April sure hasn’t turned out like our calendars hoped, has it? One of the things I’m lamenting is the number of poetry readings I had scheduled, and which are now cancelled. Instead, I decided to spread a bit of poetry love by reading a poem a day in videos I’ve posted to Facebook (a few are posted to YouTube as well, as you’ll see indicated below). The Facebook videos are public, so as long as you have an account, you should be able to view them.
I’ve chosen a mix of classic and contemporary poems. Many days, I include in the comments some ways you might use the poem as inspiration for your own writing. The selections that younger students may especially like are indicated “Good (or adaptable) for any age,” because adults may like them, too!
Also, if you’re interested in a longer video, my daughter Kelsey Wells and I share my own poetry, some old-time tunes and a crankie in this Facebook Live video. We had audio issues for about the first 3 minutes, so things don’t get started until about the 3:15 mark.
I hope you find something here you enjoy!
- Hope is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson (no video yet – I didn’t get inspired until day 2!)
- “Talks to Wildflowers” by Bobbi Buchanan – Adaptable for any age
- “i thank you God for most this amazing” by E.E. Cummings
- “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” by Edward Lear – Good for any age
- “The Best Thing in the World” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (plus accordion books – fun to make for almost any age)
- “Any Dog” by Dana Wildsmith
- “Favorite Poems” by Steve West
- “Praise for Wrigley Field” by Sandra Marchetti
- “Untold Story” by me, Kory Wells
- “Mud Pies” by Michael Williams
- “The Swing” by Robert Louis Stevenson – Good for any age
- “In Time of Silver Rain” by Langston Hughes
- “Jonquils” by James Applewhite
- “Sunrise 115” by Allison Boyd Justus
- “Burley Coulter’s Song for Kate Helen Branch” by Wendell Berry (with music by Turnip the Beet)
This video is also on YouTube - “How to Hear Music with Your Whole Body” by TJ Jarrett
- “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
- “The Country” by Billy Collins
- “Haiku, Late Summer (A Prayer)” by Karen Craigo
- “This Is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams – plus “This Is Just to Say” by Joyce Sidman – Adaptable for any age
- “I’m Telling You Now” by Joyce Sidman – Adaptable for any age
- “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” by Wendell Berry for Earth Day
- “24” by Barbara E. Young – Adaptable for any age
- “Don’t Go Into the Library” by Alberto Rios – Adaptable for any age
This video is also on YouTube - “Lonesome Boy Blues” by Kenneth Patchen – with a bonus reading, because it was a dark and rainy day, of “Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost
- “I Want to Be Eighty-Five” by Irene Latham – Adaptable for any age
This video is also on YouTube - “On Keeping Quiet” by Pablo Neruda
- “The Talk in Floyd County” by Bill Brown
- “Fireflies” by Cecilia Woloch
This video is also on YouTube - “The Bridge Builder” by Will Allen Dromgoole