Tag: poetry

Poem for the Day: September 3rd, 2021

The Symbolic Life by Hayan Charara 

They kept showing up, for days,
dead on the windowsill, 
and for days I did nothing about the ladybugs 
except to ask if their entering the house 
unnoticed and dying before I saw them 
was symbolic. 
Thinking was so easy. 
They symbolized birth and death,
change and rebirth. 
It was also possible the tiny beetles 
embodies an inborn need 
to show themselves,
to turn up in every and any place,
even as the dried out remains of the once-lively. 
Or they stood for the burden of being one thing 
relieved by becoming another,
which all the world’s children suffer. 

This went on and on, and could’ve gone on 
forever, so I finally opened the window 
and blew them into the wide open 
because everything and everyone should get a 
     chance 
to be mourned, and they got theirs, 
but first they had to die, which is life, 
not symbolism.

Copyright © 2017 by Hayan Charara. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on August 25, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.

Poem for the Day: September 1st, 2021

Say Goodnight: Poems by Timothy Liu

Vespers by Timothy Liu 

So many want to be blessed. 
I only want to kneel in a quiet room. 
To love what we have or not exist 
at all. Nothing to help me sleep. 
Only a scrap of paper slipped 
into my hand: Your body an ocean, 
a song without end. Votive candles 
flickering in the dark that made us 
larger than life: hip-thrust, 
back-arch, mouth-grip, you on top 
till we collapsed in the coiled 
springs that came to rest. A chair 
where you once sat. A bowl of fruit 
neither one of us would touch.

Bonus Graphic

The most resonant part of Vespers for me is the line, “Only a scrap of paper slipped / into my hand: Your body an ocean, a song without end.” So enthralled was I by that particular imagery that I made this little ditty, which I sincerely hope you’ll enjoy (Note: The image is a royalty-free stock image—I have simply added the words to the note in the center):

Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please like, comment, follow, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at fred.slusher@thevoraciousbibliophile.com or catch me on Twitter and Instagram @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.

All Aboard the ARC: My Greenhouse: Poetry by Bella Mayo

My Greenhouse: Poetry by Bella Mayo

Review

***Note: I received a free digital review copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***

Is there anything that burns as bright in embryo or scars as deep in the aftermath as first love?

Is there anything that burns as bright in embryo or scars as deep in the aftermath as first love? I think Bella Mayo, the author of My Greenhouse, would be inclined to answer no. And I would be inclined to agree with her.

As we grow up we become jaded, conveniently forgetting the potency and primacy of the feelings we had when we were young and in love. I don’t believe there’s ever a time a person is more alive than when everything is blossoming for the first time—the first time you feel someone else’s lips on yours as well as the first time someone takes your heart and shreds it like so much dirty confetti.

My Greenhouse leaves no stone unturned and no leaf unfurled, showing that healing after heartbreak is indeed possible—even if you have to dig everything up and plant it somewhere else.

Mayo catalogs all of these feelings and presents them as a blueprint for moving on when the one you thought would never leave decides they can’t stay. My Greenhouse leaves no stone unturned and no leaf unfurled, showing that healing after heartbreak is indeed possible—even if you have to dig everything up and plant it somewhere else.

My Greenhouse: Poetry is due to be released on September 21st by Andrews McMeel Publishing and is now available to preorder wherever books are sold.

Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please like, comment, follow, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at fred.slusher@thevoraciousbibliophile.com or catch me on Twitter and Instagram @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.

All Aboard the ARC: Flower Crowns and Fearsome Things by Amanda Lovelace

Flower Crowns and Fearsome Things by Amanda Lovelace

Review

***Note: I received a free digital review copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***

In her newest standalone collection of poetry, Amanda Lovelace makes Persephone of Greek mythology her muse, exploring through her the dualities inherent in femininity as well as the fragmented self that we must all contend with—the self we are with others and the self we are when we’re alone, and the result is nothing short of brilliant.

…Lovelace makes Persephone of Greek mythology her muse, exploring through her the dualities inherent in femininity as well as the fragmented self that we must all contend with—the self we are with others and the self we are when we’re alone, and the result is nothing short of brilliant.

