H.C. Palmer: An Old Kansas Farm Boy’s Take on Gary Snyder’s “Hay for the Horses” or Why I Became a Poet
In the early 1950s I worked summers as a part of a team of 4 high school football players bucking bales of alfalfa hay for a local rancher in Southeast Kansas. We moved over 1,000 bales from his hay meadow to the loft in his barn each cutting.
Lisel Mueller: Monet Refuses the Operation
I tell you it has taken me all my life
to arrive at the vision of gas lamps as angels,
to soften and blur and finally banish
the edges you regret I don’t see
Frank O’Hara: Autobiographia Literaria
And here I am, the
center of all beauty!
writing these poems!
Imagine!
Barbara Crooker: For My Grandchildren
We sat on the porch swing in the fragrant dark
scented by roses and lilies, knowing we were
about to lose everything, but powerless to stop it.
Vox Populi: Today’s post about California Bill AB-715.
AB 715 is a dangerous bill that risks infringing important constitutional free speech, and opens up the State of California to costly litigation over the bill’s implementation.
Stephen Prager: ‘This Should Be Illegal’ | Senate GOP Uses AI Deepfake to Attack James Talarico
“Political deepfakes are a profound threat to our democracy, because there is no realistic way for voters to understand they are seeing fake representations,” said the co-president of Public Citizen.
Robert Cording: Ghost Forest
Tonight, I’m not here
to pretend this place that has been lost,
can be saved, but simply to stand here,
at the edge of what once was
and remember the sound of wind in the pines
Olivia Rosane: Trump’s FCC Chair Threatens to Pull Broadcast Licenses Over Negative Iran War Coverage
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.): “We aren’t on the verge of a totalitarian takeover. WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF IT. Act like it.”
Derrick Z. Jackson | Trump EPA to Americans: Drop Dead
The Trump EPA recently announced it will no longer consider the benefits of regulating soot, which will lead to more premature deaths.
Alfred Corn: Blue Roses
When Edgar said, “Yes, us too,” I was surprised that he and Miriam were calling it quits; but even more by his “too,” which linked their separation to Renée’s and mine….
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: Like a Friend
I didn’t land. I fell and I fell and I fell.
At first as I plummeted, I feared the landing,
imagining an imminent crash. Then,
I fell through nights and middays. Fell through
kitchen floors and highways.
Sydney Lea: Remorse
Do you ever recall some minor misdemeanor or even one you committed only in mind, and –however absurdly– half believe it contributed to a disaster?
Thomas Lux: Ode to the Unbroken World, Which Is Coming
It must be coming, mustn’t it? Churches
and saloons are filled with decent humans.
A mother wants to feed her daughter,
fathers to buy their children things that break.
James Crews: After Receiving Bad News from a Friend
To offer what we can,
even when a friend lives far away,
to say: I will hold you inside myself
as you pass through this new gate.
