Speaking of Poetry

Heard this piece yesterday morning on NPR's Morning Edition program and wanted to pass it on to our discussion group: Can Poetry Save the Earth?

Stanford University professor John Felstiner writes in his new book, Can Poetry Save the Earth?: "If poems touch our full humanness, can they quicken awareness and bolster respect for this ravaged resilient earth we live on?"

Listen to the entire piece on the NPR Website.

Felstiner was asked to pick just one poem that could save the world, if everyone were to read it. He chose:

The Well Rising
by William Stafford

The well rising without sound,
the spring on a hillside,
the plowshare brimming through the deep ground
everywhere in the field —

The sharp swallows in their swerve
flaring and hesitating
hunting for the final curve
coming closer and closer —

The swallow heart from wing beat to wing beat
counseling decision, decision:
thunderous examples. I place my feet
with care in such a world.


Hope you get a chance to appreciate "such a world" today.