Driving in Oklahoma by Carter Revard On humming rubber along this white concrete, lighthearted between the gravities of source and destination like a man halfway to the moon in this bubble of tuneless whistling at seventy miles an hour from the windvents, over prairie swells rising and falling, over the quick offramp that drops toContinue reading “Driving in Oklahoma by Carter Revard”
Tag Archives: poets
Arizona Desert by Charles Tomlinson
Arizona Desert by Charles Tomlinson Eye drinks the dry orange ground, the cowskull bound to it by shade: sun-warped, the layers of flaked and broken bone unclench into petals, into eyelids of limestone: Blind glitter that sees spaces and steppes expand of the purgatories possible to us and impossible. Upended trees in the Hopi’s desertContinue reading “Arizona Desert by Charles Tomlinson”
Psalm Above Santa Fe by John Judson
Psalm Above Santa Fe 16 March 1987 by John Judson What is it we come to between mountains, long crests tipped white, dusted on their flanks, while light spreads out before us, pouring in our laps, soft as iris tongues, and the lungs finally filled with a freshness unwilled because unlooked for: sparse grass, rocksContinue reading “Psalm Above Santa Fe by John Judson”
Mexico Seen from the Moving Car by Michael McClure
Mexico Seen from the Moving Car by Michael McClure THERE ARE HILLS LIKE SHARKFINS and clods of mud. The mind drifts through in the shape of a museum, in the guise of a museum dreaming dead friends: Jim, Tom, Emmet, Bill. —Like billboards their huge faces droop and stretch on the walls, on the wallsContinue reading “Mexico Seen from the Moving Car by Michael McClure”
Venice, Unaccompanied by Monica Youn
Venice, Unaccompaniedby Monica Youn Wakingon the train, I thoughtwe were attacked by light:chrome-winged birdshatching from the lagoon. That first daythe buoys were allthat made the harbor bearable:pennies sewn into a hemline.Later I learned to live in it, to walkthrough the alien city—a beekeeper’s habit— with fierce lightclinging to my head and hands.Treated as gently asContinue reading “Venice, Unaccompanied by Monica Youn”
In the Happo-En Garden, Toyko by Linda Pasdan
In the Happo-En Garden, Toyko by Linda Pasdan The way a birthmark on a woman’s face defines rather than mars her beauty, so the skyscrapers— those flowers of technology— reveal the perfection of the garden they surround. Perhaps Eden is buried here in Japan, where an incandescent koi slithers snakelike to the edge of theContinue reading “In the Happo-En Garden, Toyko by Linda Pasdan”
Sunrise, Grand Canyon by John Barton (Arizona)
Sunrise, Grand Canyonby John Barton We stand on the edge, the fallinto depth, the ascent of light revelatory, the canyon walls movingup out of shadow, litcolours of the layers cutting down through darkness, sunrise as itpasses a precipitate of the river, its burnt tangerineflare brief, jagged bleeding above the far rim for a splitsecond IContinue reading “Sunrise, Grand Canyon by John Barton (Arizona)”
The Everglades by Campbell McGrath (Florida)
The Evergladesby Campbell McGrath Green and blue and white, it is a flagfor Florida stitched by hungry ibises. It is a paradise of flocks, a cornucopiaof wind and grass and dark, slow waters. Turtles bask in the last tatters of afternoon,frogs perfect their symphony at dusk— in its solitude we remember ourselves,dimly, as creatures ofContinue reading “The Everglades by Campbell McGrath (Florida)”
Early Morning in Milwaukee by John Koethe
Early Morning in Milwaukee (excerpt)by John Koethe Is this what I was made for? Is the world that fitsLike what I feel when I wake up each morning? SteamcloudsHovering over the lake, and smoke ascending from ten thousand chimneysAs in a picture on a calendar, in a frieze of ordinary days?Beneath a sky of oatmealContinue reading “Early Morning in Milwaukee by John Koethe”
Belle Isle, 1949 by Philip Levine (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
Belle Isle, 1949by Philip Levine We stripped in the first warm spring nightand ran down into the Detroit Riverto baptize ourselves in the brineof car parts, dead fish, stolen bicycles,melted snow. I remember going underhand in hand with a Polish highschool girlI’d never seen before, and the criesour breath made caught at the same timeonContinue reading “Belle Isle, 1949 by Philip Levine (Detroit, Michigan, USA)”
POETRY and PLACES 