Saturday Poetry – ‘Grow’ by Ruth Ellen Kocher This week’s Saturday Poetry brings you the soul-stirring poem titled ‘Grow’ by Ruth Ellen Kocher. She is the author of several poetry collections, including godhouse (Omnidawn Press, 2023); Third Voice (Tupelo Press, 2016); domina Un/blued (Tupelo Press, 2013), winner of the PEN Open Book Award and the Dorset Prize; and Desdemona’s Fire (Lotus Press, 1999), winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Award for African American Poets. Describing this poem, she said “at the end of 2020, I conquered some big life goals and looked forward to my future. But 2021 brought the end of a cherished friendship, then my marriage. In November,…

Saturday Poetry – ‘I Love You’ by Sara Teasdale This week’s Saturday Poetry brings you the soul-stirring poem titled ‘I Love You’ by Sara Teasdale. Sara Trevor Teasdale was born on August 8, 1884, in St. Louis, into an old, established, and devout family. She was home-schooled until she was nine and traveled frequently to Chicago, where she became part of the circle surrounding Poetry magazine and Harriet Monroe. Teasdale published Sonnets to Duse, and Other Poems (The Poet Lore Company), her first volume of verse, in 1907. Her second collection, Helen of Troy, and Other Poems (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), followed in 1911, and her third, Rivers to the…

Saturday Poetry – ‘Curious and Counting’ by Arisa White This week’s Saturday Poetry brings you the soul-stirring poem titled ‘Curious and Counting’ by Arisa White.  She explains “I came across this poem in a journal from October 2016. I was amused with its music and strange imagery—so intimate and precise and resonant with historical and religious referents. The poem invites you to be curious and to enjoy the sensations and wonder that it evokes.” Arisa White is the author of Who’s Your Daddy (Augury Books, 2021). A Cave Canem fellow, White serves on the board of directors for Foglifter and Nomadic Press, and is an assistant professor of English and…

Saturday Poetry – ‘She Told Me the Earth Loves Us’ by Anne Haven McDonnell This week’s Saturday Poetry brings you the soul-stirring poem titled ‘She Told Me the Earth Loves Us’ by Anne Haven McDonnell.  She is the author of Breath on a Coal (Middle Creek Press, 2022) and Living with Wolves (Split Rock Press, 2020). She teaches creative writing and climate justice at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. For this edition of Saturday Poetry, we have paired Haven McDonnell’s emotive words with mobile art by the talented @c.serrano.photography with the captivating artwork complementing the poem’s essence beautifully, creating a symphony of emotions. To view the others we have published…

Saturday Poetry – ‘Grow’ by Ruth Ellen Kocher This week’s Saturday Poetry brings you the soul-stirring poem titled ‘Grow’ by Ruth Ellen Kocher. Kocher is the author of several poetry collections, including Third Voice (Tupelo Press, 2016), Ending in Planes (Noemi Press, 2014), and Goodbye Lyric: The Gigans and Lovely Gun (Sheep Meadow Press, 2014). She lives in Colorado. About this poem, she said “At the end of 2020, I conquered some big life goals and looked forward to my future. But 2021 brought the end of a cherished friendship, then my marriage. In November, I found myself in an ambulance on my way to life-saving surgery for a cervical spinal abscess.…

Saturday Poetry – ‘It Begins With the Trees’ by Ada Limón This week’s Saturday Poetry brings you the soul-stirring poem titled ‘It Begins With the Trees’ by Ada Limón. She is the author of The Carrying (Milkweed Editions, 2018) and Bright Dead Things (Milkweed Editions, 2015), which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Limón’s first collection of poetry, Lucky Wreck (Autumn House Press, 2006), was the winner of the 2005 Autumn House Poetry Prize. She is also the author of The Hurting Kind (Milkweed Editions, 2022); The Carrying (Milkweed Editions, 2018); Bright Dead Things (Milkweed Editions, 2015), which was a finalist for the National Book Award; Sharks in the Rivers (Milkweed Editions, 2010); and This Big Fake World (Pearl Editions,…

Saturday Poetry – ‘Enough’ by Andru Defeye This week’s Saturday Poetry brings you the soul-stirring poem titled ‘Enough’ by Andru Defeye.  He is a poet, writer, community organiser, and musician.  In 2021, Defeye was listed by Sacramento Magazine as one of the city’s one hundred business leaders, and was nominated to receive an honorary doctorate from California State University, Sacramento. For this edition of Saturday Poetry, we have paired Defeye’s emotive words with mobile art by the talented @soniabridekirk with the captivating artwork entitled ‘Magical’ complementing the poem’s essence beautifully, creating a symphony of emotions. To view the others we have published in this section, go here. via Poets.org ‘Enough’ by Andru Defeye…

Saturday Poetry – ‘To The Sea’ by Anis Mojgani This week’s Saturday Poetry brings you the soul-stirring poem titled ‘To The Sea’ by Anis Mojgani. He is the author of five books of poetry, most recently The Tigers, They Let Me (Write Bloody, 2023). “This poem comes from how things in ourselves we are sometimes self-conscious about are often things in us that others love, and also speaks to the humanness of wanting to be known by and to know others. A person in my life whom I love often says she is rambling when she seemingly starts to ramble, and, between her being a quiet person and me loving…

Saturday Poetry – ‘In the House with No Doors’ by Sarah Kay This week’s Saturday Poetry brings you the soul-stirring poem titled ‘In the House with No Doors’ by Sarah Kay. She is the author of four poetry books, including All Our Wild Wonder (Hachette Books, 2018) and The Type (Hachette Books, 2016). “I have an annual tradition which involves a large group of friends gathering together in a small house for a weekend. We are too old and there are too many of us to justify the way we cram into this tiny house—filling every corner, sleeping on couches and floors, and staying up too late, but it is…

Saturday Poetry – ‘Scaffolding’ by Seamus Heaney This week’s Saturday Poetry brings you the soul-stirring poem titled ‘Scaffolding’ by Seamus Heaney. Born in Ireland in 1939, Seamus Heaney was the author of numerous poetry collections, including Human Chain (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010). He split his time between Dublin, Ireland, and Boston, where he taught at Harvard University for many years. In 1995, Heaney received the Nobel Prize in Literature. For this edition of Saturday Poetry, we have paired Heaney’s emotive words with mobile art by the talented @linmay191 with the captivating artwork untitled complementing the poem’s essence beautifully, creating a symphony of emotions. To view the others we have published in this…