Sweet dreams
Last Night As I Was Sleeping by Antonio Machado translated by Robert Bly Last night as I was sleeping, I dreamt—marvelous error!— that a spring was breaking out in my heart. I said: Along which secret aqueduct, Oh water, are you coming to me, water of a new life that I have never […]
MoreBloody beautiful
to my last period by Lucille Clifton well, girl, goodbye, after thirty-eight years. thirty-eight years and you never arrived splendid in your red dress without trouble for me somewhere, somehow. now it is done, and i feel just like the grandmothers who, after the hussy has gone, sit holding her photograph and […]
MoreThe awkward stage: love’s secret agent
My Life Before I Knew It by Lawrence Raab I liked rainy days when you didn’t have to go outside and play. At night I’d tell my sister there were snakes under her bed. When I mowed the lawn I imagined being famous. Cautious and stubborn, unwilling to fail, I knew for […]
MoreNot crazy, just happy
For the Moment by Pierre Revardy translated by Kenneth Rexroth Life is simple and gay The bright sun rings with a quiet sound The sound of the bells has quieted down This morning the light hits it all The footlights of my head are lit again And the room I live in is […]
MoreA powerful woman on powerlessness
The Slave Auction by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper The sale began—young girls were there, Defenseless in their wretchedness, Whose stifled sobs of deep despair Revealed their anguish and distress. And mothers stood, with streaming eyes, And saw their dearest children sold; Unheeded rose their bitter cries, While tyrants bartered them for gold. […]
MoreAnd the bride wore dignity
Thompson and Seaman Vows, African Union Church (ca. 1847) by Marilyn Nelson Miss Charlotte Thompson, daughter of Ada Thompson of Seneca and the late John, and Timothy James Seaman, son of the late Nancy Seaman, on Sunday. Reverend Rush performed the ceremony. The bride (twenty-four) was educated by a literate friend, and by […]
MoreI can’t see because I’m not looking
For no particular reason, a poem for Black History Month in the produce section of a grocery store. Wonder who found it. American History by Michael S. Harper Those four black girls blown up in that Alabama church remind me of five hundred middle passage blacks, in a net, under water […]
More10th Annual Valentines Day (kind-of-a) Poem (kind-of-a) Blitz
Longtime readers of this blog know that I celebrate February 14th with a Valentines Day Poem Blitz. I try to post poems featuring every kind of love—romantic, platonic, familial, and whatever you call love of the earth. I’ll usually throw in a poem for the broken-hearted as well. This year it’s going to […]
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