Friday, August 31, 2007

481. Litany - Billy Collins

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You are the bread and the knife, The crystal goblet and the wine . . . ––Jacques Crickillon You are the bread and the knife, the cr...
Wednesday, August 29, 2007

480. The Ball - Wislawa Szymborska

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Translated from the Polish by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh. As long as nothing can be known for sure (no signals have been picked ...
Monday, August 27, 2007

479. An Offer Received In This Morning's Mail - Amy Gerstler

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(On misreading an ad for a set of CDs entitled "Beethoven's Complete Symphonies.") The Musical Heritage Society invites you to...
Friday, August 24, 2007

478. Time - Carlos Drummond de Andrade

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Translated from the Portuguese by Laila Chris Who had this brilliant idea of cutting the time in slices Slices which were named YEARS He was...
Thursday, August 23, 2007

477. Keeping Things Whole - Mark Strand

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. In a field I am the absence of field. This is always the case. Wherever I am I am what is missing. When I walk I part the air and always t...
Monday, August 20, 2007

476. Consciousness - Wislawa Szymborska

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Translated from the Polish by Walter Whipple Consciousness does not vanish as dreams do. No noise, no bell scares her off, nor does any shou...
Friday, August 10, 2007

475. An Offer Received In This Morning's Mail - Amy Gerstler

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(On misreading an ad for a set of CDs entitled "Beethoven's Complete Symphonies.") The Musical Heritage Society invites you to...
Thursday, August 09, 2007

474. Looking For Poetry - Carlos Drummond de Andrade

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Translated from the Portuguese by Mark Strand Don't write poems about what's happening. Nothing is born or dies in poetry's pres...
Wednesday, August 08, 2007

473. Kyrielle - John Payne

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[EB: Kyrielle - French verse form in short, usually octosyllabic, rhyming couplets. The couplets are often paired in quatrains and are cha...
Tuesday, August 07, 2007

472. Thursday - William Carlos Williams

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. I have had my dream––like others–– and it has come to nothing, so that I remain now carelessly with feet planted on the ground and look up...
Monday, August 06, 2007

471. Old Man Eating Alone in a Chinese Restaurant - Billy Collins

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. I am glad I resisted the temptation, if it was a temptation when I was young, to write a poem about an old man eating alone at a corner ta...
Friday, August 03, 2007

470. Relport On Human Beings - Michael Goldman

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. You know about desks and noses, proteins, mortgages, orchestras, nationalities, contraceptives; you have our ruins and records, but they w...
Thursday, August 02, 2007

469. The Reckoning - Theodore Roethke

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All profits disappear: the gain Of ease, the hoarded, secret sum; And now grim digits of old pain Return to litter up our home. We hunt the ...
Wednesday, August 01, 2007

468. Evaluation Of An Unwritten Poem - Wislawa Szymborska

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Translated from the Polish by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh In the poem's opening words the authoress asserts that while the Ea...
Tuesday, July 31, 2007

467. The Horses Of Achilles - C. P. Cavafy

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Translated from the Greek by Rae Dalven When they saw that Patroclus was slain, who had been so stalwart, and strong, and young, the horses ...
Monday, July 30, 2007

466. The Peace Of Wild Things - Wendell Berry

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. When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may ...
Friday, July 27, 2007

465. Time - Carlos Drummond de Andrade

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Translated from the Portuguese by a. capeto Who had the idea of slicing time into pieces, which were given the name of year, was a genious p...
Thursday, July 26, 2007

464. New Year's Recipe - Carlos Drummond de Andrade

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Translated from the Portuguese by Jodey Bateman If you want to have a beautiful New Year The color of the rainbow or the color of your peace...
Wednesday, July 25, 2007

463. An Ox Looks At Man - Carlos Drummond de Andrade

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Translated from the Portuguese by Mark Strand They are more delicate even than shrubs and they run and run from one side to the other, alway...
Tuesday, July 24, 2007

462. The Poem - Babette Deutsch

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. The painter of Dante's awful ferry-ride Declared the world only a dictionary, Words, words, whose separate meanings must go wide Unles...