Dusting by Marilyn Nelson from Magnificat Thank you for these tiny particles of ocean salt, pearl-necklace viruses, winged protozoans: for the infinite, intricate shapes of submicroscopic living things. For algae spores and fungus spores, bonded by vital mutual genetic cooperation, spreading their inseparable lives from equator to pole. My hand, my arm, make sweeping circles….
Yes by Tess Gallagher from Moon Crossing River Now we are like that flat cone of sand in the garden of the Silver Pavilion in Kyoto designed to appear only in moonlight. Do you want me to mourn? Do you want me to wear black? Or like moonlight on whitest sand to use your dark,…
Gathering Leaves in Grade School by Judith Harris from The Literary Review, Fall 2008 They were smooth ovals, and some the shade of potatoes– some had been moth-eaten or spotted, the maples were starched, and crackled like campfire. We put them under tracing paper and rubbed our crayons over them, X-raying the spread of their…
A Good List (Homage to Lorenz Hart) Brad Leithauser Curves and Angles Some nights, can’t sleep, I draw up a list, Of everything I’ve never done wrong. To look at me now, you might insist My list could hardly be long, But I’ve stolen no gnomes from my neighbor’s yard, Nor struck his dog, backing…
blessing the boats (at St. Mary’s) by Lucille Clifton Quilting: Poems 1987-1990 may the tide that is entering even now the lip of our understanding carry you out beyond the face of fear may you kiss the wind then turn from it certain that it will love your back may you open your eyes to…
Sparrows by Christopher Buckley from Dust Light, Leaves Like the poor, they are with us always . . . what they lack in beauty is theirs in good cheer—tails like pump handles lifting them first among songsters, chiding city light or roadside to evening’s praise. Gristmills, hardy gleaners, but for them the weeds and thorns…
When I was in college in my 20s at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (commuting from my parents land), I was part of the editorial team for their literary magazine “Sou’wester.” My poem “Under Mama’s Yew Tree” (later published in “Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary”) was given some very encouraging words from Galway Kinnell. Because of…
The Avalanche Linda Hogan Savings Just last month the avalanches like good women were headed for a downfall. I saw one throw back her head and let go of the world. No more free soup bones for that one. No more faces of friends at the door with doilies and lace, with ivory charms carved…
Vegetable Love in Texas by Carol Coffee Reposa Texas Poetry Calendar: 2008 Farmers say There are two things Money can’t buy: Love and homegrown tomatoes. I pick them carefully. They glow in my hands, shimmer Beneath their patina of warm dust Like talismen. Perhaps they are. Summer here is a crucible That melts us down…
These Days by Charles Olson from “Collected Poems of Charles Olson—Excluding Maximus Poems” whatever you have to say, leave the roots on, let them dangle And the dirt Just to make clear where they come from