RSS Feed Details
Poem Of The Day
|
|
|
Copyright: & 2013 Poetry Foundation
Link: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/
Description: Featured poem of the day.
RSS Feed Content
Poem Of The Day: Women Like Me
Published: Wednesday May 22nd 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/238966
Description: making promises they can’t keep.For you, Grandmother, I said I would pulleach invading burr and thistle from your skin,cut out the dizzy brittle eucalypt,take from the ground the dark oily poison–all to restore you happy and proud,the whole of you transformedand bursting into tomorrow. But where do I cut first Where should I begin to pull Should it be the Russian thistledown the hill where backhoeshave bitten Or African senecioor tumbleweed bouncingabove the wind Or the middle ... read more »
Poem Of The Day: Habeas Corpus
Published: Tuesday May 21st 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/31268
Description: Knots, a thousand lights, in sheer dark, aimed at my window, tinny crystals, so mother dies in my sleep. The snow turns coarse, goes out. An axe sounds where I'd never heard an axe before. Breathing becomes dangerous. I can't help it, making me her, even before I was born, her brain burning out patterns I follow like will o' the wisps, sparks popping. I put on heels and find I can balance, twist... read more »
Poem Of The Day: Song
Published: Monday May 20th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/239120
Description: I found my muster station, sir.My skin is patent leather.The tourists are recidivists.This calm is earthquake weather.I’ve used up all the mulligans.I’d kill to share a vice.The youngster reads a yellowed Oui.The socialite has lice.The Europe trip I finally tookwas rash and Polaroid,was gilt, confit, and bathhouse foam.And I cannot avoidthe end: I will not die in Paris,won’t rest for good behinda painted mausoleum door.The purser will not findme mummified beneath your tulle,and... read more »
Poem Of The Day: I Dreamed That I Was Old
Published: Sunday May 19th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/171848
Description: I dreamed that I was old: in stale declension Fallen from my prime, when company Was mine, cat-nimbleness, and green invention, Before time took my leafy hours away. My wisdom, ripe with body’s ruin, found Itself tart recompense for what was lost In false exchange: since wisdom in the ground Has no apocalypse or pentecost. I wept for my youth, sweet passionate young thought, And cozy women dead that by my side Once lay: I wept with bitter longing, not Remember... read more »
Poem Of The Day: An Inquiry Into The Nature And Causes Of The Wealth Of Nations
Published: Saturday May 18th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/245798
Description: Compiling this landmark anthology of poetry in English about dogs and musical instruments is like swimming through bricks. To date, I have only, “On the Death of Mrs. McTuesday’s Pug, Killed by a Falling Piano,” a somewhat obvious choice. True, an Aeolian harp whispers alluringly in the background of the anonymous sonnet, “The Huntsman Hound,” but beyond that silence. I should resist this degrading donkey-work in favor of my own writing, wherein c... read more »
Poem Of The Day: The Reason
Published: Friday May 17th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/176211
Description: My life is vile I hate it so ’ll wait awhile And then I’ll go. Why wait at all Hope springs alive, Good may befall I yet may thrive. It is because I can’t make up my mind If God is good, impotent or unkind.Stevie Smith, “The Reason” from New Selected Poems. Copyright © 1972 by Stevie Smith. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.Source: The New Selected Poems of Stevie Smith New Directions Publish... read more »
Poem Of The Day: Break Of Day In The Trenches
Published: Thursday May 16th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/2738
Description: The darkness crumbles away.It is the same old druid Time as ever, Only a live thing leaps my hand,A queer sardonic rat,As I pull the parapet s poppy To stick behind my ear.Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew Your cosmopolitan sympathies.Now you have touched this English hand You will do the same to a German Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure To cross the sleeping green between. It seems you inwardly grin as you pass Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes, Less chanced than you fo... read more »
Poem Of The Day: My Mother Contemplating Her Gun
Published: Wednesday May 15th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/182172
Description: One boyfriend said to keep the bullets locked in a different room. Another urged clean it or it could explode. Larry thought I should keep it loaded under my bed, you never know. I bought it when I didn’t feel safe. The barrel is oily, reflective, the steel pure, pulled from a hole &n read more »
