"The Waking" by Theodore Roethke - Video : The Poetry Foundation

Watch and listen as Tom Moran reads his favorite poem, 'The Waking' by Theodore Roethke - Video

Theodore Roethke : The Poetry Foundation

"Boy and Egg" by Naomi Shihab Nye : The Poetry Foundation

Read this poem by Naomi Shihab Nye, a poem that is good for children: Boy and Egg

Naomi Shihab Nye : The Poetry Foundation

"Blackberry-Picking" by Seamus Heaney : The Poetry Foundation

Read this poem by Seamus Heaney, a poem that is good for children: Blackberry-Picking

Seamus Heaney : The Poetry Foundation

"Reward of Service" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I dedicate this poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning to the memory of my mother Evelyn M. Gilmer (1923-2016). This was one of her favorite poems about love and friendship.


REWARD OF SERVICE
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The sweetest lives are those to duty wed,
Whose deeds both great and small
Are close-knit strands of an unbroken thread,
Where love ennobles all.
The world may sound no trumpets, ring no bells,
The Book of Life the slurring record tells.

Thy love shall chant its own beatitudes,
After its own like working. A child's kiss
Set on thy singing lips shall make thee glad;
A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich;
A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong;
Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense
Of service which thou renderest.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning : The Poetry Foundation

"Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798" by William Wordsworth : The Poetry Foundation

Read one of my late mother Evelyn M. Gilmer's favorite poems, this poem by one of her favorite poets, English poet William Wordsworth: Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798

William Wordsworth : The Poetry Foundation

Hymn: "Crossing the Bar" (Lyrics by Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

"How It Is" by Maxine W. Kumin : The Poetry Foundation

Read this poem that Maxine Kumin wrote shortly after the death of her closest friend Anne Sexton, and listen to an audio recording of her reading this poem: How It Is: "Shall I say how it is in your clothes? [ . . . ]"

Maxine W. Kumin

"The Way We Said Goodbye" by Mark Vinz : The Poetry Foundation

Read the poem The Way We Said Goodbye by Mark Vinz, a poem about saying goodbye to an old dog.

Chrysanthemum: An Anthology

Poetry

Alfred Noyes reading his poem "The Highwayman"

"In the Coma" by Robert Pinsky : Poetry Magazine

Read the poem In the Coma by Robert Pinsky : Poetry Magazine: "My friend was in a coma, so I dove / Deep into his brain to word him back. I tried / [ . . . ]"

Robert Pinsky : The Poetry Foundation

A Bible quotation on impractical joking

Today is April Fools' Day. Read this Bible quotation on impractical joking. It is one quotation from two versions of the Bible.

As a mad man who casteth firebrands,
Arrows, and death,
So is the man that deceiveth his neighbor,
And saith, "Am not I in sport?"
     -- Proverbs 26:18-19 (King James Version)

A man who deceives another
and then says, 'It was only a joke',
is like a madman shooting at random
his deadly darts and arrows.
     -- Proverbs 26:19, 18 (New English Bible)