Category: American Poets
-
The Giver (for Berdis)
By James Baldwin If the hope of givingis to love the living,the giver risks madnessin the act of giving. Some such lesson I seemed to seein the faces that surrounded me. Needy and blind, unhopeful, unlifted,what gift would give them the gift to be gifted? The giver is no less adrift […]
-
Love I’m done with you
By Ross Gay You ever wake up with your footie PJs warmingyour neck like a noose? Ever upchuckafter a home-cooked meal? Or noticehow the blood on the bottoms of your feetjust won’t seem to go away? Love, it used to beyou could retire your toothbrush for like two or three days and stillI’d push my […]
-
Exhumation of the Heart
By Christian Garduno I’ve been gone so longsomeone else lives there, it’s someone else’s homeeven though I do think about that tiny house sometimesit might have been the only place I could have had it allbut I listened to too many songs about Boxcar Samnow, half a lifetime later, I’ve officially become Boxcar Sambut missing […]
-
A Glimpse
By Walt Whitman A glimpse through an interstice caught, Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around the stove late of a winter night, and I unremark’d seated in a corner, Of a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently approaching and seating himself near, that he may hold me […]
-
Forbidden City
By Gail Mazur Asleep until noon, I’m dreamingwe’ve been granted another year. You’re here with me, healthy.Then, half-awake, the half-truth— this is our last day. Life’s leakingaway again, and this time, we know it. Dear body, I told you, pleading,Don’t Leave! but I understand you can’t say anything. Who are we?Are we fictional? We don’t […]
-
Praise the Rain
By Joy Harjo Praise the rain; the seagull diveThe curl of plant, the raven talk—Praise the hurt, the house slackThe stand of trees, the dignity—Praise the dark, the moon cradleThe sky fall, the bear sleep—Praise the mist, the warrior nameThe earth eclipse, the fired leap—Praise the backwards, upward skyThe baby cry, the spirit food—Praise canoe, […]
-
Are you the New Person Drawn Towards me?
By Walts Whitman Are you the new person drawn toward me? To begin with, take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose; Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal? Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover? Do you think the friendship of me would […]
-
Lift Every Voice and Sing
By James Weldon Johnson Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise High as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full […]
-
Spring time in Japan
By Ronald J Chapman She’s a powerful and strong princess,With magical super powers. She thinks of time’s past,She thinks of times yet to come. She loves to travel through Europe,But her dreams are of Japan,And singing under Sakura trees in the springtime of Japan. I notice the way she thinks about Japan always with a […]
-
America
By Walt Whitman Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,Chair’d in the adamant of Time.
-
Oh Captain my Captain
By Walt Whitman O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, […]
-
The Secret
By Charles Buskowski Don’t worry, nobody has thebeautiful lady, not really, andnobody has the strange andhidden power, nobody isexceptional or wonderful ormagic, they only seem to beit’s all a trick, an in, a con,don’t buy it, don’t believe it.the world is packed withbillions of people whose livesand deaths are useless andwhen one of these jumps […]
-
An African Elegy
By Robert Duncan
-
He “had not where to place his head.”
Frances Harper The conies had their hiding place, The Willy fox with stealthy tread. A covert found but Christ, the Lord had not a place to lay his head. The eagle had an eyrie home, the blithesome bird it quiet rest, But not the humblest spot on earth Was by the son of God possessed. […]
-
Drought
Madison Cawein The road is drowned in dust; the winds vibrate. With heat and noise of insect wings that sting The stridulous noon with sound; no waters sing; Weeds crowd the path and barricade the gate. Within the garden summer seems to wait. Among her flowers, dead or withering; About her skirts the tussle bristles […]
POETISHES 