Poem of the Day
The ever-evolving COVID-19 situation has disrupted our daily lives, forcing us to adapt to new realities of quarantine and social distancing. As plans and routines are put aside, many of us find ourselves with unusually large amounts of free time. Rather than be paralyzed by boredom, the Hart Leadership Program invites you to use this newfound time as an opportunity for reflection. Critical reflection is critical for leadership development and is something we emphasize in our courses. Reflection helps us make sense of the world and our role in it.
We also know that poets and poetry have a long track record of expanding our capacity for seeing and understanding complexity, and for discovering insight, empathy, and a capacity to act in the face of unmoving obstacles.
To that end, we are featuring a new resource at Hart: a poem of the day, which can be found and read here, as well as on our Facebook page. We are fortunate to have the wisdom and leadership of Hart Professor and creative writing teacher Faulkner Fox to lead us in this project. Each morning, we will post a new a poem, while previous poems will continue to be accessible on our website for as long as social distancing is our watch-word. We strongly encourage you to share any reactions to the poems to info@hart.sanford.duke.edu. Please also pass along poems that have brought you comfort, insight, and strength. Looking to read more comforting poems? Check out the Shelter in Poems initiative.
Thursday, August 6th – “fleeing” by Kara Jackson
Wednesday, August 5th – “I started Early – Took my Dog – (656)” by Emily Dickinson
Tuesday, August 4th – “A Word on Statistics” by Wisława Szymborska
Monday, August 3rd – “Kiss” by Indran Amirthanayagam
Sunday, August 2nd – “Stand Up” by Joshuah Brian Campbell & Cynthia Erivo
Saturday, August 1st – “Lyric” by Khaled Mattawa
Friday, July 31st – “To a Young Poet” by Mahmoud Dariwsh
Thursday, July 30th – “Red Wine Spills” by L. Ash Williams
Wednesday, July 29th – “A Ritual to Read Each Other” by William E. Stafford
Tuesday, July 28th – “Making Peace” by Denise Levertov
Monday, July 27th – “This Is Not A Small Voice” by Sonia Sanchez
Sunday, July 26th – “Little Prayer” by Danez Smith
Saturday, July 25th – “The Thing Is” by Ellen Bass
Friday, July 24th – “Fyah Fyah” by Selah Sue
Thursday, July 23rd – “Family Reunion” by Maxine Kunin
Wednesday, July 22nd – “When Puffy says, and we won’ t stop, ’cause we can’t stop.” by Rasheed Copeland
Tuesday, July 21st – “When Night Fills With Premature Exits” by Enzo Silon Surin
Monday, July 20th – “a brief meditation” by Yesenia Montilla
Sunday, July 19th – “Let Everything Happen to You” by Natalie Eilbert
Saturday, July 18th – “War” by Bob Marley
Friday, July 17th – “Wind, Water, Stone” by Octavio Paz
Thursday, July 16th – “Clouds” by Stephen Dobyns
Wednesday, July 15th – “Goodbye to Tolerance” by Denise Levertov
Tuesday, July 14th – “There Are Birds Here” by Jamaal May
Monday, July 13th – “Walking, Blues” by Jane Mead
Sunday, July 12th – “Everything is Everything” by Lauryn Hill
Saturday, July 11th – “The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog” by Alicia Ostriker
Friday, July 10th – “What is Water?” by Danielle Legros Georges
Thursday, July 9th – “Complaint of El Río Grande” by Richard Blanco
Wednesday, July 8th – “The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry
Tuesday, July 7th – “The Idea of Order at Key West” by Wallace Stevens
