Poetry Friday: "To the Sea" by Anis Mojgani

One thing I love about receiving a daily poem from Poets.org is discovering poets I've never read before. Last week, this lovely poem by the Poet Laureate of Oregon, Anis Mojgani, landed in my Inbox. What have I done to deserve such gifts? (Oh, I'm glad I asked. I subscribed to the Poem-a-Day series. Subscribe, read, bookmark, repeat.) 

To the Sea
by Anis Mojgani

Sometimes when you start to ramble
or rather when you feel you are starting to ramble
you will say Well, now I’m rambling
though I don’t think you ever are.
And if you ever are I don’t really care.
And not just because I and everyone really
at times falls into our own unspooling
—which really I think is a beautiful softness
of being human, trying to show someone else
the color of all our threads, wanting another to know
everything in us we are trying to show them—

....

(Read the rest here.) 

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Patricia Franz at Reverie has the Poetry Friday round-up this week. And be sure to wish her 

a happy 40th anniversary! Huzzah! 

Poetry Friday: Love After Love by Derek Walcott

Do you know what's lovely about getting older? Finding out what a forgiving friend you can be to yourself, what a good friend you've been to you. Discovering, in the last oh-so-many years, that you have painted a sprawling and gorgeous picture, written a story that was worth preserving. 

You have loved others your whole life. Now Derek Walcott and I are reminding you to love you, too. After all, aren't you the one who persevered and made it this far? Feast, reflect, and keep going. 

Love After Love
by Derek Walcott

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

....

(Read the rest — and listen to the poem being read by Jon Kabat-Zinn — here, at The Marginalian. Or go here, to NPR, to hear another lovely reading by Tom Hiddleston.) 

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 Janice Scully has the round-up this week at Salt City Verse. 

Poetry Friday: "Throwing Children" by Ross Gay

This one, by Ross Gay, was recently in my Inbox (thanks to Poem-a-Day at Poets.org). I loved it and couldn't wait to share it with you. 

Throwing Children

by Ross Gay

It is really something when a kid who has a hard time becomes a kid who’s having a good time in no small part thanks to you throwing that kid in the air again and again on a mile long walk home from the Indian joint as her mom looks sideways at you like you don’t need to keep doing this because you’re pouring with sweat and breathing a little bit now you’re getting a good workout but because the kid laughs like a horse up there laughs like a kangaroo beating her wings against the light because she laughs like a happy little kid and when coming down and grabbing your forearm to brace herself for the time when you will drop her which you don’t and slides her hand into yours as she says for the fortieth time the fiftieth time inexhaustible her delight again again again and again and you say give me til the redbud tree or

....

(Read the rest of this utterly delightful poem here, at Poets.org.) 

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 Robyn Hood Black is rounding us up for Poetry Friday at Life on the Deckle Edge. 

Poetry Friday: Morning, by Mary Oliver

Happy Poetry Friday! I missed last week again due to some family medical stuff but I'm here now, it's Friday, and there's poetry out there that's demanding to be read. Let's read it. 

Here are two short poems by Mary Oliver about morning: 

Morning
by Mary Oliver 

Salt shining behind its glass cylinder.
Milk in a blue bowl. The yellow linoleum.
The cat stretching her black body from the pillow.
The way she makes her curvaceous response to the small, kind gesture.

....

(Read the rest here.) 

A Thousand Mornings
by Mary Oliver 

All night my heart makes its way
however it can over the rough ground
of uncertainties, but only until night
....

(Read the rest here.)

And if you love Mary Oliver, check out the new audiobook Wild and Precious: A Celebration of Mary Oliver, from Pushkin. I just downloaded it and can't wait to listen. 

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The Poetry Friday round-up this week is being hosted by the fantabulous Linda B. at TeacherDance. 

Photo courtesy of Eszter Miller at Pixabay. 

Also? May the exquisite poet, Gordon Lightfoot, rest in peace. I loved him so.