other people’s poems
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‘H’ by Claire Wahmanholm
Here: hold this handful of hail until it hurts. Hold this hog as it howls. Hook its hooves. Hold this hood over its eyes. Hold this hornet in your mouth. Hush, you’re home. How horrible is too horrible? How many holes is too many for a hull? Hold the hen, behead the hen, crush the…
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The Lady of the House Puts the Alarm Clock in a Drawer
‘Lightly, Very Lightly’ by Mary Ruefle It was raining. I could hear the raintaking the pins out of her mouth.Soft rain became hard rainso that hard things became soft things.The wet leaves under the trees became heavy as diapers,the book left openon the grasscould finally sink in her bathwithout a word,the way, after a hard…
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Good Blue Clay
Tanka, by Ono No Oyu The city of Nara of good blue clay glows like a blooming flower, now at its prime Source: Ono No Oyu. “Tanka.” From the Country of Eight Islands: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry, edited by Hiroaki Sato and Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987, p. 43. Photo: Church…
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‘The Damaged Ape’ by Russell Edson
A little piece of the ape’s nostril had fallen off; and then we noticed one of its ears was chipped. On closer examination we saw that one of its fingernails was missing. By this time, of course, we had grown to love the ape, but still we wondered if it shouldn’t be sent back for…
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‘American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin’ by Terrance Hayes
I only intend to send word to my futureSelf perpetuation is a war against TimeTravel is essentially the aim of any religionIs blindness the color one sees under waterBreath can be overshadowed in darknessThe benefits of blackness can seem radicalBlack people in America are rarely compulsiveIs forbidden the only word God doesn’t knowYou have to…
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‘When Adults Talk’ by Mary Ruefle
I am not even vaguely interested, though for a quarter I could be. I was not allowed to move but when my leg went deadI cheered it on in the first place. When they whisper they ought to wear a lead vest.Their lips look like personified oysters. When they shout it is usually addressedto the…
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‘Shhh’ by Eileen Myles
Shhh I don’t thinkI can afford the time to not sit right down &write a poem about the heavy liddedwhite rose I hold in my handI think of snowa winter night in Boston, drunken waitressstumble on a bus that careens throughSomerville the end of the linewhere I was born, an old manshaking me. He could’ve…
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“Ballad of the Savage Tiger” by Li He
No one attacks it with a long lance, No one plies a strong cross-bow. Suckling its grandsons, rearing its cubs, It trains them into savagery. Its reared head becomes a wall Its waving tail becomes a banner. Even Huang from the Eastern Sea,¹ Dreaded to see it after dark, A righteous tiger, met on the road,²…
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‘Afro’ by Morgan Parker
from There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé by Morgan Parker
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“Da Aforismi e Magie” by Alda Merini
Sono una piccola ape furibonda. ◊ Confondere la merda con la cioccolata é un privilegio delle persone estremamente colte. ◊ Oguno é amino della sua patalogia. ◊ Non parlo mai se non sono accesa. ◊ La pistola che ho puntato alla tempia si chiama Poesia. ◊ Ogni tibia ama la sua fibula. ◊ Alda Merini…
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