Friday, October 31, 2008

735. True Love - Wislawa Szymborska

›
Translated from the Polish by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh. True love. Is it normal is it serious, is it practical? What does the ...
Tuesday, October 28, 2008

734. Morning - Billy Collins

›
. Why do we bother with the rest of the day, the swale of the afternoon, the sudden dip into evening, then night with his notorious perfumes...
Thursday, October 23, 2008

733. Nude Descending A Staircase - X. J. Kennedy

›
Toe upon toe, a snowing flesh, A gold of lemon, root and rind, She sifts in sunlight down the stairs With nothing on. Nor on her mind. We...
Wednesday, October 22, 2008

732. A Portrait of the Reader with a Bowl of Cereal - Billy Collins

›
"A Poet . . . never speaks directly, as to someone at the breakfast table." — Yeats Every morning I sit across from you at the sa...
Thursday, October 16, 2008

731. Horace - Book II. Ode 16

›
Translated from the Latin by Mark Strand When storm clouds closing in darken the sea and cover the moon and hide the stars that might have g...
Tuesday, October 14, 2008

730. Horace - Book I. Ode 11

›
Translated from the Latin by Heather McHugh Don't ask, Clarice, we're not supposed to know what end the gods intend for us. Take my ...
Wednesday, October 08, 2008

729. Domestic Interior - Eavan Boland

›
The woman is as round as the new ring ambering her finger. The mirror weds her. She has long since been bedded. There is about it all a quie...
Monday, October 06, 2008

728. My Special Love In Passing - James Kavanaugh

›
. You are my special love in passing, My fantasy bond for times alone. You'll never know my lips, But our eyes have met And said more th...
Friday, October 03, 2008

727. Staying at Ed's Place - May Swenson

›
. I like being in your apartment, and not disturbing anything. As in the woods I wouldn't want to move a tree, or change the play of sun...
Wednesday, October 01, 2008

726. May 16,1973 -Wislawa Szymborska

›
Translated from the Polish by Walter Whipple One of those many dates which no longer say anything to me. Where I went that day, what I did––...
Monday, September 29, 2008

725. The Old Writers' Welcome to the New - William Stafford

›
. Somewhere out there new light is crossing a field. Our time, long preparing for this, carefully comes near. Without our knowing, our lives...
Thursday, September 25, 2008

724. Welcome - Stephen Dunn

›
. if you believe nothing is always what's left after a while, as I did, If you believe you have this collection of ungiven gifts, as I d...
Tuesday, September 23, 2008

723. I Laugh And Cry With The Same Eyes - James Kavanaugh

›
. I laugh and cry with the same eyes, Love and hate with the same heart. I feel my rage and my gentleness, My sanity and suicide. When I hid...
Friday, September 19, 2008

721. We Knew The World Backwards And Forwards - Wislawa Szymborska

›
Translated from the Polish by Joanna Trzeciak We knew the world backwards and forwards So small it fit in a handshake So easy it could be ...
Monday, September 15, 2008

720. The Printer's Error - Aaron Fogel

›
. Fellow compositors and pressworkers! I, Chief Printer Frank Steinman, having worked fifty- seven years at my trade, and served five years ...
Thursday, September 11, 2008

719. Waking At 3 a.m. - William Stafford

›
. Even in the cave of the night when you wake and are free and lonely, neglected by others, discarded, loved only by what doesn't matter...
Wednesday, September 10, 2008

718. Essy On The Personal - Stephen Dunn

›
. Because finally the personal is all that matters, we spend years describing stones, chairs, abandoned farmhouses-- until we're ready. ...
Tuesday, September 09, 2008

717. Wait - Galway Kinnell

›
(to someone contemplating suicide) Wait, for now. Distrust everything, if you have to. But trust the hours. Haven't they carried you eve...
Monday, September 08, 2008

716. Scouting - Philip Levine

›
. I'm the man who gets off the bus at the bare junction of nothing with nothing, and then heads back to where we've been as thou...
Friday, September 05, 2008

715. Myrtle - John Ashbery

›
. How funny your name would be if you could follow if back to where the first person thought of saying it, naming himself that, or maybe som...