Category: for another poet
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a poet’s house
I have stacks of poetry books all over the house ones I am reading, ones I will ones I promised to read, but forgot books of friends that deserve to be heard I have manuscripts on my computer and in folders on my desk I have poems for my many moods Joy Harjo’s on the…
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Ayn Rand forgot to spit
Allied with the losing side of history Atlas was condemned to bear the sky upon his shoulders But sculptors didn’t get the memo and had him holdup a globe of the world I used to ask myself how is this possible To hold up the world while standing on a mountain on the western edge…
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On a page heavy
“I lead her, a / child waking up / from a nightmare, / dazed by light” Lyn Lifshin, poet ==================================== Where have you been all my life, Lyn Lifshin Why don’t I remember reading your poetry until today I must have missed the invitation to your dying ‘The Sun’ published a tribute this month nine…
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A poem for a poet
a slim manila envelope from Clemson, SC in Friday’s mail it was expected you bring it in the house and place on a stack of folders and books unopened, because you know what’s inside your wife is home from Pittsburgh and has her laundry on the side porch so you carry Saturday coffee to the…
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The Congress of Birds
(any allusions to Attar’s The Conference of Birds are subconscious and probably intentional) Birds fuss at the sun squirrels, the neighbor’s cat a snake and other birds They call back and forth in bushes and trees from fence and power lines Some may even bully honk get out of my way I’m coming through There…
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The Last Super Moon of the Year of COVID-19
A friend told me last night, she and her husband looked out over the ocean at the last super moon of 2020 She said it would be just as beautiful tonight My wife and I live in an urban forest dotted with houses At moonrise we walked two blocks to a darkened ball field trees…
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Wobbling
Social distancing on our porch with the latest New Yorker and a stack of poetry books the table I write on wobbles I place cardboard under a leg and still it wobbles I open Wallace Stevens, Collected Poems turn to a random page marvel at how he uses words in unique ways I put down…
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Friday night on house arrest
To avoid dangers that go bump in the night, my clumsy friend, Kristine, suggested we put ourselves on house arrest. I decided to begin digesting books instead of devouring them whole. I resolved to read four poets at a time digesting a poem from one book before I moved to the next book back and…
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In Greening Wood
03/24 “One plods along in a state of amazement, sometimes smiling sometimes weeping.” Farid al-Din Attar from his poem ‘The Conference of Birds’ crows return from winter retreat robins strut on sandy ground pear tree hosts a cabaret of wrens jays and cardinals flash blue and red mockingbirds court along a fence woodpecker stalks a…
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Reading Bonhoeffer
a thousand times I died in books ___ every alternative seemed intolerable fanciful dreams waited for success ___ quiet and confident responsible people stood at a turning-point discernible in alternatives ___ nothing gracious or easy I grow closer everyday 3-23-20
My husband's poetry 