Whether or not you will be welcoming the arrival of March

By Steven Brodsky

… March will be here soon.

It’s never too early or too late a date to enjoy this Emily Dickinson poem: https://poets.org/poem/dear-march-come-1320.

Posted 2-25-25

Disattired

By Steven Brodsky

… is this adaptively “wise” tree:

It’ll “stand sleeping in the cold” tonight.

Not easy (and unlikely) for most poets: to write with the level of poetic eloquence and concision that William Carlos Williams did in this ten-line poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45504/winter-trees.

While the “wise” trees will do what they will in the remaining nights of this winter, wise and dedicated writers will be striving to improve their writing ability.

Posted 2-23-25

The last vestige of light is present on these woods

By Steven Brodsky

… at the start of this snowy evening.

Though I would like to linger at these woods, it wouldn’t be expedient: there are “promises to keep” and “miles to go before I sleep.”

The words between quotation marks in the above paragraph are those of the speaker in this poem by Robert Frost: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42891/stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening.

I have to move on from these woods and this post.

Thanks for stopping by.

Posted 2-12-25

A biblical admonition for writers and/or bookworms

By Steven Brodsky

Writers and/or bookworms (many writers are bookworms) may find  Ecclesiastes 12:12 to be a catalyst to offset effects of excessive sedentary time with healthful activities.

Ecclesiastes 12:12: “And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”

Be well!

Posted 2-10-25

To take us into February

By Steven Brodsky

… Dar Williams’ beautiful “February”:

May we come to regard the coming month as a month that was accompanied by much beauty and love.

And, to the writers among us: may you successfully express some of what comes your way in February on paper and screens.

Posted 1-31-25

In the closing hours of 2024, headwinds are in the forecast for January  

By Steven Brodsky

… for some of the writers among us.

You may have experienced first-month-of-the-year headwinds before.

It’s clear that the speaker in William Carlos Williams’ “January” has.

Note the first word of the poem: “Again.”

January by William Carlos Williams – Poems | Academy of American Poets

Good luck to those of you who will be writing through headwinds in January.

Happy New Year.

Posted 12-31-24

Christina Rossetti’s ‘A Christmas Carol’

By Steven Brodsky

…was an outflow of Christina Rossetti’s having given her heart to Jesus (read Rosetti’s “A Christmas Carol,” and take note of the words in the last line of the poem): A Christmas Carol | The Poetry Foundation.

Christina Rossetti | The Poetry Foundation 

The poem was not written by a woman with a stony heart.

What can God do for a person with a stony heart?

Ezekiel 36:26: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”

Posted 12-21-24

Ted Kooser’s ‘Christmas Mail’

By Steven Brodsky

… linked here for our holiday season enjoyment, before the Christmas rush gets fully underway: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55886/christmas-mail.

The Christmas cards that the mail carrier in the poem delivers have transportive power, as does the poem: they take us to a special time and place.

Season’s greetings to all of you.

May writing that you do on pages, screens, and on holiday cards be graced with transportive power.

Ted Kooser served as the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2004-2006. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2005.

Posted 12-8-24

Serviceably macabre

By Steven Brodsky

… for Halloween enjoyment is Robert W. Service’s “The Cremation of Sam McGee”: The Cremation of Sam McGee | The Poetry Foundation.

This was recorded by Johnny Cash at Cash’s home:

Did the story of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and a fourth person in a fiery furnace “walking in the midst of the fire” told in Daniel 3:16-28 help inspire Robert W. Service (January 16, 1874 – September 11, 1958) to write “The Cremation of Sam McGee”? I’d tell you if I knew.

Posted 10-11-24

When the world was newer to all of us

By Steven Brodsky

… some of this column’s readers experienced the gathering of leaves in grade school.

Gathering Leaves in Grade School | The Poetry Foundation

A memory of gathering leaves as a child may have been dormant till now, as dormant as a deciduous tree that will have shed all of its leaves for winter.

Same can be said about the capacity to enjoy a more youthful sense of wonder while engaged in the non-cleanup (no rake in sight) activity of gathering leaves.

Posted 9-29-24

O column readers

By Steven Brodsky

…  Walt Whitman was born 185 years ago, on May 31, 1839.

In commemoration of Walt Whitman’s birthday, enjoy:

O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman (read by Tom O’Bedlam) (youtube.com)

Posted 5-31-24

A ‘wordless’ special encounter

By Steven Brodsky

… with a heron or other wild animal can compel a person to write about the experience “over and over again.”

A compelling poem, Hayden Carruth’s “THE HERON”: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=39844.

Posted 5-9-24

A winged writing prompt

By Steven Brodsky

… prompted by Emily Dickinson’s “Fame is a bee” (linked below):

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52139/fame-is-a-bee-1788

No telling when this prompt will take wing and disappear from this page.

Emily Dickinson did not experience the sting of fame; she was not famous during her lifetime.

Posted 5-4-24

Curiosity

By Steven Brodsky

… can prime an artist’s creative pump (yes, the proverbial cat that possessed this trait now comes to mind).

Posted 4-23-24

In commemoration of the birthday of Robert Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963)

By Steven Brodsky

… Let’s enjoy Robert Frost’s “Birches”:

“Birches” by Robert Frost (read by Tom O’Bedlam) (youtube.com)

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44260/birches

“Birches,” a song by Bill Morrissey, had been referenced in the main section of this column. I believe that Bill Morrissey probably titled the song as a nod to the same-named Robert Frost poem. Bill Morrissey spoke of the impact of Robert Frost’s poetry in an interview: “And then, as I got older, people like Robert Frost really hit me.” Bill Morrissey’s “Birches”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5n5ceAv_Bc&ab_channel=BillMorrissey-Topic. I never had an opportunity to interview Bill Morrissey.

