Mr. Chairman Takes His Leave –Rosemary Catacalos As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles. —Walt Whitman en memoria William Rashall Sinkin, 1913–2014 Whitman, you once told me, is democracy on the page, messy and imperfect as we are in real life, which gave you hope that we would one day make real life true democracy, […]
Poem: April Chores
April Chores by Jane Kenyon When I take the chilly tools from the shed’s darkness, I come out to a world made new by heat and light. The snake basks and dozes on a large flat stone. It reared and scolded me for raking too close to its hole. Like a mad red brain the involute rhubarb leaf thinks its way up through loam. […]
Poem: A Modified Villanelle for My Childhood
A Modified Villanelle for My Childhood –Suzi F. Garcia with some help from Ahmad I wanna write lyrical, but all I got is magical. My book needs a poem talkin bout I remember when Something more autobiographical Mi familia wanted to assimilate, nothing radical, Each month was a struggle to pay our rent With food stamps, so dust […]
Poem: The Dark Night (XVIII)
The Dark Night (XVIII) –May Sinclair Our love is woven Of a thousand strands— The cool fragrance of the first lilac At morning, The first dew on the grass, The smell of wild mint in the wood, The pungent and earthy smell of ground ivy crushed under our feet; Songs of birds, songs of great poets; The leaping of the red […]
Poem: pity this busy monster, manunkind
pity this busy monster, manunkind –e. e. cummings pity this busy monster, manunkind, not. Progress is a comfortable disease: your victim (death and life safely beyond) plays with the bigness of his littleness — electrons deify one razorblade into a mountainrange; lenses extend unwish through curving wherewhen till unwish returns on its unself. A world […]
Poem: Gratitude List
Gratitude List –Naomi Shihab Nye Thank you for insulting me. You helped me see how much I was worth. Thank you for overlooking my humanity. In that moment I gained power. To be forgotten by the wider world and the righteous religious and the weaponized soldiers is not the worst thing. It gives you time to discover yourself. * Lemons. Mint. […]
Poem : Blue Like That
Blue Like That –Gerald Stern She was a darling with her roses, though what I like is lavender for I can dry it and nothing is blue like that, so here I am, in my arms a bouquet of tragic lavender, the whole history of Southern France against my chest, the fields stretching out, the armies killing each other, horses […]
Poem: High, Higher, Highest
High, Higher, Highest Samuel Hazo Viewed from space, the world’s impersonal. France appears, but no Frenchmen. Then Germany, without one German. Regardless, the richest man on earth pays three hundred thousand for a ten-minute flight by rocket at three thousand miles per hour to see everything below from sixty-two miles straight up. He’s making business plans for space, beginning […]
Poem: Gifts
Gifts Kirk Wilson I kept my life in a small room with pale blue walls and brought it back little presents from the world This is for you I would say This is for you Sometimes the gifts died in my hands and often I could not pay the price of their redemption I could never be sure they were appreciated or how much they wanted […]
National Poetry Month
By the way, April is National Poetry Month!