Poem Of The Day: Ave Maria
Published: Tuesday May 14th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/171382
Description: Mothers of America let your kids go to the movies get them out of the house so they won’t know what you’re up to’s true that fresh air is good for the body but what about the soul that grows in darkness, embossed by silvery images and when you grow old as grow old you m read more »
Poem Of The Day: When I Am Asked
Published: Monday May 13th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/26141
Description: When I am asked how I began writing poems, I talk about the indifference of nature. It was soon after my mother died, a brilliant June day, everything blooming. I sat on a gray stone bench in a lovingly planted garden, but the day lilies were as deaf as the ears of drunken sleepers and the roses curved inward. Nothing was black or broken and not a leaf fell and the sun blared endless commercials for summer holidays. I sat... read more »
Poem Of The Day: Waterwings
Published: Sunday May 12th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/172141
Description: The mornings are his, blue and white like the tablecloth at breakfast.’s happy in the house, a sweep of the spoon brings the birds under his chair. He sings and the dishes disappear. Or holding a crayon like a candle, he draws a circle. It is his hundredth dragonfly. Calling for more paper, this one is red-winged and like the others, he wills it to fly, simply by the unformed curve of his signature. Waterwings he calls them, the floats I strap to his arms. I wear an apr... read more »
Poem Of The Day: What I Learned From My Mother
Published: Saturday May 11th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/178168
Description: I learned from my mother how to love the living, to have plenty of vases on hand in case you have to rush to the hospital with peonies cut from the lawn, black ants still stuck to the buds. I learned to save jars large enough to hold fruit salad for a whole grieving household, to cube home-canned pears and peaches, to slice through maroon grape skins and flick out the sexual seeds with a knife point. I learned to attend viewings even if I didn’t know the deceased, to press the moist hands ... read more »
Poem Of The Day: The Hen Swallows A Worm Or Slug
Published: Friday May 10th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/237712
Description: We scratch at the backyard togetherthrough leaf mould, worm casings she kicks offin a fan behind her. I use a stickto dig, to find for her what she’s shown menear the roots, at the edge of a step—stickyslug on the underside of a hosta’s leaf.How complicated she is and how resigned.Between her beak and my outstretched hand,the worm’s writhing. Then the long slick goingdown. It fills the throat, like all that’s swallowed. Her head chucks it back, for the wor... read more »
Poem Of The Day: Mothers
Published: Thursday May 9th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/177837
Description: the last time i was home to see my mother we kissed exchanged pleasantries and unpleasantries pulled a warm comforting silence around us and read separate books i remember the first time i consciously saw her we were living in a three room apartment on burns avenue mommy always sat in the dark i don’t know how i knew that but she did that night i stumbled into the kitchen maybe because i’ve always been a night person or perhaps because i had wet the bed she was sitting on a... read more »
Poem Of The Day: Riprap
Published: Wednesday May 8th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/176577
Description: Lay down these words Before your mind like rocks. placed solid, by hands In choice of place, set Before the body of the mind in space and time: Solidity of bark, leaf, or wall riprap of things: Cobble of milky way, straying planets, These poems, people, lost ponies with Dragging saddles— and rocky sure-foot trails. The worlds like an endless four-dimensional Game of Go. read more »
Poem Of The Day: Among The Rocks
Published: Tuesday May 7th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/173000
Description: Oh, good gigantic smile o the brown old earth, This autumn morning How he sets his bonesTo bask i the sun, and thrusts out knees and feet For the ripple to run over in its mirth; Listening the while, where on the heap of stonesThe white breast of the sea-lark twitters sweet.That is the doctrine, simple, ancient, true; Such is life s trial, as old earth smiles and knows. If you loved only what were worth your love,Love were clear gain, and wholly well for you: Make the low na... read more »
Poem Of The Day: With A Glance Of Your Eyes...
