Laure-Anne Bosselaar: Brief
It happens so often: there — somewhere
in a line, waiting room or store — I see you,
& it’s something about your work-wrecked
hands, cow-lick, the perfect curl of your lips
Naomi Shihab Nye: Bees Were Better
I studied bees, who were able
to convey messages through dancing
and could find their ways
home to their hives
Emily Suzanne Carlson: Motherhood
I want
the officers to hang their shields
like wind chimes from the plum tree’s
branches.
Alice Friman: Puddles
As if overnight, the flowering pear tree
is flowering. A froth of white.
James Crews: We Are Constellations
So much coexists in the heart’s container,
as in a carved teak bowl on the table.
Phyllis Bennis: Why False Accusations of Anti-Semitism Are So Harmful
Bad-faith smears of Rep. Ilhan Omar and many others are being used to crush Palestinian rights, undermine social movements, and divert attention from real anti-Semitism.
Barbara Hamby: Ode to My Younger Self
You were so beautiful and stupid though you thought
you were smart, and in a way you were,
because you loved poetry and Beethoven and apples
Michael Simms: Magnolia
Suppose you held what you love so tightly
you broke it
Suppose you let something slip away
Pascale Petit: Hummer
The suitcase I found
on the shelf above his bed, with its jars
of mummified occupants, how I unwrapped
the photo curled around each hummingbird couple
like a sarcophagus
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: The Medicine of Surrender
It’s like opening the dictionary
to the word heaven. Or obliteration.
And knowing it’s the same thing.
Joan E. Bauer: The Apple Pan on Pico
When you are seeking greatness, turn to the Apple Pan, a homey 1940s institution imitated everywhere from Duluth, Minn., to Bahrain. — Jonathan Gold, Los Angeles Times food critic, 2013 … Continue reading
Toi Derricotte: Invisible Dreams
I have to make a
place for my body in
my body.
Joanne Durham: Becoming Educated
No one spoke
of their exodus, how they fled homes
stolen or burned
Theodore Roethke: The Waking
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
