Poetry 180

Poetry 180 is designed to make it easy for students to hear or read a poem on each of the 180 days of the school year.  Each poem was selected with high school students in mind.   Mr. Billy Collins, developer of Poetry 180 says, "The point is to expose students to some of the fresh voices in contemporary poetry; it is not necessary that all schools read the same poem every day. Also, you may skip a poem for any reason. The poems have been chosen with high school age students in mind, but if you feel a certain poem is inappropriate, skip it."

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We chose day 25 as a sample for you:
 
Domestic Work, 1937

Natasha Trethewey

All week she's cleaned
someone else's house,
stared down her own face
in the shine of copper-
bottomed pots, polished
wood, toilets she'd pull
the lid to--that look saying

Let's make a change, girl.

But Sunday mornings are hers--
church clothes starched
and hanging, a record spinning
on the console, the whole house
dancing. She raises the shades,
washes the rooms in light,
buckets of water, Octagon soap.

Cleanliness is next to godliness ...

Windows and doors flung wide,
curtains two-stepping
forward and back, neck bones
bumping in the pot, a choir
of clothes clapping on the line.

Nearer my God to Thee ...

She beats time on the rugs,
blows dust from the broom
like dandelion spores, each one
a wish for something better.

from Domestic Work, 1999
Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minn.