Poems To Lean On

by Elena
“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”
~Charles William Eliot

As with books, poems can be wise and constant friends. Today's post has a collection of Poems To Lean On.

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Surprise
by Jean Little

I feel like the ground in winter,
Hard, cold, dark, dead, unyielding.
Then hope pokes through me
Like a crocus.

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Poems:

Whack Report by Kim Addonzio
Beginner's Lesson by Malcolm Alexander
Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
Requiescat by Matthew Arnold
I Am Offering This Poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca
The Thing Is by Ellen Bass
Citizen of the World by Dave Calder
Telling the Bees by Deborah Digges
Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar
I Measure Every Grief I Meet, I'm Nobody! Who Are You?, The Soul Selects Her Own Society, and Hope Is The Thing With Feathers by Emily Dickinson
Equipment by Edgar A. Guest
Invictus by William Ernest Henley
The Word by Tony Hoagland
101 Donations by Alan Katz
If by Rudyard Kipling
Sometimes Goodbye by Mandie MacDougal
Amazing Grace by John Newton
Burning the Old Year by Naomi Shihab Nye
To A Daughter Leaving Home by Linda Pastan
You Can't Have It All by Barbara Ras
Some People by by Wislawa Szymborska, translated by Joanna Trzeciak
The Woman With A Tumor In Her Neck by Wendy Videlock
Everything is Waiting for You by David Whyte
Poetry That Will Get You Through a Hard Time on Oprah's site

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Books:

* Good Poems for Hard Times by Garrison Keillor
* Yes, There Is Something You Can Do: 150 Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Times of Need by Jamie C Miller
* Hard Times Require Furious Dancing by Alice Walker

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Song for the Sun That Disappeared Behind the Rain clouds
by Khoikhoi people, Africa

The fire darkens, the wood turns black.
The flame extinguishes, misfortune upon us.
God sets out in search of the sun.
The rainbow sparkles in his hand,
The bow of the divine hunter.
He has heard the lamentations of his children.
He walks along the milky way, he collects the stars.
With quick arms he piles them into a basket
Piles them up with quick arms
Like a woman who collects lizards
And piles them into her pot, piles them
Until the pot overflows with lizards
Until the basket overflows with light.

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Laura at Writing the World for Kids has the Poetry Friday round-up today.

Update from last week: I sent Jimmy Carter my poem, and this week, I got a personal note from him! I was *thrilled*