Welcome to Poem of the Week, an annual feature on this blog that celebrates National Poetry Month. Every Sunday, in the month of April, start the week off with an uplifting poem and discovery why poetry still matters.
Although things may be returning to some normalcy, poetry can still provide us the comfort and solace we need during these trying times. Poetry is such an amazing and inspiration genre to take part in and National Poetry Month is great to discover its powerful impact. So let these words move you…you will not regret it.
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You wanted to be so hungry, you would break into branches, and have to choose between the starving month’s nineteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-third evenings. The liturgy begins to echo itself and why does it matter? If the ground-water is too scarce one can stretch nets into the air and harvest the fog. Hunger opens you to illiteracy, thirst makes clear the starving pattern, the thick night is so quiet, the spinning spider pauses, the angel stops whispering for a moment— The secret night could already be over, you will have to listen very carefully— You are never going to know which night’s mouth is sacredly reciting and which night’s recitation is secretly mere wind—
Kazim Ali, “Ramadan” from The Fortieth Day. Copyright © 2008 by Kazim Ali.
To discover more poems, please visit Poetry Foundation
You can get a copy of “The Fortieth Day” at the following places:
cup of tea with that book, please 