In celebration of National Poetry Month, I will be sharing some of my favorite poems, as well as writing poems along the way.
Today, I offer "The Thing Is" by Ellen Bass.
#ellenbass #nationalpoetrymonth #poetry #poem
What would people look like
if we could see them as they are,
soaked in honey, stung and swollen,
reckless, pinned against time?
- #EllenBass, 'If You Knew'
“After we have floundered
through our separate pain
we come to this…”
-Ellen Bass
#quotes #poetry #poems #poem #booksky #whatimreading #ellenbass
RELAX
By #EllenBass
Bad things are going to happen.
Your tomatoes will grow a fungus
and your cat will get run over.
Someone will leave the bag with the ice cream
melting in the car and throw
your blue cashmere sweater in the drier.
A poem in one stanza by Ellen Bass Titled The Thing Is Ellen Bass THE THING IS to love life, to love it even when you have no stomach for it and everything you’ve held dear crumbles like burnt paper in your hands, your throat filled with the silt of it. When grief sits with you, its tropical heat thickening the air, heavy as water more fit for gills than lungs; when grief weights you down like your own flesh only more of it, an obesity of grief, you think, How can a body withstand this? Then you hold life like a face between your palms, a plain face, no charming smile, no violet eyes, and you say, yes, I will take you, I will love you, again. From The Mules of Love (2002)
My heart is heavy with news this week—much that I hold dear is being trampled. I think it can't get worse, and it gets worse. In this #poem, #EllenBass feels what I feel, reminds me to keep loving my people, my country. It's hard.
#grieving #America #TheConstitution #ICE #Equity #Inclusion
How often do we feel defeated and then return to source: the love of our lives, other lives, life itself?
#EllenBass #poetry #poetrycommunity
Explore how juxtaposition shapes poetry with Ellen Bass
Discover how tension, surprise, and meaning emerge-one image beside another.
Subscribe to the Marsh Hawk Press newsletter to read more!
Link in Bio #PoetryThoughts #EllenBass #MarshHawkPress #PoetryTips
to love life, to love it even when you have no stomach for it and everything you’ve held dear crumbles like burnt paper in your hands, your throat filled with the silt of it. When grief sits with you, its tropical heat thickening the air, heavy as water more fit for gills than lungs; when grief weights you like your own flesh only more of it, an obesity of grief, you think, How can a body withstand this? Then you hold life like a face between your palms, a plain face, no charming smile, no violet eyes, and you say, yes, I will take you I will love you, again.
#Poetry
#Poem
#EllenBass
The Thing Is by Ellen Bass
From Ellen Bass's book, Mules of Love: bookshop.org/a/862/978192...
#poem #ellenbass #books #poetry #writing
Two fresh raspberries are held in a hand with a black sweater visible on the wrist.
#Poetry365 #PoetryScavenger
#EllenBass
#EllenBassPoetry #Relax #TinySeedsCrunch #BuyPoetryBooks #SupportPoets #SwedishForestBerries
#🦋Poetry
Relax
Ellen Bass
Bad things are going to happen.
Your tomatoes will grow a fungus
and your cat will get run over.
🧵
THIS IS GONNA BE GREAT! DON’T MISS IT, FRIENDS! Register here: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi... #OhioArtsCouncil #dairybarnarts @dustinbrookshire.bsky.social #ellenbass
"to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you've held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,"
#EllenBass (2002) #poetry #poem
Honored and humbled to be with #EllenBass in the gorgeous new issue @NimrodJournal #litmag.. http://ow.ly/bKZy300EVOo
