poetry

  • Beautiful in the Mouth: On the Reading and Writing of Poetry

     What is a poem on a page but a Field of Light and Shadow where For Love of Common of Words, A Radiant Curve catches 19 Varieties of Gazelle gazing into Darkening Water becoming Human Dark with Sugar going Heart First into the Forest Meaning a Cloud, Torn Awake is coming to be torch song… Continue reading

  • A Mother’s Day tribute

    My love for books was instilled in me by my mom when I was a child. Mom became a high school librarian when I was an elementary school student. She would always bring home books that she checked out from her library for my siblings and me. We were extremely lucky to have books to… Continue reading

  • Poets at Play

    Did you know that, Langston Hughes has the distinction of being at the top of the list of the most popular historical poets? This little gem was discovered on the Academy of American Poets website, which keeps a list of the most popular contemporary and historical poets. Known for his poetry, Hughes wrote the celebrated… Continue reading

  • Shelf Talks with local poet Megan Snyder-Camp

    We recently interviewed Megan Snyder-Camp, local Seattle poet and author of The Forest of Sure Things (Tupelo Press, 2010), about her craft and literary inspiration. One piece of advice many writers hear is “write what you know.” Do you take that advice? What advice have you found useful? I think we need invention to approach… Continue reading

  • The Poetry Lesson, by Andrew Codrescu

    If you already are an Andrei Codrescu aficionado, have read any of his books (26 titles are available in The Seattle Public Library Catalog), listen to his weekly commentaries on NPR, then you’ll delight in The Poetry Lesson, his latest publication by the Princeton University Press that recently hit bookstores and libraries. One may hope… Continue reading

  • This reading series has roots!

    This Thursday night, Ballard Branch Library co-sponsors one of the longest running reading series in our city: It’s About Time Writers Reading Series #258 Esther Helfgott will emcee this 2nd Thursday reading, #258 in a monthly series that stretches back a few decades.  Esther, one of Seattle’s literary treasures and a writer herself, has nurtured… Continue reading

  • Everybody has a favorite poem — or two!

    Maybe it is that e.e. cummings poem that starts Spring is like a perhaps hand (which comes carefully out of Nowhere)… Or it could be an Emily Dickinson poem that begins The brain — is wider than the sky… Was it a Yeats poem you remember? I went out to the hazel wood/ Because a… Continue reading

  • Poetry in Fremont

    In April our minds turn to poetry. This coming Saturday, April 2, the Washington Poets Association and The Seattle Public Library will bring three wonderful poets to read at the Fremont Branch Library: Joan Swift, Dennis Caswell, and Peter Pereira… Here are their thoughts as April approaches. Joan Swift says of poetry: At night, while trying… Continue reading

  • Uncertainty

    I remember the first time I saw Splendor in the Grass I cried hysterically. I saw it at a time in my life when the one relationship I thought I would be in forever had ended. I was at a crossroads and didn’t know who I was or what was going to happen. The uncertainty… Continue reading

  • My Heart Flooded with Water : Selected Poems by Alfonsina Storni

    Thanks to Orlando Ricardo Menes’ translation of My Heart Flooded with Water : Selected Poems by Alfonsina Starni, Argentine’s most important female poet, an English reader has a chance to get acquainted with some of the most original and beautiful poems written in the two decades of 1919-1938. Storni preceded her call by a generation; a lonely… Continue reading

  • Books on Basho and His Haiku at the Seattle Public Library

    Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) was the most famous poet of Japan’s Edo period (1603-1868). His great contribution to Japanese poetry was that he elevated the haiku to a level of art after it had been part of Japanese culture for hundreds of years. His concepts, insights, and understanding of the art form of haiku influenced generations… Continue reading

  • A poem by one of Seattle’s many poets

    For several years, the Northeast branch has offered a Poetry Contest during April for National Poetry Month. 288 kids, teens and adults participated this year and the Awards Ceremony was held on Tuesday, May 19.  The youngest poet was four years old and the oldest was 84 – it’s quite a multigenerational program! Please visit… Continue reading

  • Got Poems?

    April is more than just the month when sun tries to return to the Seattle skies. It’s also National Poetry Month. What does poetry mean to you? For some of us, we recall that haiku writing assignment in elementary school. Then there’s that familiar and famous line from Robert Frost of “Two roads diverged in a wood,… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Dogs and strays.

    Travels with Charley: In Search of America, by John Steinbeck If this book doesn’t make you want to take a road trip, I don’t know what will. The first paragraph so completely captures the urge to travel that I feel profoundly moved every time I read it. At age 58, Steinbeck sets out to rediscover… Continue reading

  • Finding that elusive poem – Part Two

    In the first part of this tutorial, we asked the question “How do you find a poem, when you know only the title or first line?” The reference tool we used was the Columbia Granger’s Index to Poetry.  Now let’s ask the same question using one of the Seattle Public Library’s popular subscription databases.  After the video,… Continue reading

  • Finding that elusive poem

    How do you find a poem when all you remember is the first line or the title? We have two excellent resources you can use to track down that elusive poem: one in print, the other online. In this post, let’s use the two volumes of the Granger’s Index: The Columbia Granger’s Index to Poetry… Continue reading

  • The Triggering Town by Richard Hugo

    One of my favorite books in our poetry section isn’t a book of poetry at all. Richard Hugo’s The Triggering Town gathers nine brief lectures, essays and “sentimental reminiscences” by the beloved Seattle writer. I’m not a poet and I don’t plan to become one, but Hugo’s ideas are so wise and clear, and his humor and candor… Continue reading

  • Want to Write?

    Are you an aspiring writer? Maybe, like me, you used to do a lot of creative writing when you were younger but somehow don’t find the time now. Well, there are a number of aids to help you get into (or back into) the writing habit. First of all, free creative writing classes are popping… Continue reading