The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “poetry”

How to Eat an Apricot: Diane Ackerman on Art, Science, and Wonder
How to Eat an Apricot: Diane Ackerman on Art, Science, and Wonder

“First warm its continuous curve in cupped hands, holding it as you might a brandy snifter, then caress the velvety sheen with one thumb, and run your fingertips over its nap…”

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Singularity: Poet Marie Howe’s Beautiful Tribute to Stephen Hawking and Our Belonging to the Universe
Singularity: Poet Marie Howe’s Beautiful Tribute to Stephen Hawking and Our Belonging to the Universe

“Do you sometimes want to wake up to the singularity we once were?”

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Sojourns in the Parallel World: America Ferrera Reads Denise Levertov’s Ode to Our Ambivalent Relationship with Nature
Sojourns in the Parallel World: America Ferrera Reads Denise Levertov’s Ode to Our Ambivalent Relationship with Nature

“We call it ‘Nature’; only reluctantly admitting ourselves to be ‘Nature’ too.”

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Walt Whitman’s Advice to the Young on the Building Blocks of Character and What It Takes to Be an Agent of Change
Walt Whitman’s Advice to the Young on the Building Blocks of Character and What It Takes to Be an Agent of Change

“Go, dear friend, if need be give up all else, and commence to-day to inure yourself to pluck, reality, self-esteem, definiteness, elevatedness…”

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Hymn to Time: Ursula K. Le Guin’s Ode to the Most Mysterious Dimension of Being
Hymn to Time: Ursula K. Le Guin’s Ode to the Most Mysterious Dimension of Being

An ode to the eternal “let there be” between death and chance.

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The Universe in Verse: John Cameron Mitchell Reads Walt Whitman’s Beautiful Least Known Poem
The Universe in Verse: John Cameron Mitchell Reads Walt Whitman’s Beautiful Least Known Poem

A lyrical serenade to a world we barely dare imagine and to our kinship with those creatures most different from us.

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Optimism: A Poetic Stop-Motion Celebration of Nature’s Resilience and the Persistence of Life Against All Odds
Optimism: A Poetic Stop-Motion Celebration of Nature’s Resilience and the Persistence of Life Against All Odds

A spare and lovely ode to that which we so easily forget yet which animates the center of existence.

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A Brave and Startling Truth: Maya Angelou’s Stunning Humanist Poem That Flew to Space, Inspired by Carl Sagan
A Brave and Startling Truth: Maya Angelou’s Stunning Humanist Poem That Flew to Space, Inspired by Carl Sagan

“Out of such chaos, of such contradiction / We learn that we are neither devils nor divines…”

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J.D. McClatchy on the Contrast and Complementarity of Desire and Love
J.D. McClatchy on the Contrast and Complementarity of Desire and Love

“Love is the quality of attention we pay to things.”

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Esperanza Spalding Performs William Blake’s Short Existential Poem “The Fly”
Esperanza Spalding Performs William Blake’s Short Existential Poem “The Fly”

A centuries-old, timeless meditation on chance, suffering, and the improbable glory of life.

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