I love this song

"Country Girl" by Carolina Chocolate Drops

New poet laureate named

The next poet laureate of the United States will be Natasha Trethewey, 46.  Congratulations to Ms. Trethewey!

Veni, Sancte Spiritus et emitte coelitus lucis tuae radium

Come, Holy Spirit, come! 
And from Thy celestial home 
Shed a ray of light divine!


Come, Father of the poor! 
Come, source of all our store! 
Come, within our bosoms shine! 


Thou, of comforters the best; 
Thou, the soul's most welcome guest; 
Sweet refreshment here below;


In our labour, rest most sweet; 
Grateful coolness in the heat, 
Solace in the midst of woe.


O most blessèd Light divine 
Shine within these hearts of Thine. 
And our inmost being fill!


Where you are not, man has naught, 
Nothing good in deed or thought, 
Nothing free from taint of ill.


Heal our wounds, our strength renew; 
On our dryness pour Thy dew; 
Wash the stains of guilt away:


Bend the stubborn heart and will; 
Melt the frozen, warm the chill; 
Guide the steps that go astray.


On the faithful who adore 
And confess you, evermore 
In your sev'nfold gift descend;


Give them virtue's sure reward; 
Give them Thy salvation, Lord; 
Give them joys that never end. 


Amen. Alleluia!


*

(HT: Vivificat!)

From The Tragicall Historie of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus

Now that the gloomy shadow of the earth,
Longing to view Orion's drizzling look,
Leaps from th' antarctic world unto the sky,
And dims the welkin with her pitchy breath,
Faustus, begin thine incantations ...

Quotation of note

Sure, writing is work, but it is not labor: however mopey or melancholic your verse, it wants to have included some element of the playful, or else it'll be dull for maker and reader both.

Sydney Lea, in The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach, ed. Robin Behn and Chase Twichell (Quill/HarperCollins, 1992), p.18