I love the poems you have suggested. I have a story about the Joy Harjo poem. Shortly after she was first selected U.S. Poet Laureate, she came to Missoula for an event at the University of Montana. I was still part-time at the bookstore then so, since we supplied books, I got to interact with her quite a bit and she was wonderful despite being under the weather with a bad back. During her reading, after she read, she asked if anyone had any requests for poems (this was in front of probably 500-600 people). Someone requested "The World Ends Here" and she said she would love to but didn't have the book or a collection containing it and couldn't do it by memory. But someone in the audience had the book with them, so they brought it to her and she read it, then signed the book. Wouldn't that be great if you were that person?
Anyway, here is my contribution. I've just finished reading John Haines's memoir of Alaska, "The Stars, the Snow, the Fire: Twenty-Five Years in the Alaska Wilderness" and it really blew me away. Haines was known as a poet, and one of my favorites, so with him on my mind I am going to share one of his poems. This is called, "On the Mountain":
Autumn shadows do move faster, the sun setting more quickly, this lovely poem reminded me of watching the shadows glide swiftly up a mountainside in September, in a lookout where I'd watched the same landscape for months. A truly visceral poem. Thank you for sharing it, I will have to look for his memoir.
Oh, and Different Not Less by Linda Gregg
I didn't find it stand-alone but it is on this page with other great poems by her.
https://dippingintolight.com/gregg-linda-1942/
I love the poems you have suggested. I have a story about the Joy Harjo poem. Shortly after she was first selected U.S. Poet Laureate, she came to Missoula for an event at the University of Montana. I was still part-time at the bookstore then so, since we supplied books, I got to interact with her quite a bit and she was wonderful despite being under the weather with a bad back. During her reading, after she read, she asked if anyone had any requests for poems (this was in front of probably 500-600 people). Someone requested "The World Ends Here" and she said she would love to but didn't have the book or a collection containing it and couldn't do it by memory. But someone in the audience had the book with them, so they brought it to her and she read it, then signed the book. Wouldn't that be great if you were that person?
Anyway, here is my contribution. I've just finished reading John Haines's memoir of Alaska, "The Stars, the Snow, the Fire: Twenty-Five Years in the Alaska Wilderness" and it really blew me away. Haines was known as a poet, and one of my favorites, so with him on my mind I am going to share one of his poems. This is called, "On the Mountain":
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/153969/on-the-mountain-5f120d371e509
What an amazing story! How amazing that she signed the book and now that someone knows that Joy read from that copy!
Thank you for this poem! I am off to read it now Chris.
Autumn shadows do move faster, the sun setting more quickly, this lovely poem reminded me of watching the shadows glide swiftly up a mountainside in September, in a lookout where I'd watched the same landscape for months. A truly visceral poem. Thank you for sharing it, I will have to look for his memoir.
This last line from Winter Recipes from the Collective really caught me.
We have deprived them of their origins,
they have come to need us now
And a poem I love is Winter Grace by Pat Fargnoli.
https://www.ayearofbeinghere.com/2015/12/patricia-fargnoli-winter-grace.html