May Sarton was a prolific poet, journalist, and novelist. Literary critics often overlooked her in the early part of her career but eventually, they came to appreciate her “calm, cultured, and urbane” writing. Sarton’s writing examines themes of love, friendship, feminism, and sexuality. In the evening we came backInto our yellow room,For a moment taken aback To find the light left on,Falling on silent flowers,Table, book, empty chairWhile we had gone elsewhere,Had been away for hours.When we came home togetherWe found the inside weather.All of our love unendedThe quiet light demanded,And we gave, in a lookAt yellow walls and open book.The deepest world we shareAnd do not talk aboutBut have…

Rhina Polonia Espaillat was born in Santo Domingo and grew up in New York after her family became refugees from the Dominican government. When she was 16 she became the youngest member ever of the Poetry Society of America. They altered their rules to allow her entry. Her poetry captures the beauty of daily routine and snapshots of family life. She also uses her poetry to retell stories from the Bible and mythology. As well, Espaillat is known for her extensive translation work. My daughter-in-law is baking bread for dinner. The smell of it arabesques through the house like music and out to the spring-damp lawn where crocuses rear their…

William Stafford didn’t publish is first major collection of poetry until he was 48 years old. That collection won the 1963 National Book Award for Poetry. Stafford went on to publish 57 volumes of poetry. His poems have a gentle, conversational style with a clear connection to nature. Mostly you look back and say, "Well, OK. Things might have been different, sure, and it's too bad, but look— things happen like that, and you did what you could." You go back and pick up the pieces. There's tommorrow. There's that long bend in the river on the way home. Fluffy burst of milkweed are floating through shafts of sunlight or…

I have featured Robert Francis once before. You can read that post here. I like today’s poem because it sounds so friendly and conversational. It is filled with the joy of friendship and the enjoyment of the natural world. What more can you ask out of a poem? Keep me from going to sleep too soon Or if I go to sleep too soon Come wake me up. Come any hour Of night. Come whistling up the road. Stomp on the porch. Bang on the door. Make me get out of bed and come And let you in and light a light. Tell me the northern lights are on And…

Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet and playwright. He wrote over 20 volumes of poetry and criticism. In 1995 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature for “works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.” At one time, his books made up two-thirds of the sales of living poets in the U.K. After his death playwright Tom Stoppard said of him “Seamus never had a sour moment, neither in person nor on paper.” And some time make the time to drive out west Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore, In September or October, when the wind And the light are working off…