Here is a smattering of great poems written by other people:<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n Robert Hass <\/a>is one of my favorite living poets. He was the Poet Laureate of the U.S. in the late 90’s, and this collection won a Pulitzer. Not bad.<\/p>\n ROBERT HASS – ENVY OF OTHER PEOPLE’S POEMS<\/p>\n In one version of the legend the sirens couldn’t sing. <\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0Kate Hall <\/a>was my favorite Canadian contribution to the Griffin nominees in 2010. This poem is great. Plus she’s Canadian!<\/p>\n \u00a0KATE HALL – THE LOST-AND-FOUND BOX<\/p>\n We are waiting for the claimants to come. You would like to
\nIt was only a sailor’s story that they could.
\nSo Odysseus, lashed to the mast, was harrowed
\nBy a music that he didn’t hear — plungings of the sea,
\nWind-sheer, the off-shore hunger of the birds —
\nAnd the mute women gathering kelp for garden mulch,
\nSeeing him strain against the cordage, seeing
\nthe awful longing in his eyes, are changed forever
\nOn their rocky waste of island by their imagination
\nOf his imagination of the song they didn’t sing.<\/p>\n
\nkeep the purple umbrella. I would like to keep the orange
\ntree. We’re both hoping no one will claim the blue beat-up
\ndictionary. The dead won’t give anything away. They care-
\nfully pick through the big pile of junky objects while we
\ncrouch reverently in front of it. A crowd is fighting over the
\nmorning star and the evening star, but there’s only one star
\nin the box. It’s stretched thin between them. Fault lines are
\nemerging. People approach from every possible angle.
\nSecretly, we’re hoping for disaster – a chaotic free-for-all so
\nwe can make off with as much as our arms can hold. At the
\ndoor, George Herbert describes an orange tree to the admis-
\nsion clerk. As Herbert glances around, I step in front of it and
\nwave my arms like branches. I feel a little bad because he
\nwants it for God, and I just want it for myself.<\/p>\n