This is Poetry Moment on WPSU – a weekly program featuring the work of contemporary Pennsylvania poets. Your host is poet and author Marjorie Maddox, a 2023 Monson Arts Fellow, author of more than 20 books, and Professor Emerita of English and Creative Writing at the Lock Haven campus of Commonwealth University.
Welcome to Poetry Moment. I’m Marjorie Maddox
It’s the week of Thanksgiving. Maybe you’re feeling particularly thankful this year—or maybe you’re struggling to feel gratitude at all. In her poem “Praise Song”—written shortly after the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001—Barbara Crooker reminds us of beauty. Despite all that is wrong in the world, the poet tells us also to consider what is good.
Barbara Crooker is author of ten full-length books of poetry, including Some Glad Morning, Pitt Poetry Series, longlisted for the Julie Suk award from Jacar Press,The Book of Kells, which won the Best Poetry Book of 2019 Award from Poetry by the Sea, and Slow Wreckage(Grayson Books, 2024).Her other awards include: Grammy Spoken Word Finalist, the WB Yeats Society of New York Award, the Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award, and others. A 40-plus resident of Fogelsville, she now lives in a retirement community in Allentown.
The days are getting darker. Fors ome, so also is the world. Poet Barbara Crooker challenges us to look around and find something to praise. Her lush examples lure us in. Even though it’s not always enough, she reminds us that this fallen world is “all we have. ”During Thanksgiving and beyond, may we take the time to recognize and rejoice in what enlightens our daily lives.
Here’s “Praise Song” by Barbara Crooker.
Praise Song
Praise the light of late November,
the thin sunlight that goes deep in the bones.
Praise the crows chattering in the oak trees;
though they are clothed in night, they do not
despair. Praise what little there’s left:
the small boats of milkweed pods, husks, hulls,
shells, the architecture of trees. Praise the meadow
of dried weeds: yarrow, goldenrod, chicory,
the remains of summer. Praise the blue sky
that hasn’t cracked yet. Praise the sun slipping down
behind the beechnuts, praise the quilt of leaves
that covers the grass: Scarlet Oak, Sweet Gum,
Sugar Maple. Though darkness gathers, praise our crazy
fallen world; it’s all we have, and it’s never enough.
from Radiance (Word Press, 2005).
That was “Praise Song” by Barbara Crooker.
Listen for Poetry Moment with Marjorie Maddox on Mondays during Morning Edition and All Things Considered on WPSU. You can view more episodes at wpsu.org/poetrymoment.
Our theme music is by Eric Ian Farmer.
