April 2012
122 posts
4 tags
Mass of Incandescent Gas
Poem submission by spontaneouspoetry
Oh sun up high, you bright and burning mass,
so luminescent, with your incandescent gas.
You warm the earth, so kind and cheerful,
you make the vampires so utterly fearful.
At times your light is white and pale,
at others, your yellow warmth does not fail.
I look to you, as I lay upon the grass,
my eyes are blinded, the light does not pass.
The...
4 tags
People don't talk enough.
Poem submission by tokyoshuynh
conversations held in whispers,
they keep their thoughts as secrets,
emotions nonexistent.
people don’t talk enough,
enough for them to feel
to feel - what is it to feel?
to steal a glance into the eyes of another, the life of another,
people are afraid to feel,
they are scared to embrace the emotions they are blessed with,
they run away from what makes us...
3 tags
Mary Jo Salter's "Peonies"
Beyond the merely pink and pretty, a great flower poem can deliver a powerful challenge, or, as in Mary Jo Salter’s “Peonies,” an uncanny arrival at floral abundance that is only in part familiar—it blooms with startling freshness in the right language.
- Knopf Poetry Team
***
Peonies
Heart-transplants my friend handed me:
four of her own peony bushes
in their fall disguise,...
4 tags
Hungry
Poem submission by rhymingrimer.tumblr.com
My empty stomach grumbled in acetic discontent, So through the kitchen, to the cupboard, searching I had went. But what I saw on oaken doors, whose shelves were always stocked, Was barren, stark depletion, and it faced me, and it mocked. But luckily, those bags of air had crumbly, crunchy chips, And when I sought those salty specks, delighted were mine...
4 tags
The Singing of Un-Praised Birds
Poem submission by ukuleleboy96.tumblr.com
To me you are the brightest star that shines above the sky,
You are the air that grasps my lungs as your beauty meets my eye,
To me you are the greenest grass, the flowers on it’s side,
You truly are the sweetest grape, the softest sounding tide,
I’d like to think this love I have, I can share with you one day,
But just now my hopes...
4 tags
Still Life
Poem submission by Tricia Callahan
This is still life.
She is still born. Still, she was born. This is still life.
Her phantom flutters your belly and you no longer need to sleep on your side,
so still, you lie
flat on your back, palms on skin are flat, for the first time.
Willing and wallowing and wailing.
Defeated, deflated. With hallowed eyes, we’re willing your crawl back to life,
to...
4 tags
John Milton's "At a Solemn Music"
A poem for Easter day from the great John Milton (1608-1674), whose wish that we “keep in tune with heaven” was most certainly a religious one, but is equally valid as a poetic desire.
- Knopf Poetry Team
***
At a Solemn Music
Blest pair of sirens, pledges of heaven’s joy,
Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse,
Wed your divine sounds, and mixed power employ,...
4 tags
Exorcising the Ghost of You
Poem submission by thetommytimes
The pain from yesterday lingers on,
a recurring nightmare that last for eons.
You said you’ll love me true,
But you left me blue.
I was a terrible lover,
that I knew.
But remaining true,
I never once withdrew.
I was mean,
I was blunt.
So I guess,
that honesty shredded us apart.
5 years I fought,
It ended up nought.
Struggling with a pessimist,...
4 tags
Homecoming
Poem submission by Robert L. Phillips
The fields swayed green as an emerald ocean
As we marched heads proud away,
Only to have them hung with regret
For that which we’d lost and never again regained;
For our lives had grown calloused
And we ourselves grown old,
While the fields remained young and green by comparison.
4 tags
When you are old and grey
Submission by The Voices Project
Click here to view a short film from Australia that features W.B. Yeats’ “When You are Old and Grey”.
4 tags
Sonnet 7
Poem submission by Joshua D. Nightingale
A philosopher walking through a wood
is a sight you really must see.
His feet don’t quite work like they should.
They swish, they swoosh, along the autumn alley
Trudging along; without way for clock’s cogs, caring not, are too busy.
Yes, while a thinker’s feet shamble slow
their mind is a whole different story.
It races along those golden paths,...
3 tags
J. D. McClatchy's "Mercury Dressing"
The title poem of J. D. McClatchy’s most recent collection brings us his vision of Mercury, the God of thievery and travel, swift bearer of messages in his winged sandals.
- Knopf Poetry Team
***
Mercury Dressing
To steal a glance and, anxious, see
Him slipping into transparency—
The feathered helmet already in place,
Its shadow fallen across his face
(His hooded sex its...
4 tags
Yellow and Red
Poem submission by charmingnostalgia.tumblr.com
Last night I dreamt
Of yellow and red
Orange grinned
Where our paths met We walked quite a way
We talked and we sang
Your laughter like bells
Chimed as it rang The surrounding air
was sprinkled with mist
Coated with warmth
Contentment and bliss
Your hand in mine
Was like the sun on the snow
Melting away
The bittersweet cold
But...
4 tags
The Rabbit and the Bird
Poem submission by Chris Ferchen
Humid June day.
A little girl plucks dandelions;
hums a happy tune.
High in the sky, she notices
a rabbit and a bird
waltzing above the trees.
The animals slide
across the cornflower sky,
dancing too close to the sun.
“No,” the girl pleads,
“don’t go,
please stay.”
She runs over to the patio
where her parents sit
and talk and sit and talk and—
The little...
4 tags
2 tags
Edward Hirsch's "Green Figs"
The impossibility of religious faith has been a theme in the work of Edward Hirsch over the years; yet in the presence of doubt, in the experience of yearning, in encountering a small yield of sweetness, he finds something perhaps equivalent, or faith enough. “Green Figs” seems appropriate reading for Good Friday as well as the first seder of Passover tonight.
- Knopf Poetry Team
...
4 tags
Dreamscape
Poem submission by Marna Ashburn Krajeski
The recital hall is packed and
I don’t know how to play
the piano. Today is the exam
and I haven’t been to class.
I’m late for the test, the airport,
the tournament. I’m on a slow bus
that stalls at every turn.
I have no music, no shoes, no ticket.
The show is starting and
I’m not ready, not where I’m
...
4 tags
Composition
Poem submission by Benvenuto Garisto
My eyes are made of glass, my bones are without mass.
My heart is made of soil, my blood will always boil.
My hair is made of silk, purer than a mother’s milk.
X and Y have come together, ground together into leather.
This is how I am made, manufactured, cannot trade.
This is how I am made, laid to rest, diamond grade.
4 tags
The Seasons - "Spring"
Poem submission by Nathan Skky
Let us be Spring — with flowers in our hair and sap in our veins and the song of Life on our lips, loosed as a babbling brook and birdsong.
Let us be joyous with the sun pouring from our eyes; with the wind whispering words in our ear as we dance, swaying like the trees in the breeze.
Yes, let us be Spring with rose-petal skin and eyes so green which pierce the...
4 tags
Spinoza
Poem submission by innana.tumblr.com
A double yellow line
Our polar bodies
If not attractive
Then at any rate, convincing
The way you breathe
Is greed itself
Your nostrils widening
This is the main mistake
Everyone makes:
Confusing imagination
For intellect,
And collectively failing
To exhale
innana.tumblr.com
