The Archive Project - Verslandia! 2025

New poetry stresses that our stories are more precious and urgent than ever

Arthur Sze named 25th U.S. poet laureate

11 ways NPR readers resist the impulse to shop (plus, a poem for inspo)

Remembering Mother Emanuel, 10 years after racist attack on famed Charleston church
Poet laureate reflects on 10 years since Charleston church shooting

The Archive Project - Verselandia 2024

Poetry Out Loud's Web site
Poetry Out Loud
Washington State Poetry Out Loud

Grant High students take top spots at Poetry Out Loud
da Vinci Arts Middle School

NASA spacecraft is on its way to Jupiter's Europa moon
NASA is sending an Ada Limón poem to Jupiter's moon Europa — and maybe your name too?

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson shares the poem she's kept in every one of her offices
Ketanji Brown Jackson gets personal with NPR about family and the Supreme Court

Gio's video: https://vimeo.com/916157618?utm_campaign=5250933&utm_source=affiliate&utm_channel=affiliate&cjevent=eecf46e0222711ef82a3bb570a1cb829&clickid=eecf46e0222711ef82a3bb570a1cb829

“This isn’t a play ground, this is
earth, our heaven, for a while.
Therefore I have given precedence
to all my sudden, sullen, dark moods
that hold you in the center of my world.
And I say to my body: grow thinner still.
And I say to my fingers, type me a pretty song.
And I say to my heart: rave on.” – Mary Oliver, Thirst

Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last!
What a task
to ask
of anything, or anyone,
yet it is ours,
and not by the century or the year, but by the hours.
One fall day I heard
above me, and above the sting of the wind, a sound
I did not know, and my look shot upward; it was
a flock of snow geese, winging it
faster than the ones we usually see,
and, being the color of snow, catching the sun
so they were, in part at least, golden. I
held my breath
as we do
sometimes
to stop time
when something wonderful
has touched us
as with a match,
which is lit, and bright,
but does not hurt
in the common way,
but delightfully,
as if delight
were the most serious thing
you ever felt.
The geese
flew on,
I have never seen them again.
Maybe I will, someday, somewhere.
Maybe I won't.
It doesn't matter.
What matters
is that, when I saw them,
I saw them
as through the veil, secretly, joyfully, clearly. - 'Snow Geese' Mary Oliver

We lay down our arms
So that we can reach our arms
Out to one another.
We seek harm to none, and harmony for all…
Victorious, not because we will never again know defeat,
But because we will never again sow division. - @TheAmandaGorman

The Jewish World has changed foreve

Your name was the food I lived on;
now my mouth is full of dirt and ash.
To say your name was to be surrounded
by feathers and silk; now, reaching out,
I touch glass and barbed wire.
Your name was the thread connecting my life;
now I am fragments on a tailor's floor.
I was dancing when I
learned of your death; may
my feet be severed from my body. - Stephen Dobyns

One complaint led a Florida school to restrict access to Amanda Gorman's famous poem
Florida school blocks younger students from reading Amanda Gorman's 'The Hill We Climb' poem

“Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.” — Sarah Williams, English poet

“To go in the dark with a light is to know the light. ... Go without sight, and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings.” - Wendell Berry

A Mother's Love ❤️

A Mother's love is something
that no on can explain,
It is made of deep devotion
and of sacrifice and pain,
It is endless and unselfish
and enduring come what may
For nothing can destroy it
or take that love away . . .
It is patient and forgiving
when all others are forsaking,
And it never fails or falters
even though the heart is breaking . . .
It believes beyond believing
when the world around condemns,
And it glows with all the beauty
of the rarest, brightest gems . . .
It is far beyond defining,
it defies all explanation,
And it still remains a secret
like the mysteries of creation . . .
A many splendoured miracle
man cannot understand
And another wondrous evidence
of God's tender guiding hand. - Helen Steiner Rice

The lane of love is narrow. There's room for only one. - Kabir