Also tackled herein is the COVID-19 pandemic and the ways it has changed and remade us, from the reasons why wearing a mask is an act of love and respect but also an act of defiance to telling her beloved how close she’ll be able to come to them when the world stops ending. God, that phrase is one I can’t stop turning over and over in my mind. When the world stops ending, when the world stops ending, when the world stops ending….Because isn’t that how it feels right now? As if every day is being lived in survival mode with no end in sight? Thank God we still have poetry to get us through.

Because isn’t that how it feels right now? As if every day is being lived in survival mode with no end in sight? Thank God we still have poetry to get us through.

All in all, Flower Crowns and Fearsome Things is a stellar collection sure to please new readers of Lovelace’s work as well as her longtime fans. The gorgeous illustrations by Janaina Medeiros complement Lovelace’s words perfectly, giving them more depth and clarity. I feel safe in saying this is a title I’ll be hand-selling to my customers who enjoy poetry.

Flower Crowns and Fearsome Things is due to be released on October 5th, 2021 by Andrews McMeel Publishing and is now available to preorder wherever books are sold.

Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please like, comment, follow, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at fred.slusher@thevoraciousbibliophile.com or catch me on Twitter and Instagram @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.

Poem for the Day: August 30th, 2021

Reconnaissance: Poems by Carl Phillips

The Strong By Their Stillness by Carl Phillips 

Most mornings here, mist is the first thing to go —first
the mist, then the fog, though hardly anyone seems to 
     know
the difference, or even care, the way for some a dead buck 
is a dead buck: the road, the body, a little light, the usual 
dark, light’s 
          unshakeable escort...You can love a man
more than he’ll ever love back or be able to, you can 
     confuse
your understanding of that 
                                            with a thing like acceptance or,
worse, all you’ve ever deserved. I’ve driven hard into 
the gorgeousness of spring before; it fell hard behind me:
the turning away, I mean, the finding of clothes,
the maneuvering 
                                awkwardly back into them...why not drive
forever? Respect or shame, it’s pretty much your 
own choice, is how it once got explained to me. I’ve already
said—I’m not sorry. Magnolia. Wild pear. So what if one
wish begets a next one, 
                                   only to be conquered by it, if the blooms
break open nevertheless like hope?

Bonus Graphic

So, some of you probably remember those batches of graphics I dropped on here a few weeks ago. Most of the ones I made at the time were lyrics from Taylor Swift’s folklore, but I also made some using snippets from my favorite poems, and it just so happens that I found one containing lines from today’s poem. I hope you like it. Disclaimer: I am not nor do I claim to be a professional graphic designer.

Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please like, comment, follow, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at fred.slusher@thevoraciousbibliophile.com or catch me on Twitter and Instagram @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.

Poem for the Day: August 29th, 2021

Good Bones by Maggie Smith

This place could be beautiful, right? You could make this place beautiful. 

Life is short, though I keep this from my children.
Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine 
in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,
a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways 
I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least 
fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative 
estimate, though I keep this from my children. 
For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird. 
For every loved child, a child broken, bagged, 
sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world 
is at least half terrible, and for every kind 
stranger, there is one who would break you, 
though I keep this from my children. I am trying 
to sell them the world. Any decent realtor, 
walking you through a real shithole, chirps on 
about good bones: This place could be beautiful,
right? You could make this place beautiful.

Poem for the Day: August 28th, 2021

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. 

You do not have to be good. 
You do not have to walk on your knees 
For a hundred miles through the desert repenting. 
You only have to let the soft animal of your body 
love what it loves. 
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. 
Meanwhile the world goes on. 
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain 
are moving across the landscapes, 
over the prairies and the deep trees, 
the mountains and the rivers. 
Meanwhile, the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, 
are heading home again. 
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, 
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
over and over announcing your place 
in the family of things.

Poem for the Day: August 27th, 2021

Prayer by Ellen Bass

I want to stop wanting to be wanted like that. 

Once I wore a dress liquid as vodka. 
My lover watched me ascend 
from the subway 
like I was an underground spring 
breaking through. 
I want to stop wanting to be wanted like that. 
I’m tired of the song the rain sings in June, 
the chorus of hope, the ravenous green, 
the earth, her ornate crown of trees 
spiking up from her loamy head. 
There are things I wanted, like everyone. 
But to this angel of wishes I’ve worshiped 
so long, I ask now to admit 
the world as it is.