49° and Clear
Image
photo credit Anjelkam on VisualHunt.com
National Poetry Month was launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996. For the rest of April, each day we will publish a poem: your favorite poem--one of your own or one by a published author.
Send your poem to janeEstahl@comcast.net with a sentence or two about yourself as the author or why the poem is among your favorites. And stay tuned for announcements of local poetry readings in the area that you may wish to attend to celebrate the integral role poets play in our culture.
by Hiram Larew
from This Week @ Flapper Press with thanks to publisher Elizabeth Gracen,
There’s no telling when you’ll need them. And there’s still less accounting for their remarkable flavors.
But, you know as well as I do that poems have always been the very treat we need—a gift to all of our senses and times. Yes, their tart-sweetness is the ripe we deserve. Especially just now.
So, as you will or as you may, walk those orchards where poems abound on branches. With birds just above. And with full skies behind.
Then pick one or two—the ones that are winking.
Most of all, linger. Devote what time you can to savoring poetry plums—their bright-dark colors, those juices. From the skin to the stone. Trust them completely for all they are worth.
And of course, carry some home. For later. As your day turns its corner.
And as you care to, join me with napkin in hand in thanking Mr. Williams for his poem:
This Is Just to Say
~ William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
Copyright Credit: William Carlos Williams, ''This Is Just to Say'' from The Collected Poems: Volume I, 1909–1939, copyright ©1938 by New Directions Publishing Corp.
~ Hiram Larew, founder of the informal Poetry X Hunger initiative created in 2017 as a way to bring two areas of interest—poetry and hunger prevention—together. Upon retiring from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he helped guide international agriculture programs, he noticed that relatively little poetry about hunger was available. Believing in the power of poetry to touch hearts and minds, he launched Poetry X Hunger as a way to encourage poets to write about hunger.
Flapper Press is an online magazine featuring poetry & writing, art, advice, opinion, in-depth interviews & inspiring content from writers and artists around the world.
To order his newest book of poetry, This Much Very, and to read more about Hiram and his work, visit his websites:
Review below from www.HiramLarewPoetry.com
This Much Very by Hiram Larew invites you to stretch beyond the expected. This is poetry where the familiar is wrapped in something strange and the strange becomes a doorway into something unpredictable.
Larew’s verses whisper, sing, and sometimes shout, all while pulling you deeper into the rhythm of their peculiar charm. The themes here—connection, time, longing—areexplored with a light poetic touch.
The language in this chapbook bends and curls in ways that feel at once new and timeless, with just a twist of phrase. Whether you’re a lover of lyrical puzzles, a seeker of quiet epiphanies, or someone who enjoys words for the pure joy of how they sound together, This Much Very will speak to you.
No I don’t deserve porches.
In fact I need to tip my hat in love and honor
to every buzzing swarm that’s coming at me
to every wilt or stray.
And I should also surely thank my lucky stars
my blessings
for what last night had its way
with the row of beans out back
in the garden.
—from Wilt or Stray
More News from Boyertown
- Hoagies: a Love Story Mikę Strzelecki and Friends tour local sandwich shops reputed the best in Hoagie World ,explore styles of hoagie-making, and satisfy a longing for their favorites.
- Linda Jacobs' Childhood Memory Captured in "That Stormy Night" A prized memory with her father was created for Linda Jacobs during a "dark and stormy night."
