Doug Anderson: When the Soldiers Came
They found the old monk Cheng Liu
sitting in meditation at the Temple gate
and shot him full of arrows.
Doug Anderson: Questions
Won’t you take off your mask no, not that mask
but the one you’ve made with the muscles of your face
a shield of hide can you let it go
James Dubinsky: Veterans turned poets can help bridge divides
Today, there are approximately 20.17 million veterans – 7 percent of the U.S. population. That’s more than 20 million stories, along with the stories of their loved ones. Sometimes poetry is the most effective way to capture both the ambiguity and the story.
Doug Anderson: Monsoon
Up river, the rich
are counting their gold
and hiring armies to protect them.
Doug Anderson: The Gravestone and the Continuing Self
When I was in my twenties I thought old age was an island only accessible by a bridge I’d never cross. But I’ve crossed it, and at seventy-eight the subject … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: Negative Capability
…art that honors the art and artist as well as its content, and apprehends it as more than its socio-political reality. Art is hard to do and not everybody can do it. It is not merely a pretext for theory.
Doug Anderson: The Tyrant
The people beat him so badly
that afterward
they could not distinguish him
from the pigs the rebels slaughtered
Doug Anderson: Is this my hand?
Come home, prodigal,
and sit with me. We’ll watch
the film together and laugh.
Doug Anderson: Six-thirty AM
And the black lines the trees made at sundown yesterday
in one direction now point the other, saying
see what you missed in your life that was there all the time.
Michael Simms: American Ash (text and video)
Old warriors rarely
say anything about
people they killed or
horrors they saw
Doug Anderson: What time does to love
I know the spring is there.
I walk over it and feel its pull.
Vox Populi: You are invited
You are invited to attend a reading by some of the most talented poets in the country. The time is 8pmET Tuesday, March 2.
Doug Anderson: People Lived Here
I love to break into abandoned houses
in spite of the cover-your-ass no trespassing signs.
Doug Anderson: Anonymous from the Han Dynasty
What a relief to sit by the waterfall
and let my mind go like this, each thought
a bubble rising from the bottom of a pond
Vox Populi 