Emily Dickinson: I have no life but this
I have no Life but this —
To lead it here —
Jason Irwin: Giuseppe the Shoe-Maker
Giuseppe, a simple shoe-maker,
who never learned English, stood
banging his head against the wall,
cursing God in his native tongue
S.B. Merrow: Craving
I’m talking about a night we spend
in the same body on the same smooth stones
on the bottom of the dry river
when a storm comes.
Doug Anderson: My mind is weighted toward sorrow
My mind is weighted toward sorrow
and I feel unbalanced when I walk.
There are old rooms there, certainly,
that I’ve now abandoned, with their coffee spills
and unmade beds…
Michelle Bitting: Ode to Sex with You
lips two wild pulsing fish
swift bubbles of nothing
moaned into the air’s
naked ear
Doug Anderson: How it happens
God help me, I don’t know where I’m going.
We hold each other’s hand like children
finding our way home among the closing wolves.
Edna St. Vincent Millay: I shall forget you presently, my dear (Sonnet IV)
I shall forget you presently, my dear,
So make the most of this, your little day
Emily Dickinson: Wild nights — Wild nights!
Wild nights – Wild nights!
Were I with thee
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
Leslie Anne Mcilroy: Zoosk | The Pandemic
We stay put, apart,
constant in longing. And that is all
fine, my friends, except the dying
part. Death all around love’s
little sprouting head.
Doug Anderson: The Fool
At seventy-five I find myself in love.
Not the serene love of an old man
steeped in the wine and wisdom of years,
but one who would kill a dragon for her.
Lindsey Royce: Packing His Things
Now, I long for one of those shirts,
his scent of sweat and paint,
to cover the dent on his side of the bed
Danusha Laméris: Reading My Valentine’s Poem to Frank X. Gaspar
I am thirty-two, and in love, again, this time
with a man whose name rolls off my tongue
like water. I’m afraid of hope.
Judith Sanders: Late to Meet You at the Indian Restaurant
So I drove, and listened to the news, about
the demise of democracy and collapse of civilization
head-beams probing the dark like outstretched hands.
