Video: The HU
The HU is a band from Mongolia that blends heavy metal and traditional Mongolian throat singing. Some of the band’s lyrics include old Mongolian war cries and poetry.
Video: Willie Nelson’s new song “Immigrant Eyes” (with lyrics)
It turns out that Oscar Alberto Martínez and his 23-month-old daughter Angie Valeria were just two of dozens who’ve died in the Rio Grande this year. In this spirit, here’s Willie Nelson’s new song celebrating immigrants.
Danusha Laméris: Insha’Allah
How lightly we learn to hold hope,
as if it were an animal that could turn around
and bite your hand.
Chard deNiord: I stand beneath the mountain with an illiterate heart
The darkness of my sacred ignorance enlightens me.
Cornelius Eady: Charlie Chaplin Impersonates a Poet
Here is the little tramp, standing
On a stack of books in order
To reach the microphone
Rachel Carson: The Beauties and Mysteries of the Earth
If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.
James Wright: To a Blossoming Pear Tree
Beautiful natural blossoms,
Pure delicate body,
You stand without trembling.
Little mist of fallen starlight,
Perfect, beyond my reach
Meg Pokrass: Quack
He tells her this: “When ejaculating, I quack.” “Promise?”She’s poking water next to him — tipping front, then back, and then over again, looking at the sky, sideways.He gets her feathers … Continue reading
Bill Traylor: Sidewalk Genius
Born into slavery, Traylor spent the majority of his life after emancipation as a sharecropper. It was only after 1939, following his move to Montgomery, Alabama that Traylor began to draw. At the age of 85, he took up a pencil and a scrap of cardboard to document his recollections and observations. From 1939 to 1942, while working on the sidewalks of Montgomery, Traylor produced nearly 1,500 pieces of art.
Laure-Anne Bosselaar: Briar
A friend betrayed me yesterday. I loved him for his rage, hungers & big flat feet he stomped . as if he wanted to leave imprints everywhere he went. I … Continue reading
Anne Lamott: Notes on Hope
I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.
Sam Hamill: Nightingales of Kifissia
After years of mourning,
I was awakened one dawn
to the sound of doves
above the empty streets of Paris.
Stephen Dobyns: The Gardener
And he had imagined sitting in the evening
with his friend the Devil watching the small
human creatures frolic in the grass. They would
be like children, good natured and always singing.
When had he realized his mistake?
James Wright: Hook
I stood on the street corner
In Minneapolis, lashed
This way and that.
Wind rose from some pit,
Hunting me.
