other people’s poetry
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John Ashbery, 1927-2017
“Fear of Death” by John Ashbery What is it now with me And is it as I have become? Is there no state free from the boundry lines Of before and after? The window is open today And the air pours in with piano notes In its skirts, as though to say, “Look, John, I’ve…
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“Seven Aphorisms” by Alda Merini
I am a furious little bee. ◊ To mistake shit for chocolate is the privilege of the overeducated. ◊ Every man is a friend to his own pathology. ◊ I never speak when I am not turned on. ◊ The gun I point at my head is called poetry. ◊ Every tibia loves its fibula.…
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“Mocha Panties” by Arielle Greenberg
You have your skinny pants that you never wear but that are the barometer. You have your fat pants that you wear more than you need to. You have your period pants that are dark and thick and forgiving and comforting. You have your period panties. I have a new resolution not to wear my…
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“The Sausage Master of Minsk” by August Kleinzahler
I was sausage master of Minsk; young girls brought parsley to my shop and watched as I ground coriander, garlic and calves’ hearts. At harvest time they’d come with sheaves: hags in babushkas, girls plump as quail, wrapped in bright tunics, switching the flanks of oxen. Each to the other, beast and woman, goggle-eyed at…
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“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…
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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.
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Hezutsu Tōsaku (1726-1789)
Affluence—define it as: pickled greens, rice for supper, nice wine, one bottle, modest but never empty Source: Sato, Hiroaki, and Burton Watson. From the Country of Eight Islands: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987. Print.
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“Whatever the color and condition of things, open your eyes.”
Below is Robert Hass’s version of Aijaz Ahmad’s literal translation of a Ghalib ghazal: The happiness of a drop of water is to die into a river. When pain is unbearable, pain becomes the medicine. We are so weak our tears become a mild sighing. Now we really believe that water can turn into air.…
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“To Psychoanalysis” by Kenneth Koch
I took the Lexington Avenue subway To arrive at you in your glory days Of the Nineteen Fifties when we believed That you could solve any problem And I had nothing but disdain For “self-analysis” “group analysis” “Jungian analysis” “Adlerian analysis” the Karen Horney kind All—other than you, pure Freudian type— Despicable and never to…
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“Stray Beast” by Sarah Jean Grimm
I cannot recommend highly enough Sarah Jean Grimm‘s “Soft Focus” from Metatron out of Montreal. The poem above grabbed me by the throat. I still have the finger marks from last night’s reading. Buy the book (might I suggest the entire Spring 2017 catalog?) and support great, living poets.
wikipoem.org 