"Hymn to the Belly" by Ben Jonson : The Writer's Almanac

Today on "The Writer's Almanac" with Garrison Keillor, the poem is "Hymn to the Belly" by English dramatist Ben Jonson (1572-1637), whose birthday it is.

Read The Writer's Almanac for June 11, 2018 >>

"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" by Christopher Marlowe : The Writer's Almanac

Today on "The Writer's Almanac" with Garrison Keillor, the poem is "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" by English dramatist Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593).

Read The Writer's Almanac for June 10, 2018 >>

"Oh the gallant Fishers life, . . . " by Izaak Walton, from The Compleat Angler

"The Writer's Almanac" for June 9, 2018

And here is "The Writer's Almanac," with Garrison Keillor, for Saturday, June 9, 2018. It's the birthday of novelist Charles Webb, author of The Graduate, and the birthday of composer Cole Porter. The poem for today is "Oh the gallant Fishers life, . . . " by Izaak Walton, from The Compleat Angler.

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"A Voice from Death" by Walt Whitman

On this day in 1889, according to the Associated Press, "some 2,200 people in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, perished when the South Fork Dam collapsed, sending 20 million tons of water rushing through the town." To read the poem that Walt Whitman, who was born on this day in 1819, wrote about that cataclysm, click here.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

An Observation by Henry David Thoreau on 28 May 1854

On this day in 1854, Henry David Thoreau wrote the following observation in his journal:

It would be worth the while to ask ourselves weekly -- Is our life innocent enough? Do we live inhumanely -- toward man or beast -- in thought or act? To be serene & successful we must be at one with the universe. The least conscious & needless injury inflicted on any creature -- is to its extent a suicide. What peace -- or life -- can a murderer have?

Source: Daily Observations: Thoreau on the Days of the Year (2005), edited by Steve Grant

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Quotation from Shane Claiborne on the teachings of Jesus

"Only Jesus would declare God's blessing on the poor rather than on the rich and would insist that it's not enough to just love your friends. I just began to wonder if anybody still believed Jesus meant those things he said." -- Shane Claiborne, quoted in The Sun magazine (May 2018)

Source of the screenshot above: The Sun magazine on Twitter (May 18, 2018, tweet)