Category Archives: Poetry
Greatest
“Some of the greatest poetry is revealing to the reader the beauty in something that was so simple you had taken it for granted.” ~Neil Degrasse Tyson
So Difficult
Coming into Cuzco by Naomi Shihab Nye “Being born is going blind and bowing down a thousand times.” ~Townes Van Zandt We woke early and found the streets already crowded with taxis, travelers, Indians loading yams. At the airport we waited for the plane that would lift us out of those mountains and I was …
Haiku
Excerpted from the FAQs at Celebrity Death Haiku: What is haiku? A poem in three lines,With Seventeen syllablesOf five, seven, five
Muere lentamente
I included the English translation I’ve seen most often at the bottom, but I’m not sure it really captures the nuance of the poet’s original words. But my Spanish isn’t very strong, so I could be wrong. Muere lentamente Martha Medeiros Muere lentamente quien se transforma en esclavo del hábito, repitiendo todos los días …
August 6, 1945
August 6, 1945 by Millen Brand Excerpted from Local Lives: Poems About the Pennsylvania Dutch, ©1975 Fred Braun has just leaned out on a low windowsill that needs painting. There are cracks in it, but so far they have let no rain through. They can wait a little longer. This moment is his to enjoy, …
Murals of Greyscale
A Good Day by Kait Rokowski (website) Yesterday, I spent 60 dollars on groceries, took the bus home, carried both bags with two good arms back to my studio apartment and cooked myself dinner. You and I may have different definitions of a good day. This week, I paid my rent and my credit card …
And it stoned me, to my soul…
The Rainbow by Millen Brand Excerpted from Local Lives: Poems About the Pennsylvania Dutch, ©1975 Herbert Berky tells this story: When he was a boy, he used to work in two hill fields Josephus Gerhard had given his father. “You went up a lane that started between the Borneman place and Uncle John’s, and made …
He Stands
One of the wonderful things about Local Lives: Poems About the Pennsylvania Dutch, ©1975, by Millen Brand, is that it’s not just a book of poems– it’s a local history. Ralph Berky is the real name of a real person, and the poem describes his real life: Ralph Berky by Millen Brand A German of …
Just For a Moment
Elda Maria Smiling by Millen Brand Excerpted from Local Lives: Poems About the Pennsylvania Dutch, ©1975 Elda Maria visits her grandmother in the evening, and there is evening over the aging eyes. Her grandmother thinks, How I loved her father when he was small! And everything about this child is my son again– see him …
Such and such a cabin
I bought this book of poetry on a whim, and have been enchanted from the first page. Millen Brand reminds me of Carl Sandburg, only friendlier: The Last Families in the Cabins by Millen Brand Excerpted from Local Lives: Poems About the Pennsylvania Dutch, ©1975 At a bend in the Bally-Dale road, in a low …
The Life of Mama Fruh
The Life of Mama Fruh by Millen Brand Excerpted from Local Lives: Poems About the Pennsylvania Dutch, ©1975 A day of fall, a windless day when from a summer cornice dogwood hangs its fire of dying leaves over signaling buds. It is Mama Fruh’s birthday. In the kitchen of the large farmhouse she sits with …
Local Lives
I found an amazing book at the used book store: Local Lives: Poems About the Pennsylvania Dutch by Millen Brand, ©1975. He had kept a poetic diary for thirty-four years documenting the real people and real events of the community he lived in, publishing it almost as an afterthought. His character sketches are simply amazing. …
