Poetry back issues from April 2006:
In the Fog
Apr 01, 2006; ... I stared into the valley: it was gone wholly submerged! A vast flat sea remained, gray, with no waves, no beaches; all was one. And here and there I noticed, when I strained, the alien clamoring of small, wild voices: birds that had lost their way in that ...
Twilight in Delhi
Apr 01, 2006; ... To my eye the pleasures of the world are nothing but dust. Except for blood, what else flows in the guts? Turned to dust, the wings are now a spent force; they might even blow away on the winds. Who is this coming towards us with the very face of heaven, ...
The Tomb of Edgar Poe
Apr 01, 2006; ... Changed by eternity to Himself at last, The Poet, with the bare blade of his mind, Thrusts at a century which had not divined Death's victory in his voice, and is aghast. Aroused like some vile hydra of the past When an angel proffered pure words to ...
The Power of a Question
Apr 01, 2006; ... For Irving Howe You are sinking. There is no question. There is nothing you want. The woman has become a fading flame. The book's title page is sealed with no solace. Even a drop of Mozart does not sweeten the aridity of the ...
Las Animas
Apr 01, 2006; ... Fire everywhere, soft fire of brushwood, fire on walls where a faint shadow flickers but lacks the strength to imprint itself, fire in the distance rising and falling across the hills like a bright thread through the spreading ashes, fire in flakes from ...
Hunchback
Apr 01, 2006; ...... and, like a cupola, the ceiling swelled up ... - Anna Akhmatova He's ambassador and bishop of the twisted backbone, Crazed as antique crockery, he's a bird-bud, A flower-fledgling, a mum mediator between This world and a miracle, swollen at their ...
Road
Apr 01, 2006; ... I walk on a dark road so that I won't see The way my young oxen limp so much; The horseshoes gouging into their hooves, They're frightened at the earth's least touch. Time to time, they kneel down in their yoke; I'd prod them on but I'm too weak at ...
What man so quick and clever ...
Apr 01, 2006; ... What man so quick and clever of wit To divine who it is who drives me on my course When I arise in my strength and sudden fury, Threatening hugely, throwing myself about, Bursting across country, burning men's houses And sacking their dwellings? Dark ...
The Sheets
Apr 01, 2006; ... Smudged here with betel juice, burnished there with aloe paste, a splash of powder in one corner, and lacquer from footprints embroidered in another, with flowers from her hair strewn all over its winding crumpled folds, the sheets celebrate the joy of ...
The Landscape
Apr 01, 2006; ... A Version I dreamt of loving. The dream remains, but love is no longer those lilacs and roses whose breath rilled the broad woods, where the sail of a flame lay at the end of each arrow-straight path. I dreamt of loving. The dream remains, but ...
Consolation
Apr 01, 2006; ... Darwin. They say he read novels to relax, But only certain kinds: nothing that ended unhappily. If anything like that turned up, enraged, he flung the book into the fire. True or not, I'm ready to believe it. Scanning in his mind so ...
Eve in Her Garden in This Vale of Tears
Apr 01, 2006; ... Accursed be the soil because of you. With suffering shall you get your food from it every day of your life. - Gen.3:17 I spend a lot of time upon my knees serving the earth. I sow seeds in soil. I arrange the roots of trees in rich peat moss. I ...
Now the season turns
Apr 01, 2006; ... Now the season turns autumn breezes become winter's bitter winds. To a man alone, the nights will grow sleeplessly long. Translated from the Japanese by Sam Hamill Translator's Note This waka (short poem) is dated from the fall of 739, ...
From Epitaphs
Apr 01, 2006; ... Written on a slat of a railway car: If some time someone should find pearls threaded on a blood-red string of silk which, near the throat, runs all the thinner like life's own path until it's gone somewhere in a fog and can't be seen If someone ...
Song of the Little Cripple at the Street Corner
Apr 01, 2006; ... Maybe my soul's all right. But my body's all wrong, All bent and twisted, All this that hurts me so. My soul keeps trying, trying To straighten my body up. It hangs on my skeleton, frantic, Flapping its terrified wings. Look here, ...
