1280: If by Imtiaz Dharker

Today’s poem is Common Denominators by Cynthia Arrieu-King. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “There’s one phrase toward the end of this poem that I keep coming back to: “The earth is a school.” The more I hear it, the more I agree. The ear ...  Show more

Today’s poem is Pardon My Heart by Marcus Jackson.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “If I had a different kind of heart, a tougher heart, would I be able to see what’s happening in the world around me and not feel so brokenhearted? What wou ...  Show more

Today we pay tribute, with poems by Andrea Cohen and Elizabeth Alexander, to the indispensable golden wonder.

In today’s poem, also known as “Sonnet 19,” Milton offers a pious alternative to “raging” against the dying of the light. Happy reading.

About twenty years ago, I heard William Stafford read his poetry for about twenty minutes. For a young aspiring writer like I was then, he was mesmerizing, a mix of poetic energy and grandfatherly wisdom, with a high-spirited charm. I think it was the first poetry reading that I ...  Show more

Collected Poems (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)C.K. Williams' Collected Poems covers a lifetime's concern with ethics and personal morality. As his work proceeds, he develops a quality of consciousness and empathy that some would describe as a soul. In this conversation, this accessibl ...  Show more