Feeding the Birds By John Kaufman for W.S. Merwin Here in the city we try to remember the birds, offering seed to nourish nothing but flight and song. We have sown plants and trees to nullify the lawn and streets… Read More ›
Poetry
American Life in Poetry Column 498 by Ted Kooser
Welcome to American Life in Poetry. For information on permissions and usage, or to download a PDF version of the column, visit http://www.americanlifeinpoetry.org. ****************************** American Life in Poetry: Column 498 BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE Here’s a… Read More ›
Silent for the Summer
Posts on The Afternoon Journal will resume in September with a more national, diverse perspective. In the meantime, please see the list of the most recent posts and comments (as well as archived content) in the left sidebar. JK
Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry: Column 476
American Life in Poetry: Column 476 BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE Parents and children. Sometimes it seems that’s all there is to life. In this poem Donna Spector, from New York state, gives us a ride that many… Read More ›
New Poems by Rebecca Kylie Law
[Today I’m pleased to present three new poems by Australian poet Rebecca Kylie Law. The poems were submitted to The Afternoon Journal and are published for the first time. Please note the copyright: All rights reserved.] For St Francis… Read More ›
For Earth Day: “Beauty and Truth”
Beauty and Truth Windows let in spring’s bare light, the early drab before leaf and petal glamorize the season. I must refrain from reason now– this art a beautiful indirection that gets somewhere somehow, that lets virtue bloom, crocuses… Read More ›
Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry”: Column 474
American Life in Poetry: Column 474 BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE Let’s celebrate the first warm days of spring with a poem for mushroom hunters, this one by Amy Fleury, who lives in Louisiana. First Morel Up from… Read More ›
Mending the Wall: American Media and Poetry
April is National Poetry Month, and for the next few weeks the art of poetry will be celebrated across the nation in ways that may help Americans to better appreciate it. But the one place Americans are not likely to… Read More ›
“On Humpty Dumpty”
On Humpty Dumpty Tyrants of egg-headed ambiguity raise walls of anti-prose, well-trained indecipherable code down which readers will fall and fail like an egg shattered after a spectacular crash. A spectacle for sure, and yet no way to put them whole with horses… Read More ›
Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry”: Column 471
American Life in Poetry: Column 471 BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE (2004-2006) Despite having once been bitten by a rabid bat, and survived, much to the disappointment of my critics, I find bats fascinating, and Peggy Shumaker of… Read More ›
Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry” Column 470
American Life in Poetry: Column 470 BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE 2004-2006 Considering that I’m a dog lover, I haven’t included nearly enough dog poems in this column. My own dog, Howard, now in his dotage, has never… Read More ›
Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry”: Column 469
American Life in Poetry: Column 469 BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE The love between parents can be wonderful and mysterious to their children. Robert Hedin, a Minnesota poet and the director of The Anderson Center at Tower View in… Read More ›
A Weekly Poetry Column: Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry”
(U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s poetry column, American Life in Poetry, will appear regularly at The Afternoon Journal.– JK) ****************************** American Life in Poetry: Column 468 BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE Here’s another lovely poem to honor the caregivers… Read More ›
U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s Weekly Poetry Column
American Life in Poetry: Column 425 BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE If we haven’t done it ourselves, we’ve known people who have, it seems: taken a vacation mostly to photograph a vacation, not really looking at what’s there, but… Read More ›
The Pacific 