other people’s poetry
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‘(We lived in a cloud of recklessness)’ by Joshua Clover
We lived in a cloud of recklessness South of Market in a house with an accent when he said Taylorism it sounded like terrorism we lived in a cloud of restlessness and felt ourselves to be adrift east of China west of France south of Market north of Chance we lived in a fog of…
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‘The Swimmers’ by Edward Hirsch
We warbled on the muddy banks and waded up to our throats in the Delaware River, talking about Ovid washing himself in the Black Sea and Paul Celan floating face down in the Seine. We swam arm over arm through the green silt and coasted along on our backs, marveling and mourning for Shelley drowning…
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‘The Truth’ by Natasha Rao
I am only kind to my fatherin poems he will never read. I try to imagine him small the way my grandmother tells it: patient, deerlimbed, ponderingpolynomials. Wanting only a Toblerone bar for his birthdayto eat alone in his room away from the violence of explodingraindrops, pitiless Madras summer. I wonder if he is proudof…
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‘Molecules’ by Kate Daniels
Whether it’s true or not, that all our molecules replace themselves each seven years, his body seems halfway new again, one year into sobriety. I keep my distance now but recall his painful, ten-pound freight, the torpor of late-term pregnancy. All those final weeks, I rested, famished, calling for food I could spin into blood…
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‘Whoever You Are Holding Me Now In Hand’ by Walt Whitman
Whoever you are holding me now in hand,Without one thing all will be useless,I give you fair warning before you attempt me further,I am not what you supposed, but far different. Who is he that would become my follower?Who would sign himself a candidate for my affections? The way is suspicious, the result uncertain, perhaps…
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‘A Southern Tune’ by Li Yi
Married In Qutang To a trader From day to day In the Qutang Gorge The times of tides Seem easier kept Than the words of men Times I wish I were A boatman’s bride. Source: Wong, May, translator. In the Same Light: 200 Poems for Our Century: From the Migrants & Exiles of the Tang…
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‘Solve’ by Ariana Reines
I loathe youBut I will let you pass Through me. YourStupidity smeared all over me Your hot breath in my earTonight I am the only door Through which you can be madeTo disappear Source: Reines Ariana. Mercury. 1st ed. Fence Books 2011, p. 3.
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‘I Was Afraid of Dying’ by James Wright
Once,I was afraid of dyingIn a field of dry weeds.But now,All day long I have been walking among damp fields,Trying to keep still, listeningTo insects that move patiently.Perhaps they are sampling the fresh dew that gathers slowly In empty snail shellsAnd in the secret shelters of sparrow feathers fallen on the earth. Source: Wright, James.…
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‘Boer War Bread Strike’ by James Schuyler
Oversifted fine white flour with little crust and that not crisp We cannot fight on this glue give us the bread we are used to Of stone-ground flour the kissing-crust the color of the rest and baked right through Bread for bread, bread for the prisoners each craving what from his youth he ate not…
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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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