Monday, July 6th – “Why I Don’t Write About George Floyd” by Toi Derricotte
Sunday, July 5th – “On Sullivan’s Island” by Malcolm Tariq
Saturday, July 4th – “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by James Weldon Johnson
Friday, July 3rd – “Pedestrian Crossing, Charlottesville” by Rita Dove
Thursday, July 2nd – “Que Sera Sera” by A. Van Jordan
Wednesday, July 1st – “Elegy for the Native Guards” by Natasha Trethewey
Tuesday, June 30th – “Photo of a Girl on a Beach” by Carmen Giménez Smith
Monday, June 29th – “From the Dunes” by Cynthia Huntington
Sunday, June 28th – “The Bridge Poem” by Kate Rushin
Saturday, June 27th – “The Colonel” by Carolyn Forché
Friday, June 26th – “ars pasifika” by Craig Santos Perez
Thursday, June 25th – “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes
Wednesday, June 24th – “Dad Poem (Ultrasound #2)” by Joshua Bennett
Tuesday, June 23rd – “Pigeon and Hawk” by Marilyn Nelson
Monday, June 22nd – “Say This Isn’t The End” by Richard Blanco
Sunday, June 21st – “Dream Variations” by Langson Hughes
Saturday, June 20th – “Rain” by Claudia Rankine
Friday, June 19th – “Emancipation” by Priscilla Jane Thompson
Thursday, June 18th – “In the Company of Women” by January Gill O’Neil
Wednesday, June 17th – “Let Evening Come” by Jane Kenyon
Tuesday, June 16th – “for grandma” by Jaki Shelton Green
Monday, June 15th – “Praise” by Angelo Geter
Sunday, June 14th – “Streams of Living Justice” by William Whitla
Saturday, June 13th – “Let Them Not Say” by Jane Hirshfield
Friday, June 12th – “Recreation” by Audre Lorde
Thursday, June 11th – from “A Coda to History” by Kwame Dawes and John Kinsella
Wednesday, June 10th – “In This Place (An American Lyric)” by Amanda Gorman
Tuesday, June 9th – “Give Your Daughters Difficult Names” by Assétou Xango
Monday, June 8th – “The Beauty That Is Never Old” by James Weldon Johnson
Sunday, June 7th – “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” by Gil Scott-Heron
Saturday, June 6th – “After Arguing Against the Contention That Art Must Come From Discontent” by William E. Stafford
Friday, June 5th – “The President Flies Over” by Patricia Smith
Thursday, June 4th – “You Are Who I Love” by Aracelis Girmay
Wednesday, June 3rd – “Frederick Douglass” by Robert Hayden
Tuesday, June 2nd – “won’t you celebrate with me” by Lucille Clifton
Monday, June 1st – “untitled” by Randi Simpkins
Sunday, May 31st – “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou
Saturday, May 30th – “Ella’s Song” by Bernice Johnson Reagon
Friday, May 29th – “Briefly It Enters, and Briefly Speaks” by Jane Kenyon
Thursday, May 28th – “Black Matters” by Keith Wilson
Wednesday, May 27th – “no preponderance” by Hiwot Adilow
Monday, May 25th and Tuesday, May 26th – “Unusual Tightrope” by A.H. Jerriod Avant
Sunday, May 24th – “Petition” by Dilruba Ahmed
Saturday, May 23rd – “When I Am Asked” by Lisel Mueller
Friday, May 22nd – “Eating Poetry” by Mark Strand
Thursday, May 21st – “Peanut Butter” by Eileen Myles
Wednesday, May 20th – “I Have News For You” by Tony Hoagland
Tuesday, May 19th – “Blackberrying” by Sylvia Plath
Monday, May 18th – “Last Body” by Mai Der Vang
Sunday, May 17th – “You Mean You Don’t Weep at the Nail Salon?” by Elizabeth Acevedo
Saturday, May 16th – “Self Portrait with Profanity” by Safia Elhillo
Friday, May 15th – “Thanks” by W.S. Merwin
Thursday, May 14th – “Requiem for a Nest” by Wanda Coleman
