Kirsten Dierking Guest Post + Giveaways

Kirsten Dierking Guest Post + Giveaways

Kirsten Dierking is the April, Minnesota Author and Poet in the spotlight here on BookSnob and she has just written a lovely post for National Poetry month on ten poems she loves.  I love this guest post and hope you do too.  What are some of your favorite poems?

For National Poetry Month, I thought I would just share ten poems I love.  I have to say, this made me want to do many lists!  (Ten Minnesota Poems I Love, Ten Animal Poems I Love, Ten Poems with Humor I Love, etc.)

1.  Raymond Carver, What the Doctor Said
That waterfall, where a moment of grace and beauty and something mystical beyond corporeal life enters this poem. The way the terrible tragedy of the news is discussed in casual language and with common courtesy - the way we mostly deal with the terrible news in life.

2. Linda Pastan, The Death of a Parent
"suddenly/there is nobody/left standing between you/ and the world"

3. Louis Jenkins, Rock Collecting
I think of the idea of this deceptively simple poem often - the burden of loving something, the freedom of few attachments.

4. John Berryman, #29 from 77 Dream Songs
The first four lines are the best description of depression (or perhaps great loss, grief or sorrow) that I have ever read.

5. Pablo Neruda, Sonnet XVII
An intense love poem about real love:  "I love you simply without problems or pride"

6. Mark Doty, New Dog
"So after I drive
to Jimi and Tony’s
in the Village and they
meet me at the door and say,
We can’t go through with it,

we can’t give up our dog"
~~~
What we love and what we have to give up in our lives - and how we find some way to bear that (dogs help).

7. Jim Moore, It Is Not The Fact That I Will Die That I Mind
That our fierce love for our own, particular world will be lost with us.

8. James Wright, A Blessing
Those last three lines - Wright's ability to convey a transcendent moment of grace in simple words - so very, very difficult to do.

9 . Lucille Clifton Homage to my Hips
Love the empowering tone of this poem, and the humor.

10. Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
The lovely moment of stillness between obligations, the being alone - but not quite (the horse is there), the sound of the harness bells in those snowy woods. That what is dark and deep is lovely.

Thanks Kirsten.

If you would like to win copies of Kirsten's poetry books click here:

One Red Eye Giveaway

Tether Giveaway

Go forth and read poetry!