Kristofer Collins: Looking at the Lake
Where are your
wonderful ideas now? All ten thousand
of them, each one a tiny grain you
let loose in this world.
Danielle DeTiberus: Selection Pressures
Only a man,
standing in line at Lowe’s, red leaf blower and blue
electrical tape in his cart. Unlike the lizard,
we can imagine his dreams.
Doug Anderson: Be Whole Again Beyond Confusion
The young blame us for everything that is wrong
with the world, as if we’d plotted it that way
just to torment them, as if poisoned
the very land we’re standing on. Some of us did.
Robert Bernard Hass: El Duende | On the Origins of Rafael Nadal’s Tennis Artistry
As Rafael Nadal attempts to win his unprecedented 14th French Open title, whether he wins or loses, we can rest assured that he will dazzle us with an athletic beauty that emerges from this ethos.
Piedad Bonnett: Two Poems (with translations)
Someone is telling us an old tale —
someone is sobbing and praying
to be given a pair of wings.
T. R. Hummer: Think
It’s impossible sometimes to make your way
through the undergrowth—think of Desoto,
Think of Cabeza de Vaca hacking down briars
Carolyn Miller: By the Time
By the time the light reaches us, empty
sunflower fields are pitted with more craters.
Video: The Opposites Game
An English teacher asks his class: ‘What’s the opposite of a gun?’
Stephen Dobyns: Can Poetry Matter?
Heart feels the time has come to compose lyric poetry.
No more storytelling for him. Oh, Moon, Heart writes,
sad wafer of the heart’s distress. And then: Oh, Moon,
bright cracker of the heart’s pleasure.
Nina Kossman: Valley of Closed Eyes
Dipping my cheekbones
into the blind substance,
into the cooling water of the maternal yes
Enheduanna: Seven Sumerian Temple Hymns (2300 BCE)
The temple seems to listen as she describes its resident: “your lady a water bird — sacred woman of the inner chamber,” she says to the temple in the intimate conversation that characterizes each hymn.
The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant (Egyptian Middle Kingdom 2000 BCE)
A poor peasant, Khun-Anup, is traveling to market with his donkeys heavily laden with goods to exchange for supplies for his family when Nemtynakht, a vassal of the high steward Rensi, notices the peasant approaching his lands and devises a scheme to steal Khun-Anup’s donkeys and supplies.
Mary Jane White: Friend, You Count Yourself Faithless,
…the Sea and all her ships
are women you are too certain of —
who would not marry you for love.
Video: Philip Levine reads Federico García Lorca (text included)
Philip Levine reads Federico García Lorca’s “New York (Office and Denunciation)”
Vox Populi 