Charles Wright
The dream of reclusive life, a strict, essential solitude,
Is a younger hermit's dream.
Tuesday, five days till winter, a cold, steady rain.
White hair, white heart. The time's upon us and no exit
East of the lotus leaves.
No exit, you said, and a cold, steady rain.

Indeed.
All those walks by the river, all those goodbyes.
Willows shrink back to brown across Locust Avenue,
The mountains are frost and blue
and fellow travellers.
Give you peace, you said, freedom from ten thousand matters.
And asked again, does fame come only to the ancients?

At the foot of the southern mountains, white clouds pass without end,
You wrote one time in a verse.
They still do, and still without end.
That's it. Just wanted to let you know it hasn't changed—no out, no end,
And fame comes only to the ancients, and justly so,
Rain turning slowly to snow now then back into rain.

Everywhere everywhere, you wrote, something is falling,
The evening mist has no resting place.
What time we waste, wasting time.
Still, I sit still,
The mind swept clean in its secret shade,
Though no monk from any hill will ever come to call.
from the book OBLIVION BANJO / Farrar, Straus and Giroux
READ ABOUT TODAY'S POEM
Share Share
Tweet Tweet
Forward Forward
Portrait of William Wordsworth by Benjamin Robert Haydon
"Lives of the Poets"

"If Wordsworth created, in Keats’s memorable phrase, the 'egotistical sublime' of Romantic poetry, then Lowell helped to found confessionalism—an even more egotistical, if less sublime, style of poetry that doubled down on self-exposure." 
 
via COMMONWEAL
READ ALL TODAY'S HEADLINES
Resources for Supporting and Uplifting the Black Community

My Block, My Hood, My City: "My Block, My Hood, My City provides underprivileged youth with an awareness of the world and opportunities beyond their neighborhood.  We take students on explorations focused on STEM, Arts & Culture, Citizenry & Volunteerism, Health, Community Development, Culinary Arts, and Entrepreneurism."

The Loveland Foundation"With the barriers affecting access to treatment by members of diverse ethnic and racial groups, Loveland Therapy Fund provides financial assistance to Black women and girls nationally seeking therapy."

National Black Disability Coalition "NBDC is dedicated to examining and improving; community leadership, family inclusion, entrepreneurship, civil rights, service delivery systems, education and information and Black disabled identity and culture through the lenses of ableism and racism."
Image of dark blue-black sky spattered with stars from which a figure outlined in stars is emerging
Poetry Daily stands with the Black community. 
We oppose racism, oppression, and police brutality.
We will continue to amplify diverse voices in the poetry world.
Black Lives Matter.
Cover of Eric Pankey's book, Crow-Work
What Sparks Poetry:
Eric Pankey on "Ash"


"As visitors approach the sculpture, the vibration of their feet on the gallery floor, their movements, even their breathing, lead to the slow crumbling and collapse of the work itself. The figure takes on a sense of the sublime and of the divine not so much from its scale, but from its impermanence. Its object-hood, its this-ness, is at every moment in the process of disintegration."
READ THIS WEEK'S ISSUE
You have received this email because you submitted your email address at www.poems.com
If you would like to unsubscribe please click here.

© 2020 Poetry Daily, Poetry Daily, MS 3E4, 4400 University Dr., Fairfax, VA 22030

Design by the Binding Agency