(no subject)

[pyralid.livejournal.com]

I'm forever indebted to the originator of this. It inspired me to spend an hour and a half digging through the print-out papers in a big box in my closet, trying to find a copy of this poem, which I was reminded of in reading the other.

A New Poet

Finding a new poet
is like finding a wildflower
out in the woods. You don't see

its name in the flower books, and
nobody you tell believes
in its odd color or the way

its leaves grow in splayed rows
down the whole length of the page. In fact
the very page smells of spilled

red wine and the mustiness of the sea
on a foggy day--the odor of truth
and of lying.

And the words are so familiar,
so strangely new, words
you almost wrote yourself, if only

in your dreams there had been a pencil
or a pen or even a paintbrush,
if only there had been a flower.

Linda Pastan

E. Ethelbert Miller

[http://users.livejournal.com/i_broke_it_/]

Looking for Omar
E. Ethelbert Miller

I'm in the school bathroom
washing my hands without
soap but I'm still washing my hands.

I turn the water off
and look for a paper towel
but paper towels have been gone
since the first day of school
and it's June now.

I start to leave the bathroom
with my wet hands but then
the big boys come in talking
loud and cussing like they
rap stars or have new sneakers.

I hear the one named Pinto
talking about how someone
should get Omar after school
since he's the only Muslim they know.

Pinto talks with an accent
like he's new in the neighborhood too.

I don't have to ask him
what he's talking about
since everybody is talking
about the Towers and how they
ain't there no more.

My momma said it's like
a woman losing both
breasts to cancer and my daddy
was talking at the dinner table
about how senseless violence is
and Mrs. Gardner next door lost
two tall boys to drive-bys

Bullets flying into
both boys heads
making them crumble too.

Everybody around here is
filled with fear and craziness
and now Pinto and the big boys
thinking about doing something bad.

I stare at my wet hands
dripping water on my shoes
and wonder if I should run
and tell Omar or just run.

I feel like I'm trapped
in the middle of one of those
Bible stories but it ain't
Sunday.

I hear my Momma's voice
saying

Boy, always remember to wash
your hands but always remember
you can't wash your hands from
everything.

Nashville, TN
10/12/01

(no subject)

[bay-state-magi.livejournal.com]

From "To the Queen," envoi to "Idylls of the King"

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

If our slowly-grown
And crown'd Republic's crowning common sense,
That saved her many times, not fail--their fears
Are morning shadows huger than the shapes
That cast them, not those gloomier which forego
The darkness of that battle in the West,
Where all of high and holy dies away.

These lines seemed currently appropriate. And I don't mean to England.

(no subject)

[ghostofchance.livejournal.com]

Sam Pierstorff

Trident Through the Heart

From the back row of the classroom,
I watch her gracefully unfold
and scan the flier I gave her last month
about my poetry reading this month.

For a moment, I fantasize about her front row
appearance next Sunday afternoon —
legs crossing, polished red lips glowing
in the perimeter of the spotlight
that encircles me as she leans forward
to eavesdrop on unspoken messages passed
between us when others can only hear
the cacophony of metaphor.

But within seconds, she reaches
with two fingers like tweezers
into her mouth and extracts a wet,
pink piece of bubble gum,
pressing it firmly into the center of the flier.
And as she folds it back into fours,
I hear the gum crackle—
the last bubble bursting.

Balloon Fight by Roger McGough

[historyproject.livejournal.com]

'This morning, the American, Steve Fossett, ended his Round-The-World balloon fight...I'm sorry, balloon "flight"...in northern India.'
- The Today Programme, Radio 4, 20 January 1997

It ended in Uttar Pradesh.
It had to.
You can't go around the world
attacking people with balloons
and expect to get away with it.

What may be mildly amusing
at children's parties
in Upper Manhattan
will not seem so funny ha ha
on the Falls Road.

How Fossett fought his way
across the former Yugoslavia
I'll never know.
Some folk never grow up.
Hang on to their childhood.

Believing in the Tooth Fairy,
watched over by the Man in the Moon.
Thank you, Mr Newsreader,
for bringing him down to earth.
For bursting his balloon.

(no subject)

[thewondergirl.livejournal.com]

What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.


-- Edna St. Vincent Millay

Pedro Pietri

[22by7.livejournal.com]

Methodist Hang Ups


the world
was always ending
you never knew
if you would ever
come out of it alive
on those sundays
the wife and son
of the reverend
weighed more than all
the members of
the choir put together
judgment day
cash registers
worked overtime
everybody wanted
to get to heaven
until somebody
up there farted.


-- Pedro Pietri.

(no subject)

[xanderschild.livejournal.com]

Yes
by Muriel Rukeyser

It's like a tap-dance
Or a new pink dress,
A shit-naive feeling
Saying Yes

Some say Good morning
Some say God bless -
Some say Possibly
Some say Yes.

Some say Never
Some say Unless
It's stupid and lovely
To rush into Yes.

What can it mean?
It's just like life,
One thing to you
One to your wife.

Some go local
Some go express
Some can't wait
To answer Yes.

Some complain
Of strain and stress
The answer may be
No for Yes.

Some like failure
Some like success
Some like Yes Yes
Yes Yes Yes.

Open your eyes,
Dream but don't guess.
Your biggest surprise
Comes after Yes.