To a Husband / Amy Lowell
Brighter than fireflies upon the Uji River Are your words in the dark, Beloved
Tag: poem-club
Lament, For Cocoa / John Updike
The scum has come, My cocoa’s cold. The cup is numb, And I grow old. It seems an age Since from the pot It bubbled, beige And burning hot– Too hot to be Too quickly quaffed. Accordingly, I found a draft And in it […]
For One Who Is Exhausted, a Blessing / John O’Donohue
When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic, Time takes on the strain until it breaks; Then all the unattended stress falls in On the mind like an endless, increasing weight. The light in the mind becomes dim. Things you could take in your stride before Now become laborsome events of will. Weariness invades your […]
The Poem Climbs the Scaffold And Tells You What It Sees / Natasha Oladokun
Charlottesville, VA Driving alone down Old Lynchburg Road in the lilac haze of dusk it is so beautiful that for a moment you forget that the root word in this road you drive down every day is lynch that the origin of lynch as you know it comes from the name of men also named […]
Sneezles / A. A. Milne
Christopher Robin Had wheezles And sneezles, They bundled him Into His bed. They gave him what goes With a cold in the nose, And some more for a cold In the head. They wondered If wheezles Could turn Into measles, If sneezles Would turn Into mumps; They examined his chest For a rash, And the […]
Anthology games
The Most Anthologized Poems of the Last 25 Years Back at the end of July, a friend waved this article at me, figuring I’d be interested… after all, it has the words “poem” and “anthology” in the title: something I do, and someplace I aspire to more frequently be. Plus there’s always the school-y part […]
Vespers / Louise Glück
I know what you planned, what you meant to do, teaching me to love the world, making it impossible to turn away completely, to shut it out completely ever again— it is everywhere; when I close my eyes, birdsong, scent of lilac in early spring, scent of summer roses: you mean to take it away, […]
Upon My Dear And Loving Husband His Going Into England Jan. 16, 1661 / Anne Bradstreet
(translated by Jeannine Hensley) O thou Most High who rulest all And hear’st the prayers of thine, O hearken, Lord, unto my suit And my petition sign. Into Thy everlasting arms Of mercy I commend Thy servant, Lord. Keep and preserve My husband, my dear friend. At Thy command, O Lord, he went, Nor nought […]
Prayer / James Galvin
O, beginning, daughters of the earth await the sons of heaven, and vice versa. They all practice trigger-happiness and chicken scratch. They practice duration and meltdown. They primp in your glass. You think that’s funny? Never mind. It’s getting really cold in here. Who makes the introductions if not you? Who initiates the bliss, I […]
(no title) / Christina Rossetti
Lord, dost Thou look on me and will not I Launch out my heart to Heaven to look on Thee? Here if one loved me I should turn to see, And often think on him and often sigh, And by a tender friendship make reply To love gratuitous poured forth on me, And nurse a […]