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Poetry on YDP—by poets living and long dead, famous to completely unknown--is specially selected for accessibility and appeal. Thanks so much for visiting—and remember: a poem a day keeps the doldrums away!
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This Dove Is Not for Mourning by Richard Greene The mourning dove doesn’t sound mournful to me,
wistful maybe,
but not melancholy,
as if happy with the day
whether a chill March one like this
or a sultry one in August.
For me it sings of childhood summers,
spent at the lake
where my grandfather had a house,
of warm mornings
when fresh from bed
I could comfortably step outside shirtless,
of times when I could hear
the trees’ full rustle
and waves lapping the shore,
and see fish dimple the mirror of evening
and swallows swoop
over the languid water
streaked with gold.
© by Richard Greene.
Used with the author’s permission.
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Richard Greene began writing poetry in the 8th grade, inspired by the opening lines of Longfellow's “Evangeline”—“This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks / Bearded in moss and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight"—which he was required to read in class. In college, after a classmate deemed Richard’s rhyming poem “trite,” he stopped writing until, a couple of years later, a class with Henry Rago, subsequently editor of Poetry magazine, inspired him to resume his efforts. But poetry fell by the wayside for almost forty years as a busy career in international development consumed his life. As retirement approached, however, Richard’s dedication to poetry returned; he has since published three chapbooks: The Broken Guitar: Poems of War; Becoming Old: Poems of Aging; Painting with Words: Landscapes in Verse; and one full -length collection, To Talk of Many Things: Selected Poems. Richard, who lives in Nyack, New York, shares a "poem of the week" with anyone interested; get on his mailing list by requesting it at greeneplace@gmail.com.
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Anastasia:
We are fortunate to have many mourning doves in our neighborhood! Their coos are so soothing and sweetthey make my day much better, too! This is such a lovely poem, Richardthank you!
Posted 03/19/2024 05:56 AM
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