Poet Laura: It’s Time to Pass the Feather

I am writing my last Poet Laura column with my favorite purple fountain pen in a favorite tablet. The tools of my calling are important to me. I begin with paper and pen. My first attraction to Tweetspeak Poetry was the poetry coloring pages, which combine my favorite pastime, coloring, with my passion for poetry. I never imagined that I would have the opportunity to be a part of the community, and I am grateful to have been Poet Laura for the past year.

I keep a personal favorite poem anthology for poems I return to over and over. The longest poem in my anthology is “In Memory of W.B. Yeats,” by W.H. Auden. It is, of course, an elegy that is both timeless and timely. Yeats died in 1939 when the world was falling apart. You may read the entire poem here. The poem contains the famous lines: “For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives/in the valley of its saying . . .”

The poem ends with some of my favorite lines of English language poetry:

With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress;

In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.

I can’t imagine a better vessel for praise, and for healing, than the lyric poem. Here is a favorite of mine:

Praise for the Burro

Praise for the burro
said present only as companion
to the much loved stallion

Praise for the burro
who does not lift his head
as your car passes the muddy field
just beyond the wire fence-line

Praise for the burro
who eats what is provided
who clops through every ask
without expectation of thanks

Praise for the burro
who knows his secret well
who gives more than needs

—by Mark Danowsky

The following poem is from Interrobang, my book forthcoming in the spring from Moon Tide Press, and which first appeared in ONE ART a Journal of Poetry.

Morning at the Jetty

Between the deluge
and the storm to come,
I pause to praise the blue
leaking through dank clouds.

Praise too, the pelicans
diving for breakfast,
the neighbors who wave hello,
fishermen casting lines
into the roiling sea below.

Between the deluge
and the storm to come,

I praise this life as given,
to quell my daily fear
the worst may yet appear.

—by Donna Hilbert

Meet Your New Poet Laura

I am passing the feather to Catherine Abbey Hodges, whose poem Been and Gone, a perfect lyric poem of close observation which came to my attention through Tweetspeak before my time as Poet Laura. George Bilgere recently featured her “Couch on the Beach,” in Poetry Town, which had been previously been featured in The Writer’s Almanac. Learn more about in-coming Poet Laura Catherine Abbey Hodges, who will begin her tenure in November, at her website.

Your Turn

I am looking forward to November and getting to know my fellow west coast Poet Laura Catherine Abbey Hodges. Meanwhile, why not write a poem of close observation and praise?

Post and post images by Donna Hilbert. Featured photo by featherlite. Creative Commons, via Flickr. Full poems used with permission.

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Donna Hilbert

Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Enormous Blue Umbrella, Moon Tide Press, 2025. Work has appeared in journals and broadcasts including Eclectica, Gyroscope, Rattle, Sheila Na Gig, ONE ART, Verse Daily, Vox Populi, Tweetspeak Poetry, The Writer’s Almanac, and anthologies including Boomer Girls, The Widows’ Handbook, The Poetry of Presence I & II, The Path to Kindness, The Wonder of Small Things, Love is For All of Us. She writes and leads workshops from her home base in Long Beach, California. (Author photo credit Nathaniel Gutman.)

Latest posts by Donna Hilbert (see all)

• Poet Laura: It’s Time to Pass the Feather - October 14, 2026
• Poet Laura: By Heart - September 9, 2026
• Poet Laura: Summer’s End - August 5, 2026