Poem A Day – Jan. 12, 2016
The Cry
Paisley Rekdal
A man can cry, all night, your back
shaking against me as your mother
sleeps, hooked to the drip
to clear her kidneys from their muck
of sleeping pills. Each ... Continue Reading →
Poem A Day – Jan. 11, 2016
Thin Ice
Ellen Dore Watson
Reedy striations don’t occlude the beneath-
earthy mash of leaves, flat pepper flakes, layered,
tips protruding, tender-desolate above a mirror
surface, ... Continue Reading →
Poem A Day – Jan. 10, 2016
Moth Moon
Florence Ripley Mastin
Moth Moon, a-flutter in the lilac tree,
With pollen of the white stars on thy wings,
Oh! would I shared thy flight, thy fantasy,
The aimless beauty ... Continue Reading →
Poem A Day – Jan. 9, 2016
Limitations
Henrietta Cordelia Ray
The subtlest strain a great musician weaves,
Cannot attain in rhythmic harmony
To music in his soul. May it not be
Celestial lyres send hints to him? ... Continue Reading →
Poem A Day – Jan. 8, 2016
Fog
Vi Khi Nao
the sun drops his knee on fog
a diurnal genuflection that
explains the lack of clarity in the prayer’s thought
when god prays to himself
using the fog’s opaque ... Continue Reading →
Poem A Day – Jan. 7, 2016
Emma Bovary
Monica Ferrell
I would have liked then for someone to touch me
So I could know the purpose of this hardship.
Black-eyed and impassive as a canyon,
From the hive of my mind, ... Continue Reading →
Poem A Day – Jan. 6, 2016
Sorcery
Sandra Simonds
I’m a witch who lost all her powers, then
in place of my powers, I got the coiled beauty
of seashells and sleeping infants. The coiled
beauty of eardrums, ... Continue Reading →
Poem A Day – Jan. 5, 2016
Letter Beginning with Two Lines by Czeslaw Milosz
Matthew Olzmann
You whom I could not save,
Listen to me.
Can we agree Kevlar
backpacks shouldn’t be needed
for children walking ... Continue Reading →
Poem A Day – Jan. 4, 2016
My Doubt
Jane Hirshfield
I wake, doubt, beside you,
like a curtain half-open.
I dress doubting,
like a cup
undecided if it has been dropped.
I eat doubting,
work doubting,
go out to ... Continue Reading →
Poem A Day – Jan. 3, 2016
The Answer
Carl Sandburg
You have spoken the answer.
A child searches far sometimes
Into the red dust
On a dark rose leaf
And so you have gone far
For the answer is:
Silence.
In the ... Continue Reading →
