other people’s poetry
-
‘Magpiety’ by Czeslaw Milosz
The same and not quite the same, I walked through oak forests Amazed that my Muse, Mnemosyne, Has in no way diminished my amazement. A magpie was screeching and I said: Magpiety? What is magpiety? I shall never achieve A magpie heart, a hairy nostril over the beak, a flight That always renews just when…
-
“Feminist Modes of Production” by Arielle Greenberg
This poem appears in Arielle Greenberg’s 2015 book “Slice” from Coconut Press. Her work is brilliant, please support her writing.
-
‘What’ by James Schuyler
What’s in those pills? After lunch and I can hardly keep my eyes open. Oh, for someone to talk small talk with. Even a dog would do. Why are they hammering iron outside? And what is that generator whose fierce hum comes in the window? What is a poem, anyway. The daffodils, the heather and…
-
“What Rings But Can’t Be Answered” by Rebecca Lindenberg
You are beautiful as a telephone, colors of bone, rocket ship, and cocktail lounge— Hmm, says the neon sign, starting an unfinishable thought. Where do we go from here? I’m a balloon, each minute you don’t call is a breath you blow into me. I want to be the crackers in your soup, I want…
-
Kino Sadamaru (1760-1841)
Though this body, I know, is a thing of no substance, must it fade, alas, so swiftly, like a soundless fart? Source: Sato, Hiroaki, and Burton Watson. From the Country of Eight Islands: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987. Print.
-
‘Delirium for the Four Legs of a Love’ by Dimitris Athinakis (trans. Karen Emmerich)
I see your yesses coming from afar and my own, like candles, brandish and burn awaiting the centuries A strong wind carries off my hat my glasses my tattoo my arm carries off my leg and an eye [I’m left there smiling before jets gushing the joy of nothingness] joy — it too alone Stay,…
-
‘Lightning Bugs’ by August Kleinzahler
A cruel word at eventide and night zips up like a spider’s retreat. Go back to your febrile needlework. We shall not be chasing lightning bugs in the tall grass tonight. Put the whiskey on the shelf and let us speak calmly of money. Source: Kleinzahler, August. Live from the Hong Kong Nile…
wikipoem.org 