Jean-Paul de Dadelsen
Apr 01, 2006; ... That light, all at once, to spark the unsteady Flight of swallows, the carp's Bubbles, women's bodies. Despite the big-assed clock, words Should only measure the newest Hours, but how to shelter yourself From your own refrain? You had To ...
Teeth Marks on the Apple
Apr 01, 2006; ... Staying at a divine lakeshore house as a guest of St. Mary's College, I spent the afternoon in the company of young professors discussing the Holocaust, and when I wanted to smoke - I stepped out, and that was when Sanja took a few shots of the house ... When the young professors left I picked up ...
Little Soul
Apr 01, 2006; ... Little soul little stray little drifter now where will you stay all pale and all alone after the way you used to make fun of things Translated from the Latin by W.S. Merwin Translator's Note It must have been at some time during my ...
That One
Apr 01, 2006; ... O days consecrated to the useless office of forgetting the biography of a lesser poet from the hemisphere below, to whom the shades or the stars bequeathed a body that leaves behind no son and blindness, penumbra and prison, and old age, aurora of ...
Pangur Ban.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006 ... <Pre> Pangur Ban From the ninth-century Irish poem Pangur Ban and I at work,Adepts, equals, cat and clerk: His whole instinct is to hunt, Mine to free the meaning pent. More than loud acclaim, I loveBooks, silence, thought, my alcove. Happy ...
In the Fog.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> In the Fog I stared into the valley: it was gone--wholly submerged! A vast flat sea remained,gray, with no waves, no beaches; all was one. And here and there I noticed, when I strained,the alien clamoring of small, wild voices:birds that had lost ...
Twilight in Delhi.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> Twilight in Delhi To my eye the pleasures of the world are nothing but dust.Except for blood, what else flows in the guts? Turned to dust, the wings are now a spent force;they might even blow away on the winds. Who is this coming towards us with the very ...
An Experience.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> An Experience Half-light filled the valley with a mistOf aromatic silver as when moonlightSeeps through the clouds. And yet it was not night.Grey glimmering, the fragrance of the glenDissolved into itself what I half thoughtAnd quietly I sank into ...
The Tomb of Edgar Poe.(TRANSLATIONS)(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> The Tomb of Edgar Poe Changed by eternity to Himself at last,The Poet, with the bare blade of his mind,Thrusts at a century which had not divinedDeath's victory in his voice, and is aghast. Aroused like some vile hydra of the pastWhen an angel ...
Occupation 1943.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> Occupation 1943 We boys, the neighborhood's barefootWe boys, the neighborhood's nakedWe boys of stomachs bloated from eating mudWe boys of teeth porous from eating dates and pumpkin rind We boys will line up from Hassan al-Basri's mausoleumto the ...
Anonymous.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> ANONYMOUS What man so quick and clever of witTo divine who it is who drives me on my courseWhen I arise in my strength and sudden fury,Threatening hugely, throwing myself about,Bursting across country, burning men's housesAnd sacking their dwellings? ...
The Power of a Question.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> The Power of a Question For Irving Howe You are sinking. There is no question.There is nothing you want.The woman has become a fading flame.The book's title page is sealed with no solace.Even a drop of Mozartdoes not sweetenthe aridity of the ...
The Fall of Jericho.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> The Fall of Jericho 1 A crimson cord appeared in Rahab's windowThe cursed city stood unassailable as a skullAnd the troops that crossed the suddenly dried-up backbone of the riverNow stood in terror before the city unassailable as a skullIn ...
Hunchback.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> Hunchback ... and, like a cupola, the ceiling swelled up ...--Anna Akhmatova He's ambassador and bishop of the twisted backbone,Crazed as antique crockery, he's a bird-bud,A flower-fledgling, a mum mediator betweenThis world and a miracle, swollen at ...
Las Animas.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> Las Animas Fire everywhere, soft fire of brushwood, fireon walls where a faint shadow flickersbut lacks the strength to imprint itself, firein the distance rising and falling across the hillslike a bright thread through the spreading ashes,fire in ...
From The Inkishafi.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> From The Inkishafi 11 What keeps you from awakening, my heart?That thing that works upon your vanity--Whateverface it wears, I will agree To meet it, if you show me. 12 My heart, why have you not yet grasped the stakes?We say that ...
