POETRY REVIEWS
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“By logic and reason we die hourly; by imagination we live”. ~ W.B. Yeats Read more
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Here in the North Country, we had a few days of 50-degree weather, but yesterday it snowed again. Those few days of warmth, though, were a foretaste of the feast to come. We are told that ICE is drawing down its numbers here in Minnesota, but reports on the ground remain unclear as to whether… Read more
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In the rabbinical tradition, at times of calamity and great suffering, Jews are advised to read three books: The fact that the most important passages of these books were written in poetry is no accident. For it is poetry, and poetry alone, that can truly give voice to the utterances of our hearts. “How lonely sits the… Read more
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Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. – Carl Sandburg Read more
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Throwback Thursdays” at ClimbingSky feature posts I wrote over a 15 year period for various blogs. This was first posted on January 22, 2011. William Carlos Williams said he modeled his original form and style of poetry on the language that he heard ordinary people using in his day to day life as a doctor. One of… Read more
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If I were ever to teach a class to aspiring American poets, I would have one required text: the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. Hemingway famously wrote in The Green Hills of Africa that all modern American fiction comes from one book, Huckleberry Finn. A similar thing can be said for Walt Whitman and the 1855 edition of Leaves… Read more
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Joy Harjo (b. 1951) was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was the 23rd United States Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2022, the first Native American to hold that honor. Her poetry is generally characterized by: Here is one of my favorite Harjo poems, “Eagle Poem.” Enjoy! EAGLE POEM by Joy HarjoTo pray you open your… Read more
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Poetry is not a matter of feelings, it is a matter of language. It is language which creates feelings. -Umberto Eco Read more
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Throwback Thursdays” at ClimbingSky feature posts I wrote over a 15 year period for various blogs. This was first posted on January 1, 2011. On another snowy Minnesota morning, this poem by Rilke comes to mind as we “walk” into another new year. In my early 20s, Rilke was a favorite poet. In the many moves I… Read more
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“A strange land we wandered to eastern horizonsWhere blueness of mountains swam in their blue–In blue beyond name.” Robert Penn Warren is probably remembered more today as a novelist than as a poet. While it is true that he did win the Pulitzer Prize in 1946 for his famous novel All the King’s Men, he actually… Read more
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