April 22, 2011
Long Gone Lonesome Blues by A.E. Stallings Death was something that hadn’t happened yet. I was driving in my father’s pickup truck At some late hour, the hour of broken luck. It seeped up through the dashboard’s oubliette, Clear voice through the murk — the radio was set Halfway between two stations and got stuck. […]
April 21, 2011
Happiness by Raymond Carver So early it’s still almost dark out. I’m near the window with coffee, and the usual early morning stuff that passes for thought. When I see the boy and his friend walking up the road to deliver the newspaper. They wear caps and sweaters, and one boy has a bag over […]
April 20, 2011
Don’t Go Far Off, Not Even for a Day by Pablo Neruda Don’t go far off, not even for a day, because — because — I don’t know how to say it: a day is long and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station when the trains are parked off somewhere […]
April 19, 2011
Mirror by Sylvia Plath I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. Whatever I see I swallow immediately Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. I am not cruel, only truthful — The eye of a little god, four-cornered. Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall. It is pink, […]
April 18, 2011
Passing Remark by William Stafford In scenery I like flat country. In life I don’t like much to happen. In personalities I like mild colorless people. And in colors I prefer gray and brown. My wife, a vivid girl from the mountains, says, “Then why did you choose me?” Mildly I lower my brown eyes […]
April 17, 2011
Selecting a Reader by Ted Kooser First, I would have her be beautiful, and walking carefully up on my poetry at the loneliest moment of an afternoon, her hair still damp at the neck from washing it. She should be wearing a raincoat, an old one, dirty from not having money enough for the cleaners. […]
April 16, 2011
In Memory of My Mother by Patrick Kavanagh I do not think of you lying in the wet clay Of a Monaghan graveyard; I see You walking down a lane among the poplars On your way to the station, or happily Going to second Mass on a summer Sunday – You meet me and you […]
April 15, 2011
Forgetfulness by Billy Collins The name of the author is a first to go followed obediently by the title, the plot, the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never heard of. It is as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor decided to retire to […]
April 14, 2011
The Fairies by William Allingham Up the airy mountain Down the rushy glen, We daren’t go a-hunting, For fear of little men; Wee folk, good folk, Trooping all together; Green jacket, red cap, And white owl’s feather. Down along the rocky shore Some make their home, They live on crispy pancakes Of yellow tide-foam; Some […]
April 13, 2011
Choose Something Like a Star by Robert Frost O Star (the fairest one in sight), We grant your loftiness the right To some obscurity of cloud — It will not do to say of night, Since dark is what brings out your light. Some mystery becomes the proud. But to be wholly taciturn In your […]
