To organize a poetry website into virtual bags of various grasses is to stake a claim on a channel in the current of American poetry, so broadened and deepened by Walt Whitman that we’re well-advised to acknowledge him. You needn’t take my word alone, Donald Hall reached the same conclusion.
The ever-refreshing swiftness of that current is proved when we consider how far downstream we find Robert Frost, born a scant twenty years after Leaves of Grass was published. So, too, is shown how diverse and inclusive is American poetry. (Equity, however, is irrelevant where there is an aesthetic ideal.)
Poetry takes to the witness stand whenever love is on trial
“And the Reason we honor love is because it looks up, not down, it aspires and doesn’t despair.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Method of Nature, 1841.
“Love makes sense.”
– Dave Read, Annals of American Poetry Authority, 2024.
Bags of Grass
- Perennial Ryegrass – These Poems are most recent.
- Crabgrass – These poems are topical, hence toxic!
- Fescue – These poems also qualify as miscellaneous.
- Kentucky Bluegrass – These poems relate to my roots in Oswego, NY