Sean Sexton: Hold What You Got
Mayhem, butchery, and sheer witlessness
have grown acute with time and become the order of things.
Frogs creak in brief aubade
Doug Anderson: Dear Children
…all you’ve got to do is open a book like a door and descend the winding staircase down to the underground river and watch the reflection of the water wavering on the walls…
Laure-Anne Bosselaar: Morning Praise
Praise not God
or fate, but the weeds & leaves that soften
the earth under my steps toward the widening
light
Arlene Weiner: Only One Dead
Our son
in Tucson warned us we’d read
about a professor killed in his office,
shot by a former student.
Sandy Solomon: After the Invasion
Cut salami on the counter,
greasy knife beside it,
wrapper lolling like
a tongue. We left it there
when the sirens screamed.
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft: Lines Written at Castle Island, Lake Superior
Far from the haunts of men away
For here, there are no sordid fears,
No crimes, no misery, no tears
No pride of wealth; the heart to fill,
No laws to treat my people ill.
John Guzlowski: Four Poems
My mother never thought she’d survive
that first winter in the slave labor camps.
Gary Fincke: The Chernobyl Swallows
In April, near the anniversary Of catastrophe, barn swallows returned, Flying inside the exclusion zone to Nest in the radioactive ruins. Like disciples, the swaddled scientists Marveled. The work crews, … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer | After a Sign in Joshua Tree: Tortoise Crossing
…this spring
at the crossroads of the Mojave & Colorado Deserts,
I found a magic scarf.
Barbara Hamby: Ode on Anger, the Dalai Lama, and Elliot’s Red Boots
aren’t we more like pack mules
than gods most days, picking our way
across the desert or up a mountain path with avalanches
and the heaviest loads are our grudges and fears
Margo Berdeshevsky: Here Is My Body
Invisible, on our lake, our dreamscape, the old blue heron lands.
Video: Rhiannon Giddens | Songs that bring history to life
Rhiannon Giddens pours the emotional weight of American history into her music. Listen as she performs traditional folk ballads — including “Waterboy,” “Up Above My Head,” and “Lonesome Road” by … Continue reading
Bhikshuni Nanduttara: It’s Not Fair
I spent most of my teenage years running from one bed to another. Any sign of warmth would do.
Sara Teasdale: Old Love and New
Old love, old love,
How can I be true?
Shall I be faithless to myself
Or to you?
