The Buckley School's founder believed that all public speakers should hone their presentation skills by reading poetry out loud. We keep that worthwhile practice alive by including a poem in our magazine each month for you to read aloud.
Djuna Barnes was a novelist, poet, illustrator, and journalist who was born on June 12, 1892 and died almost precisely 90 years later, on June 18, 1982. In that span, she traveled widely, challenged traditional ideas about women and relationships, and influenced a diverse group of 20th century writers.
After securing success with her novels, she returned to poetry in the last decades of her life. A recluse of sorts, she lived in Greenwich Village, across the street from poet E.E. Cummings. It's said that Cummings kept a check on her by yelling out his window, "Are you still alive, Djuna?"
Below, one of her poems for you to read out loud.
Call of the Night
by Djuna Barnes
Dark, and the wind-blurred pines,
With a glimmer of light between.
Then I, entombed for an hourless night
With the world of things unseen.
Mist, the dust of flowers,
Leagues, heavy with promise of snow,
And a beckoning road 'twixt vale and hill,
With the lure that all must know.
A light, my window's gleam,
Soft, flaring its squares of red—
I loose the ache of the wilderness
And long for the fire instead.
You too know, old fellow?
Then, lift your head and bark.
It's just the call of the lonesome place,
The winds and the housing dark.
