Poetry Friday: Billy Collins and John O'Donnell

I was in the mood for some Billy Collins so I went in search of my hero. 

I found him at the New York Times, talking to Cheryl Strayed. 

He mentioned a poem called "When," by John O'Donnell, 

so obviously I now have to share that with you. 

So, what was going to be a Billy Collins post is still 

a Billy Collins post, but now it's Billy+. 

Plus a little heart-wrenching, but that's Poetry Friday in a pandemic. 

(The transcript of the interview is here.)

When

by John O'Donnell

And when this ends we will emerge, shyly

and then all at once, dazed, longhaired as we embrace

loved ones the shadow spared, and weep for those

it gathered in its shroud. A kind of rapture, this longed-for 

....

(Read the rest here.) 

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Carol Varsalona is hosting the round-up at Beyond LiteracyLink. 

Poetry Friday: Instructions on Not Giving Up, by Ada Limón

I felt this way last week: the sudden greening of the trees, spring's sneaky way of springing itself on me. There's always a day, every year, when a sudden burst or bloom makes me catch my breath. 

A beautiful and needed promise. 

Instructions on Not Giving Up
by Ada Limón


More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out
of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s
almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving
their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate
sky of Spring rains, it’s the greening of the trees
that really gets to me. When all the shock of white
....

(Read the whole thing here, at Poets.org.)

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Michelle Heidenrich Barnes has the round-up this week at Today's Little Ditty.