize, she was nominated for the 1997 Grammy Awards for her part in the audio version of the popular anthology, Grow Old Along With Me--The Best is Yet to Be (Papier Mache Press). She is the author of ten chapbooks, two of which won prizes in national competitions: Ordinary Life won the ByLine Chapbook competition in 2001 and Impressionism won the Grayson Books Chapbook competition in 2004. Radiance, her first full-length book, won the 2005 Word Press First Book competition, and was a finalist for the 2006 Paterson Poetry Prize. Line Dance, her second book, is newly out from Word. Garrison Keillor has read fifteen of her poems on The Writer's Almanac, National Public Radio.

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:hi:

RL

[lizziegrace]

1. Perfect

:)


:hug:

[RetroLounge]

3. Good Morning...

:hi:

:hug:

RL

[lizziegrace]

4. Morning!

:hug:

[blueraven95]

2. morning!

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

8. Hello there....

:hi:

RL

[Chorophyll]

5. Ah, yeah...

:hi:

and a :hug: this morning, too.

[RetroLounge]

9. And one back at you...

:hug:

RL

[Sky Masterson]

6. This one really hits home.

"There is no end of things
in the heart," but it seems like things
are always ending—vacation or childhood,
relationships, stores going out of business,
like the one that sold jeans that really fit—
And where do we fit in? How can we get up
in the morning, knowing what we do?

I guess we do because we have to.

[RetroLounge]

10. ...

:hi:

RL

[Tuesday Afternoon]

7. beautiful

:donut: :hi:

[RetroLounge]

11. ...

:hi:

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

12. My dear Retro...

This is so damn beautiful...I love this line:

The moon spills its milk on the black tabletop
for the thousandth time.

Thank you!



:hi:

[RetroLounge]

13. ...

:hi:

RL