Wednesday, May 13th – “The Definition of Gardening” by James Tate
Tuesday, May 12th – Bottom speaking in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare
Monday, May 11th – “Keeping Quiet” by Pablo Neruda
Sunday, May 10th – “the mother” by Gwendolyn Brown
Saturday, May 9th – “Shaking the Grass” by Janice N. Harrington
Friday, May 8th – “Bullet Points” by Jericho Brown
Thursday, May 7th – “Like You” by Roque Dalton
Wednesday, May 6th – “Continue” by Maya Angelou
Tuesday, May 5th – “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” by William Wordsworth
Monday, May 4th – “When Giving Is All We Have” by Alberto Ríos
Sunday, May 3rd – “Poetic Subjects” by Rebecca Lindenberg
Saturday, May 2nd – “What to Eat, What to Drink, and What to Leave for Poison” by Camille T. Dungy
Friday, May 1st – “This Be The Verse” by Philip Larkin
Thursday, April 30th – “Quarantine” by Eavan Boland
Wednesday, April 29th – “You Can Have It” by Philip Levine
Tuesday, April 28th – “Small Kindnesses” by Danusha Laméris
Monday, April 27th – “Furious Cooking” by Maureen Seaton
Sunday, April 26th – “Poet Dances with Inanimate Object” by Cornelius Eady
Saturday, April 25th – “Choices” by Tess Gallagher
Friday, April 24th – “Her Kind” by Anne Sexton
Thursday, April 23rd – “Hotel” by Guillaume Apollinaire
Wednesday, April 22nd – “The Voice of God” by Crystal Williams
Tuesday, April 21st – “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop
Monday, April 20th – “Rite of Passage” by Sharon Olds
Sunday, April 19th – “Any and All” by Joseph Lawrence
Saturday, April 18th – “Some Rules” by Wendy Cope
Friday, April 17th – “High Treason” by José Emilio Pacheco
Thursday, April 16th – “Tomorrow, At Dawn” by Victor Hugo
Wednesday, April 15th – “Alone for a Week” by Jane Kenyon
Tuesday, April 14th – “Dawn Revisited” by Rita Dove
Monday, April 13th – “What the Living Do” by Marie Howe
Sunday, April 12th – “anna speaks of the childhood of mary her daughter” by Lucille Clifton
Saturday, April 11th – “The Place Where We Are Right” by Yehuda Amichai
Friday, April 10th – “If I Didn’t Live” by Gioconda Belli
Thursday, April 9th – “Grace” by Craig Arnold
Wednesday, April 8th – “I’m Learning Nothing This Night” by Reginald Dwayne Betts
Tuesday, April 7th – “Broom” by Deborah Digges
Monday, April 6th – “Strictly Speaking” by David Rivard
Sunday, April 5th – “Once by the Pacific” by Robert Frost
Saturday, April 4th – “Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper” by Martín Espada
Friday, April 3rd – “Mercy (After Nikki Giovanni)” by Rudy Francisco
Thursday, April 2nd – “The Attic” by Cynthia Huntington
Wednesday, April 1st – “Lake Echo, Dear” by C. D. Wright
Tuesday, March 31st – “Instructions on Not Giving Up” by Ada Limón
Monday, March 30th – “Eagle Poem” by Joy Harjo
Sunday, March 29th – “An Old Story” by Tracy K. Smith
Saturday, March 28th – “Love After Love” by Derek Walcott
Friday, March 27th – “Danse Russe” by William Carlos Williams
Thursday, March 26th – “I Am Offering This Poem” by Jimmy Santiago Baca
Wednesday, March 25th – “Ars Poetica #100: I Believe” by Elizabeth Alexander
Tuesday, March 24th – “North American Time” by Adrienne Rich
Monday, March 23rd – “Trying to Name What Doesn’t Change” by Naomi Shihab Nye
Sunday, March 22nd – “Concerning That Prayer I Cannot Make” by Jane Mead
Saturday, March 21st – “This Room and Everything in It” by Li-Young Lee
Friday, March 20th – “blessing the boats” by Lucille Clifton