Now Calvary was loveliness:/Lilies that flowered thereuponPulled off the white moon’s pallid dress,/And put the morning’s vesture on.

Today’s poem, translated by Robin Flowers, was originally written in Old Irish inside an 8th-century scribe’s copy of St. Paul’s epistles. However, it reveals its anonymous author to be anything but a bored and disinterested grunt. Happy reading.

N.B. Here is a wonderful reading of the poem in Old Irish.

Today’s poem is one of Shakespeare’s “irregular” sonnets–he’s got 99 problems (most of them flowers), but strict obedience to the requirements of the sonnet form ain’t one. Happy reading.

Today’s poem imagines the long life of Lazarus as he awaits, like Eliot’s magi, “another death.” Happy reading.

Today’s poem is a hirsute parody of a much better poem. Sorry in advance. Happy reading.

In the 19th century, poems about the loss of children became a little genre of their own. Today’s poem is a decidedly uncharacteristic example of the form.

Today’s poem answers the question you never thought to ask: what do a poem, a barnyard, and a marriage have in common? Happy reading.

In today’s poem, Rilke (trans. J.B. Leishman) imagines the Annunciation from Gabriel’s perspective. Happy reading.

Today’s poem wonders what it means to recognize and appreciate a gift. Happy reading.

Today’s poem contemplates the ways and “why”s of saying nothing, before culminating in a shattering pun on “nothing.” Happy reading.