“Amy’s 5th gr report card” in Stan McCoy’s Flickr Stream
Licensed via the Creative Commons.
Gee, You’re So Beautiful That It’s Starting to Rain
Richard Brautigan
Oh, Marcia,
I want your long blonde beauty
to be taught in high school,
so kids will learn that God
lives like music in the skin
and sounds like a sunshine harpsichord.
I want high school report cards
to look [...]

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Late February
Gail Mazur
Late February, and the air’s so balmy
snowdrops and crocuses might be fooled
into early blooming. Then, the inevitable blizzard
will come, blighting our harbingers of spring,
and the numbed yards will go back undercover.
In Florida, it’s strawberry season?
shortcake, waffles, berries and cream
will be penciled on the coffeeshop menus.
Available online via Opossumsal Homestead

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“Mail Cart” in Computationally.Intractable’s Flickr stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.

These lines came from a poem quoted in The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance and attributed to James Beaton c. 1840.
Something I want to write upon, to scare away each vapour—
The ” Penny Postage” shall I try ? Why, yes, I’ll write on paper.
Thy great [...]

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Jon and I are going to New Orleans for the Super Bowl this weekend Well, never mind.  Apparently the worst snow storm ever is coming to DC and ALL the flights to anywhere have been canceled for the entire weekend.  We’ll be watching the game in our apt.  Thankfully, we stocked up on snacks before [...]

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It’s a new year and I’m feeling a bit sentimental about DC.  So, this week for “poetry Friday” lets take a walking tour of DC’s poetry history.  The Poetry Foundation put together an audio tour you can download (complete with maps and photos).  If the weather turns nice I’m planning to make the walk.  But [...]

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“Day 344/365- Seasonal Help” via Tony Case’s Flickr Stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.
The Druids Thought the Mistletoe
Nicholas Gordon
The Druids thought the mistletoe
Would stop the meanest witches,
Cure the most severe disease,
Keep cradles safe from switches.
Enemies laid down their arms
Beneath its pungent spell.
For one whole day they could not fight,
Though hatred fire the will.
In later centuries it [...]

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Better late than never…

Dirge Without Music
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely.  Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they [...]

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Perhaps the World Ends Here
by Joy Harjo
The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.
The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been since creation, and it will go on.
We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners. [...]

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Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter
Robert Bly
It is a cold and snowy night. The main street is deserted.
The only things moving are swirls of snow.
As I lift the mailbox door, I feel its cold iron.
There is a privacy I love in this snowy night.
Driving around, I will waste more time.
from Silence in the [...]

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Remembering Mountain Men
William Stafford
I put my foot in cold water
and hold it there: early mornings
they had to wade through broken ice
to find the traps in the deep channel
with their hands, drag up the chains and
the drowned beaver. The slow current
of the life below tugs at me all day.
When I dream at night, they save a [...]

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