Posted 3-26-24

A recitation of  W.H. Auden’s ‘O What Is That Sound’

By Steven Brodsky

… A great recitation of this unsettling poem:

Tomorrow is the birthday of W.H. Auden (February 21, 1907 – September 29, 1973).

Posted 2-20-24

Tracked and found a lost dog

By Steven Brodsky

… during a recent snowfall.

After finding the dog, turned around and noticed the tracks of the dog and my own in the snow “stretched out upon the world.”

Blizzard by William Carlos Williams | Poetry Foundation

The dog was returned to its owner.

Posted 2-15-24

Longing to be ‘lost’ in a romantic interest

By Steven Brodsky

… the condition of the speaker of “I Am Not Yours,” a poem by Sara Teasdale (1884 – 1933): https://poets.org/poem/i-am-not-yours.

The first-person character of Paul Simon’s “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” does not have that condition:

48 years ago, on February 7, 1976, “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first of three weeks.

The poem and song are referenced here in advance of Valentine’s Day.

Posted 2-7-24

Poe’s ‘Alone’

By Steven Brodsky

In recognition of Poe’s birthday tomorrow, reposting:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46477/alone-56d 2265f2667d

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Co01IZRhi0&ab_channel=SpokenVerse

Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809.

It’s opportune to also reshare this with you:

Posted 1-18-24

‘Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes’

By Steven Brodsky

No need to tell this slant: the above recitation appears here in commemoration of Emily Dickinson’s 193rd birthday tomorrow, as does this link: Tell all the truth but tell it slant — (1263) by… | Poetry Foundation.

Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830.

Billy Collins, author of the poem “Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes,” is a former Poet Laureate of the United States.

Posted 12-9-23

Edith Bunker (the character from ‘All in the Family’ played by Jean Stapleton) would probably have been delighted

By Steven Brodsky

…  if she’d known that we’d be welcoming this Thanksgiving by reading the linked poem by one of her favorite poets, Edgar Albert Guest: Thanksgiving by Edgar Albert Guest | Poetry Foundation.

Have a happy and thankful Thanksgiving!

Posted 11-21-23

Ray Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012) was born 103 years ago

By Steven Brodsky

… In commemoration of Ray Bradbury’s birthday, enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W-r7ABrMYU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU51N2s3B78

Posted 8-22-23

It can be very beneficial to take notice of, and appreciate, the ‘stuff that works.’

By Steven Brodsky

… To remind us about “stuff that works”:

Were you to write about the “stuff that works” in your life, what might you include? (Rhetorical question.)

Posted 4-3-23

‘The work of a writer, his continuing work, depends for breath of life on a certain privacy of heart.’

By Steven Brodsky

… Yes. For the purpose of maintaining “a certain privacy of heart,” will leave it at that; no flippancy is intended.

The quotation is that of Tennessee Williams. It appears in New Selected Essays: Where I Live.

It’s presented here in commemoration of the birthday of Tennessee Williams this coming Sunday. He was born on March 26, 1911.

Posted 3-24-23

The musicality of ‘The Highwayman’ poem, by Alfred Noyes (September 16, 1880 – June 25, 1958)

By Steven Brodsky

… was beautifully expressed by Phil Ochs: The Highwayman – YouTube. Phil Ochs wrote the music.

Read the poem aloud; it’s not difficult to hear its musicality and to see the gorgeous imagery conjured by: “The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas.”

You’ll find the poem here: The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes – Poems | Academy of American Poets.

Upon seeing the moon on special evenings, people sometimes sing the quoted line from the Noyes poem in the manner that Phil Ochs did on the linked recording, implicitly acknowledging the effectiveness of the poem and the song.

Posted 1-27-23

One can only imagine

By Steven Brodsky

… how great Hubert Selby Jr.’s novel Seeds of Pain, Seeds of Love (the working title) would be if the novel had been completed.

Revisiting this reading by Selby of a few pages from the incomplete manuscript of the novel because the pages and the reading are powerful and not everyone here now watched the reading when a link to it was originally posted, and because the writing exemplifies what can be achieved by someone who never completed formal education beyond the eighth grade and who had some huge personal challenges, and because I hope that the reading will inspire writing by some of you, but be aware that the reading contains a depiction of violence upon a juvenile by a parent and adult language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0wAJ8AFRmQ.

An outstanding documentary about Hubert Selby Jr.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvDJNEcUxfs.

This posting is dedicated to the memory of Dan Fante (February 19, 1944 – November 23, 2015).

Dan Fante was encouraged to write by Hubert Selby Jr.

Have you read Dan Fante’s memoir? It’s titled Fante: A Family’s Legacy of Writing, Drinking and Surviving.

Posted 12-5-22

Seamus Heaney’s father and grandfather used a spade. Seamus Heaney, a squat pen.

By Steven Brodsky

… digging tools.

Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney at Villanova University in April 2010 reading “Digging”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNRkPU1LSUg.

The text of “Digging”: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47555/digging.

Seamus Heaney was born in Northern Ireland on April 13, 1939. He passed away on August 30, 2013.

Posted 2-2-22

Great color choice for the wheelbarrow in a 16-word poem by William Carlos Williams

By Steven Brodsky

… W.C. Williams chose red—an excitatory and perfect color for the wheelbarrow in the poem “The Red Wheelbarrow.”

Had he chosen any other color, the poem’s effectiveness would be greatly diminished.

Read or recite the poem from memory with a different color for the wheelbarrow and check this out for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqIl3oX_44s&ab_channel=awetblackbough

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45502/the-red-wheelbarrow

Posted 8-19-21