November 11, 2022

The water sings along our keel, The wind falls to a whispering breath; I look into your eyes and feel No fear of life or death; So near is love, so far away The losing strife of yesterday.

—Sophie Jewett


November 4, 2022

With night coming early, And dawn coming late, And ice in the bucket And frost by the gate. The fires burn And the kettles sing, And earth sinks to rest Until next spring.

—Elizabeth Coatsworth


October 28, 2022

I saw Lon Chaney Jr. walking with the Queen, Doin’ the werewolves of London I saw a werewolf drinkin’ a piña colada at Trader Vic’s And his hair was perfect.

—Warren Zevon


October 21, 2022

Again the wind Flakes gold-leaf from the trees And the painting darkens — As if a thousand penitents Kissed an icon Till it thinned.

—Jane Hirshfield


October 14, 2022

That a great blue heron Should sail over my house each evening And circle the wet fire of the marsh, Concentrically spiralling down, Is near to holiness for me.

—Marion Lineaweaver


October 7, 2022

The fields lie wrapt in autumn dreams, Beneath the dim, blue vault of night, The moon, like a bark on sluggish streams, Spreads soft her sail of silver light.

—Sadakichi Hartmann


September 30, 2022

The day is yet one more yellow leaf And without turning I kiss the light By an old well on the last of the month Gathering wild rose hips In the sun.

—W.S. Merwin


September 23, 2022

Full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

—John Keats


September 16, 2022

A boy and his dad on a fishing trip — There is a glorious fellowship! Father and son and the open sky, And the white clouds lazily drifting by.

—Edgar Albert Guest


September 9, 2022

The breezes taste Of apple peel. The air is full Of smells to feel — Ripe fruit, old footballs, Burning brush, New books, erasers, Chalk, and such.

—John Updike


September 2, 2022

The grasshopper’s horn, and far-off, high in the maples, The wheel of a locust leisurely grinding the silence Under a moon waning and worn, broken, Tired with summer.

—Sara Teasdale


August 26, 2022

A languid atmosphere, a lazy breeze, With labored respiration, moves the wheat From distant reaches, till the golden seas Break in crisp whispers at my feet.

—James Whitcomb Riley


August 19, 2022

Why all the embarrassment About being happy? Sometimes I’m as happy As a sleeping dog, And for the same reasons, And for others.

—Wendell Berry


August 12, 2022

History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.

—David McCullough


August 5, 2022

The kingfisher rises out of the black wave Like a blue flower, In his beak he carries a silver leaf. I think this is the prettiest world – so long as you don’t mind a little dying.

—Mary Oliver


July 29, 2022

Mosquito is out, It’s the end of the day; She’s humming and hunting Her evening away. Who knows why such hunger Arrives on such wings at sundown? I guess it’s the nature of things.

—N. M. Bodecker


July 22, 2022

The fan beats back and forth, A lighthouse beacon made of wind. It spots you for a breath of time, then turns away, Leaving you in the dark of calm.

—Paul Willis


July 15, 2022

Sing in the silent sky, Glad soaring bird; Sing out thy notes on high To sunbeam straying by Or passing cloud; Heedless if thou art heard Sing thy full song aloud.

—Christina Rossetti


July 8, 2022

Everyone’s feeling pretty It’s hotter than July Though the world’s full of problems They couldn’t touch us even if they tried.

—Stevie Wonder


July 1, 2022

I am waiting for the day That maketh all things clear And I am awaiting retribution For what America did To Tom Sawyer And I am waiting For Alice in Wonderland.

—Lawrence Ferlinghetti


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