Putting Poetry First

 “Poetry has always come first, simply because I love poetry more than anything else.” – Donald Hall

 

Born in Connecticut on Sept. 20, 1928, Hall authored 50 books ranging from children's literature to biography, memoir and essays as well as 22 volumes of poetry.  He was the first poetry editor of The Paris Review where he was noted for interviewing poets and other authors on their craft.

In 2006, Hall was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States, the same year he published his award-winning poetry book White Apples and the Taste of Stone.  In 2018, shortly before his death, he recorded an 11-song cycle on mortality titled, "Mortality Mansions: Songs of Love and Loss After 60."   For Saturday’s Poem, here is Hall’s,

 

       White Apples

when my father had been dead a week
I woke
with his voice in my ear
                         I sat up in bed

and held my breath
and stared at the pale closed door

white apples and the taste of stone

if he called again
I would put on my coat and galoshes

 

 

 

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