Featured Poet: Donald Hall, Wilmot
I'm thrilled this month to present our newly-appointed United States Poet Laureate, Donald Hall as the current showcase poet. In spite of his over-busy schedule, he quickly answered my request for a poem by asking me to use his well-known poem: "Names of Horses" for the showcase. I'm very pleased to comply since it's one of my top favorites. I remember hearing Don read it years ago at a weekend conference held at Shaker Village, and I was moved, then, not only by the wonderful words but by the sound of Don's rhythmic voice as he read them.
Of "Names of Horses," Don writes:
When I came back to live in New Hampshire in 1975, I was full of everything that I remembered from my childhood summers spent haying with my grandfather on this farm. One of the matters I remembered most clearly was the series of work horses, and after I moved back to this house I wrote "Names of Horses" to celebrate and memorialize them.
Donald Hall, the United States Poet Laureate, was born in Connecticut in 1928. He has published eighteen books of poems and numerous books of prose and children's books. He lives by himself on his family farm in Wilmot, New Hampshire. Most recently, he has published a selection of poems called White Apples and Taste of Stone.
Click here to read Donald Hall's poem
"Names of Horses"
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