Poetry of the Week: Music as heartbeat

I've been blessed lately with a number of good friends who care passionately about music, and share that love and passion with the people around them. Many of them make music, some of them have studied it, but all feel in some way that music is life and magic, and listening to them talk about it and talk to each other about it has been a source of delight and comfort for me this year.

Music has always been important to my family and the people I love, but it's less intrinsic to me. I can't talk about it in quite the same way, but I'd like to give back some of my passion in return. So I set out looking for poems that felt similar to me. All different. Not all happy, not all hopeful, but all capturing moments of transcendence in that way that both poetry and music can. I'm fairly certain I could fill the month with poetry that meets that requirement, and I very well may, but for this week, at least, these are my offerings:


Latin & Soul - Victor Hernández Cruz

I Am In Need Of Music - Elizabeth Bishop

Trickster III - Kwame Dawes

Record - Katrina Vandenberg