Helen's Reads » poetry

This CD Just Happens To Be Pure Poetry

helen — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 23:29:21 +0000

Music is something I profess to know nothing about, but I couldn’t let April, which is National Poetry Month, slip by without mentioning this wonderful new CD by Natalie Merchant. Leave Your Sleep, Merchant’s first album since 2003, is ‘literally’ poems set to music. The CD’s official website reads

I chose works by both well-known and obscure poets, ranging from anonymous nursery rhymes and lullabies to poems by British Victorians, early and mid 20th Century Americans, and a few contemporary writers.

Two versions of Leave Your Sleep will be available April 13th on Nonesuch Records: a 26 song version with deluxe packaging and a 16-track “selections” version with abridged liner notes.

Merchant preformed for the TED conference earlier this month. Here is an edited version of that show.

April Is National Poetry Month

helen — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 17:48:07 +0000

It’s National Poetry month people. So get out there and celebrate. Not sure how? Poets.org lists 30 ways that you can slip poetry into your daily activities. I’ve posted before about the heart healthy benefits of reading poetry. Other studies suggest that reading poetry can boost the immune system and also reduce the severity of symptoms in arthritis and asthma sufferers. So do your body AND soul some good. Read a poem, share a poem, write a poem. You owe it to yourself and the ones you love.

Open A Book
by Jane Baskwill

Open a book
And you will find
People and places of every kind
Open a book
And you can be
Anything that you want to be:
Open a book
And you can share
Wondrous worlds you find in there
Open a book
And I will too
You read to me
And I’ll read to you.

Via Reading Lady

Some Of My Favorite “Heart” Books

helen — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:26:05 +0000

This Valentines Day, I think I have something for every taste.

Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Strong bond of friendship between two women.)

The Heart Aroused by David Whyte (Poetry in the work place? You bet.)

A Match To The Heart by Gretel Ehrlich (One woman’s journey of being struck by lightning.)

Thick Face, Black Heart by Chin-Ning Chu (How to unleash your inner powers.)