The inner and outer forecasts don’t always match up. This short poem by Louise Glück starts out cold and stays that way for ...

When was the last time you picked up a pen and composed a letter to a friend or a family member? NPR's poet in residence Kwame Alexander reminds us that letter writing delivers something more to the ...

Take just a moment to estimate how many songs you know by heart. Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? Now, how many poems do you have memorized? For most modern readers, even poetry fans, that number's pretty ...

To mark the end of National Poetry Month, our critic at large, A.O. Scott, unpacks Frank O’Hara’s classic love poem, “Having a Coke With You.” “The feeling of the poem is the feeling of being loved,” ...

Dear Readers: I cannot possibly reprint all the poems, essays and “favorite columns” that my gracious readers have sent on — my mailbox was jammed! Several of the most-often requested essays have ...

I saw a poem you had written online, and I was wondering if you could place it in your column for everyone to read. I know it helped me so much, and I think it will help others. Thank ...

The British writer Philip Hoare, who as @philipwhale chronicles his predawn swims in Southampton Water year-round on Twitter—and makes his followers in the States shiver and feel like laggards, even ...

English is a tricky language to learn. Native speakers may take this for granted, failing to realize how intricate-and inconsistent-many of its pronunciation rules are. For instance, why do heart, ...

"Hold the Hope" was sparked by one woman's experience as a caregiver to someone who survived suicidal struggles. It started ...