Tuesday, February 28, 2006

69. LEARNING - William Stafford

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A piccolo played then a drum. Feet began to come-a part of the music. Here came a horse, clippety clop, away. My mother said, "Don'...
Sunday, February 26, 2006

68. YOU AND ART - William Stafford

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. Your exact errors make a music that nobody hears. Your straying feet find the great dance, walking alone. And you live on a world where st...
Saturday, February 25, 2006

67. AT LEAST - Raymond Carver

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. I want to get up early one more morning, before sunrise. Before the birds, even. I want to throw cold water on my face and be at my work t...
Friday, February 24, 2006

66. FAMILY REUNION - Judith Viorst

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The first full-fledged family reunion Was held at the seashore With 9 pounds of sturgeon 7 pounds of corned beef 1 nephew who got the highes...
Sunday, February 19, 2006

65. EASTER MORNING - William Stafford

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. Maybe someone comes to the door and says, "Repent," and you say, "Come on in," and it's Jesus. That's when all...
Friday, February 17, 2006

64. BY A SWIMMING POOL OUTSIDE SYRACUSA - Billy Collins

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. All afternoon I have been struggling to communicate in Italian with Roberto and Giuseppe, who have begun to resemble the two male characte...
Tuesday, February 14, 2006

63. Excerpt from Preludes to Attitude, LVI - Conrad Aiken

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. Let us describe the evening as it is:— The stars disposed in heaven as they are: Verlaine and Shakspere rotting, where they rot, Rimbaud r...
Saturday, February 11, 2006

62. XXXIX IN MEMORY OF W. B. YEATS - W. H. Auden

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February 1939 1 He disappeared in the dead of winter: The brooks were frozen, the air-ports almost deserted, And snow disfigured the public ...
Thursday, February 09, 2006

61. THESAURUS - Billy Collins

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. It could be the name of a prehistoric beast that roamed the Paleozoic earth, rising up on its hind legs to show off its large vocabulary, ...
Monday, February 06, 2006

60. STONE VILLAGES - Joseph Brodsky

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. The stone-built villages of England. A cathedral bottled in a pub window. Cows dispersed across fields. A man in a moth-eaten suit sees a ...
Saturday, January 28, 2006

59. IT COMES DOWN TO THIS

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. Said Gandhi: What you do is of no importance, but it is very important you do it well. The report will only be read by your illiterat...
Wednesday, January 25, 2006

58. The Way It Is - William Stafford

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. There's a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But it doesn't change. People wonder about what you are pursuing...
Sunday, January 22, 2006

57. AN APOLOGY - F. J. Bergmann

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. Forgive me for backing over and smashing your red wheelbarrow. It was raining and the rear wiper does not work on my new plum-colored SUV....
Friday, January 20, 2006

56. A LETTER - Yehuda Amichai

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To sit on a hotel balcony in Jerusalem and to write: “Sweetly pass the days from desert to sea.” And to write: “Tears dry quickly here. This...
Monday, January 16, 2006

55. A HUNDRED YEARS - Shirley Daniels

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A HUNDRED YEARS - Shirley Daniels A hundred years have passed Yet I hear the distant beat of my father's drums. I hear his drums throu...
Saturday, January 14, 2006

54. THE AMERICAN LIVING-ROOM: A TRACT - William Meredith

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Embruted every faculty divine: Heart-buried in the rubbish of the world -Young, NIGHT THOUGHTS i Ideally, you should be...
Wednesday, January 11, 2006

53. THE ESCAPE - William Stafford

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Now as we cross this white page together people begin to notice us, and we cut back and pretend indifference, but all the time we pick up an...
Friday, January 06, 2006

52. Thermoplyae - C. P. Cavafy (1,2,3,4)

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Translated from the Greek by Edmund Keeley & Philip Sherrard (1) Honor to those who in the life they lead define and guard a Thermopyla...
Monday, January 02, 2006

51. THE LITTLE WAYS THAT ENCOURAGE GOOD FORTUNE - William Stafford

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. Wisdom is having things right in your life and knowing why. If you do not have things right in your life you will be overwhelmed: you may ...
Saturday, December 31, 2005

50. TWO MASKS UNEARTHED IN BULGARIA - William Meredith

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for Kolyo Sevov When God was learning to draw the human face I think he may have made a few like these that now look up at us through museum...