Carl Dennis

I have begun to think of life as a series of ripples widening out from an original center.
~Seamus Heaney

Carl Dennis wrote a bunch of poems that knock my socks off. Here's one:

Candles
by Carl Dennis

If on your grandmother's birthday you burn a candle
To honor her memory, you might think of burning an extra
To honor the memory of someone who never met her,
A man who may have come to the town she lived in
Looking for work and never found it.
Picture him taking a stroll one morning,
After a month of grief with the want ads,
To refresh himself in the park before moving on.
Suppose he notices on the gravel path the shards
Of a green glass bottle that your grandmother,
Then still a girl, will be destined to step on
When she wanders barefoot away from her school picnic
If he doesn't stoop down and scoop the mess up
With the want-ad section and carry it to a trash can.

For you to burn a candle for him...

read the rest here

photo by Sam Galison

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I also love Book Fair and Thanksgiving Letter from Harry, among others.

Writing the World for Kids has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Laura!