writing
Bedtime series, part 3: insomniac’s edition
Solitaire by Amy Lowell When night drifts along the streets of the city, And sifts down between the uneven roofs, My mind begins to peek and peer. It plays at ball in odd, blue Chinese gardens, And shakes wrought dice-cups in Pagan temples Amid the broken flutings of white pillars. It dances with […]
MoreIs that all there is to a six-legged dog?
County Fair by Charles Simic If you didn’t see the six-legged dog, It doesn’t matter. We did, and he mostly lay in the corner. As for the extra legs, One got used to them quickly And thought of other things. Like, what a cold, dark night To be out at […]
MoreThe Grace of Influence
When Giving Is All We Have by Alberto Ríos One river gives Its journey to the next. We give because someone gave to us. We give because nobody gave to us. We give because giving has changed us. We give because giving could have changed us. We have […]
MoreNaughty or nice (or all of the above)
In Mind There’s in my mind a woman of innocence, unadorned but fair-featured and smelling of apples or grass. She wears a utopian smock or shift, her hair is light brown and smooth, and she is kind and very clean without ostentation– but she has no imagination […]
MoreJolly melancholy
In spite of the name on the window, this cafe makes me sad. Laptop and thesaurus in hand, I had stopped by Jolly’s in northern Michigan the other day and found the door locked, the tables gone, and a sign on the door saying thanks for three great years. Jolly’s Cafe is […]
MoreSomething that was meant to be an anniversary card
Love Poem With Toast by Miller Williams Some of what we do, we do to make things happen, the alarm to wake us up, the coffee to perc, the car to start. The rest of what we do, we do trying to keep something from doing something, the skin from aging, the hoe from rusting, […]
MoreHappy to be the biggest fool
I was stepping out the door into a thunderstorm with a shoebox of poems when my husband asked where I was going. “An errand for my blog,” I said. He looked at the weather and looked at the poems bundled in a protective garbage bag and said, “Sometimes I think you’re a […]
MoreCoffee, tea or Coleridge?
National Poem in Your Pocket Day is a good day to be a poem elf. So many pockets to fill, so many poems to share. Last year I set up my very first take-a-poem box at the post office. I saved the box to use again, but when I pulled it out of […]
MoreWe have ways of making you squawk
Carrying On like a Crow by Charles Simic Are you authorised to speak For these trees without leaves? Are you able to explain What the wind intends to do With a man’s shirt and a woman’s nightgown Left on the laundry line? What do you know about dark clouds? Ponds full of fallen […]
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