The Day You Were The Whole World By John Isbell As you worked in the garden, You expanded to become the entire planet. My breath stopped. You touched the earth around the crocuses From the other side of the world. The crocuses…
Poetry Fix
Wedding –Alice Oswald from The Thing in the Gap Stone Stile From time to time our love is like a sail and when the sail begins to alternate from tack to tack, it’s like a swallowtail and when the swallow flies it’s…
Two Poems
a song in the front yard by Gwendolyn Brooks I’ve stayed in the front yard all my life. I want a peek at the back Where it’s rough and untended and hungry weed grows. A girl gets sick of a rose. I want to go…
Some Glad Morning
Some Glad Morning –Joyce Sutphen from Naming the Stars One day, something very old happened again. The green came back to the branches, settling like leafy birds on the highest twigs; the ground broke open as dark as coffee beans. The clouds took up their positions in the…
Poem: Peonies
Peonies –Mary Oliver This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready to break my heart as the sun rises, as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers and they open– pools of lace, white and pink– and all day the black…
Poem: Marengo
Marengo –Mary Oliver from New and Selected Poems Out of the sump rise the marigolds. From the rim of the marsh, muslin with mosquitoes, rises the egret, in his cloud-cloth. Through the soft rain, like mist, and mica, the withered acres of…
Poem: Thai Demon
Thai Demon –John Isbell The Thai demon on my bookshelf Is engaged in the project Of forgetting as much as it can. This is a laborious and piecemeal process: Centuries of activity in Thailand Seem less relevant now To an unhonored lump…
Poem: I Have Stumbled Into A Meadow
I Have Stumbled Into A Meadow By John Isbell I have stumbled into a meadow. There is a profusion of flowers on every side: Lilacs, crocuses, tulips, daffodils, irises. Sublime chaos. The painter threw his palette in the air. Heady bees drift…
Poem: Some Clouds
Some Clouds –Steve Kowit from The Dumbbell Nebula Now that I’ve unplugged the phone no one can reach me– At least for this one afternoon they will have to get by without my advice or opinion. Now nobody else is going to call…
Poem: This Kind of Thing Doesn’t Happen Often and When It Does You Should Pay Attention
This Kind of Thing Doesn’t Happen Often and When It Does You Should Pay Attention –John Stone From Music from Apartment 8 i thank heaven somebody’s crazy enough to send me a daisy –e.e. cummings On Piedmont Road, going north, before my car there…