Aug 14, 2021 | Current Ned Note, On Writing, Poetry
August Mary Oliver . . When the blackberries hang swollen in the woods, in the brambles nobody owns, I spendall day among the high branches, reaching my ripped arms, thinking of nothing, cramming the black honey of summer into my mouth; all day my body accepts...
Apr 20, 2021 | Current Ned Note, On Writing, Past Notes, Poetry
By Terrance Hayes Audio: Read by the author. You can be a bother who dyes his hair Dennis Rodman blue in the face of the man kneeling in blue in the face the music of his wrist- watch your mouth is little more than a door being knocked out of the ring of fire around...
Jan 20, 2021 | Current Ned Note, On Writing, Past Notes, Poetry
Amanda Gorman Read at the Presidential Inauguration, January 2021 When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never ending shade? The loss we carry, a sea. We must wade. We’ve braved the belly of the beast. We’ve learned that quiet...
Jan 16, 2021 | Current Ned Note, Past Notes, Poetry
The poet Langston Hughes was a great inspiration to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Examples of their connection are expansive. In 1956, King recited Hughes’ poem “Mother to Son” from the pulpit to honor his wife Coretta, who was celebrating her first Mother’s Day. That...
Dec 23, 2020 | Current Ned Note, On Writing, Poetry
A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.’ And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory, Lying down in the melting snow. There were times we...
Nov 2, 2020 | Current Ned Note, On Writing, Past Notes, Poetry
Invictus was the favorite poem of both American Civil Rights firebrand and revered Senator John Lewis, as well as Nelson Mandela, the long-imprisoned and finally triumphant President of South Africa. It seems appropriate on this date to re-read this poem. BY WILLIAM...
