I think every Tuesday is in need of a bit of poetry.
On this, the inaugural Poetry Tuesday, I want to share two of my current favorite poems. Both of them come from a project called Poetry 180. Poetry 180 is a project started by Billy Collins, former poet laureate, in an effort to bring poetry into the lives of high school students. Despite the purpose of the project, these poems aren’t just for high schoolers. There is a Poetry 180 book, but the website has all of the poems on it.
Anyway, here are my two favorites:
#23
Tour
Carol Snow
Near a shrine in Japan he’d swept the path
and then placed camellia blossoms there.
Or — we had no way of knowing — he’d swept the path
between fallen camellias.
#53
Selecting a Reader
Ted Kooser
First, I would have her be beautiful,
and walking carefully up on my poetry
at the loneliest moment of an afternoon,
her hair still damp at the neck
from washing it. She should be wearing
a raincoat, an old one, dirty
from not having money enough for the cleaners.
She will take out her glasses, and there
in the bookstore, she will thumb
over my poems, then put the book back
up on its shelf. She will say to herself,
“For that kind of money, I can get
my raincoat cleaned.” And she will.
Poetry makes me happy.
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