For Ms. Joanna Macy, this poem exemplifies a way she could continue on a spiritual path while having misgivings about the Church fathers and arcane theological arguments.
Selected Poems
Selected Poems
While mourning the death of her husband, Joanna Macy felt like she was "dipped in beauty" while translating A Year with Rilke. Here's a passage from a letter the poet wrote to Countess Margot Sizzo-Noris-Crouty in 1924 in which she took comfort in her own grief and loss.
Here you can read Derek Walcott's poem recited by Kabat-Zinn, saying a prose statement was "bound to be inadequate" in communicating his point. Download the poem and read along.
Listen to Ms. Alexander recite this poem with and without music. Which one do you like better?
Listen to Ms. Alexander recite this poem with and without music. Which one do you like better?
Listen to Ms. Alexander recite this poem with and without music. Which one do you like better?
Listen to Ms. Alexander recite this poem with and without music. Which one do you like better? In our show she reads this after "Neonatology" and surprises herself with the appropriateness of the pairing.
On the day before the President Obama's inauguration in 2009, Elizabeth Alexander recited this poem on the mall for a soundcheck. And hundreds of people stopped, listened, and clapped.
The last poem of a longer work, Ms. Alexander puts this together with her poem "Autumn Passage" as an example of having those experiences of giving birth and the privilege of sitting with one near the end of life.
In this poem, Ms. Alexander says that the late Lucille Clifton informed her fluid approach to "a very deep kind of ancestral understanding... that moves us into the future." Includes the audio of the poet reading her work.