Published: Monday May 6th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/1899
Description: XIIWith a glance of your eyes you could plunder all the wealth of songs struck from poets harps, fair woman But for their praises you have no ear; therefore do I come to praise you.You could humble at your feet the proudest heads of all the world;But it is your loved ones, unknown to fame, whom you choose to worship; therefore I worship you.Your perfect arms would add glory to kingly splendor with their touch;But you use them to sweep away the dust, and to make clean your humble home; therefore ... read more »
Poem Of The Day: Sales
Published: Sunday May 5th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/236860
Description: Miguel might, if he speaks English, call the colorsof ukuleles stretching their necks from yardsof canvas duffel yoked across his shoulders,auroral azul, cherry pop, or mojito green,under this Pac Heights sky where the awful richsnap their heels past shop windows, past goatskin bagsand spiked heels that bring them closer to heaven, bristic sheets of celadon paper from Zhejiang,FIAT cremini, and Cinco de Mayo gelato.Smiling past them, he passes with his happy load,a display model whole and nude i... read more »
Poem Of The Day: O Best Of All Nights, Return And Return Again
Published: Saturday May 4th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/175666
Description: How she let her long hair down over her shoulders, making a love cave around her face. Return and return again. How when the lamplight was lowered she pressed against him, twining her fingers in his. Return and return again. How their legs swam together like dolphins and their toes played like little tunnies. Return and return again. How she sat beside him cross-legged, telling him stories of her childhood. Return and return again. How she closed her eyes when his were open, how they breathed to... read more »
Poem Of The Day: The Secret
Published: Friday May 3rd 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/178477
Description: Two girls discover the secret of life in a sudden line of poetry. I who don’t know the secret wrote the line. They told me through a third person they had found it but not what it was not even what line it was. No doubt by now, more than a week later, they have forgotten the secret, the line, the name of the poem. I love them for finding what I can’t find, and for loving me for the line I wrote, and for ... read more »
Poem Of The Day: I Asked Myself / What, Sappho, Can...
Published: Thursday May 2nd 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/245752
Description: I asked myself What, Sappho, can you give one who has everything, like Aphrodite Sappho, " I askeed myself / What, Sappho, can... " from Sappho, translated by Mary Barnard, published by the University of California Press. Copyright © 2012 by The Estate of Mary Barnard. Reprinted by permission of Estate of Mary Barnard.Source: Sappho, Translated by Mary Barnard University of California Press, 2012 SapphoBiographyMore poems by this author read more »
Poem Of The Day: Shirt
Published: Wednesday May 1st 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/177167
Description: The back, the yoke, the yardage. Lapped seams, The nearly invisible stitches along the collar Turned in a sweatshop by Koreans or Malaysians Gossiping over tea and noodles on their break Or talking money or politics while one fitted This armpiece with its overseam to the band Of cuff I button at my wrist. The presser, the cutter, The wringer, the mangle. The needle, the union, The treadle, the bobbin. The code. The infamous blaze At the Triangle Factory in nineteen-eleven. One hundred and forty-... read more »
Poem Of The Day: A Man Said To The Universe
Published: Tuesday April 30th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/173305
Description: A man said to the universe: “Sir, I exist “However,” replied the universe, “The fact has not created in me “A sense of obligation.”Stephen CraneBiographyMore poems by this author read more »
Poem Of The Day: Meds
Published: Monday April 29th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/245092
Description: 1. Living from pill to pill, from bed to couch, what doesn’t kill me only makes me dizzy. Pain dissolves like chalk in water, grit on the bottom of the glass. Waiting takes forever, throbs to the soles of my feet, Bella noche . . . Hives as large as mice hump up under my skin “no more barbiturates for you, Cynthia ” —itch, stretch, I don’t fit my flesh— sting, tingle, prick, the sorcerer’s threat. There’s a knife stabbed thr... read more »
Poem Of The Day: For Love
Published: Sunday April 28th 2AM
Link: http://poetryfoundation.org/poem/17869
Description: Yesterday I wanted to speak of it, that sense above the others to me important because all that I know derives from what it teaches me. Today, what is it that is finally so helpless, different, despairs of its own statement, wants to turn away, endlessly to turn away. If the moon did not ... no, if you did not I wouldn’t either, but what would I not do, what prevention, what thing so quickly stopped. That is love yesterday or tomorrow, not now. Can I... read more »