To Be Alive, by Gregory Orr

To Be Alive

To be alive: not just the carcass
But the spark.
That's crudely put, but…

If we're not supposed to dance,
Why all this music?

by Gregory Orr, from Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved, 2005

Winning, by Linda Gregg

Winning

There is having by having
and having by remembering.
All of it a glory, but what is past
is the treasure. What remains.
What is worn is what has lived.
Death is too familiar, even though
it adds weight. Passion adds size
but allows too much harm.
There is a poetry that asks for
this life of silence in midday.
A branch of geranium in a glass
that might root. Poems of time
now and time then, each
containing the other carefully.

by Linda Gregg from Things and Flesh, 1999

Poetry Jam at the White House

Sam is having computer trouble this week. So in the meantime,  here is a film of the Poetry Jam at the White House, on May 11, introduced by the President.