I Didn't Keep My Word.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> I Didn't Keep My Word I don't keep my word I don't keep my word;even to myself I didn't keep my wordso I don't keep my word with anyone. Between my mother and methere was only one word we understood,that I wouldn't give heed to what my eyes and ears ...
Of poor B.B.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> Of poor B.B. 1 I, Bertolt Brecht, come from the black forests.My mother carried me into the citiesWhen I was in her belly. And the chill of the forestsWill be in me till my dying day. 2 The asphalt city is my home. FurnishedFrom the ...
Road.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> Road I walk on a dark road so that I won't seeThe way my young oxen limp so much;The horseshoes gouging into their hooves,They're frightened at the earth's least touch. Time to time, they kneel down in their yoke;I'd prod them on but I'm too weak at ...
Consolation.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> Consolation Darwin.They say he read novels to relax,But only certain kinds:nothing that ended unhappily.If anything like that turned up,enraged, he flung the book into the fire. True or not,I'm ready to believe it. Scanning in his ...
Upon a Line of Foreign Verse.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> Upon a Line of Foreign Verse To Elli, Christmas 1931 Happy is he who has made the journey of Odysseus. Happy if, as the journey loomed,He felt the sturdy rigging of a love, stretched taut inside his body like the veins where the blood booms, Of ...
The Sheets.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006 ... <Pre> The Sheets Smudged here with betel juice, burnished therewith aloe paste, a splash of powder in one corner,and lacquer from footprints embroidered in another,with flowers from her hair strewn all overits winding crumpled folds, the sheets celebratethe ...
Jean-Paul de Dadelsen.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> Jean-Paul de Dadelsen That light, all at once, to spark the unsteadyFlight of swallows, the carp'sBubbles, women's bodies.Despite the big-assed clock, wordsShould only measure the newestHours, but how to shelter yourselfFrom your own refrain? You ...
From Fifteen Songs.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... 'Tis now the very witching time of night ... now could I drink hot blood --Hamlet, act 3, scene 2 SONG OF FALSE HOPE Ever closer the grenade exploding by my operated skull, Like birds my severed limbs fly off into the distance;This is how I must clear ...
The Landscape.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> The Landscape A Version I dreamt of loving. The dream remains, but loveis no longer those lilacs and roses whose breathfilled the broad woods, where the sail of a flamelay at the end of each arrow-straight path. I dreamt of loving. The dream remains, but ...
Teeth Marks on the Apple.
Apr 01, 2006; ... Staying at a divine lakeshore house as a guest of St. Mary's College, I spent the afternoon in the company of young professors discussing the Holocaust, and when I wanted to smoke--I stepped out, and that was when Sanja took a few shots of the house ... When the young professors left I ...
Eve in Her Garden in This Vale of Tears.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Accursed be the soil because of you. With suffering shall you get your food from it every day of your life. --Gen. 3:17 I spend a lot of time upon my kneesserving the earth.I sow seeds in soil.I arrange the roots of trees in rich peat moss.I sing ...
From Epitaphs.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> From Epitaphs Written on a slat of a railway car: If some time someone should find pearlsthreaded on a blood-red string of silkwhich, near the throat, runs all the thinnerlike life's own path until it's gonesomewhere in a fog and can't be seen--...
New Alphabet.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> New Alphabet If you say A you have to say BA is always against apartheidB is color blind I want to write to you brother but you're furtherthan the past century than a land of originthan a poem or a document if you say A you have to say B...
Now the season turns.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> Now the season turns Now the season turns--autumn breezes becomewinter's bitter winds.To a man alone, the nightswill grow sleeplessly long. </Pre> Translated from the Japanese by Sam Hamill Translator's Note This waka (short ...
Song of the Little Cripple at the Street Corner.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> Song of the Little Cripple at the Street Corner Maybe my soul's all right.But my body's all wrong,All bent and twisted,All this that hurts me so. My soul keeps trying, tryingTo straighten my body up.It hangs on my skeleton, frantic,...
That One.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> That One O days consecrated to the uselessoffice of forgetting the biographyof a lesser poet from the hemispherebelow, to whom the shades or the starsbequeathed a body that leaves behind no sonand blindness, penumbra and prison,and old age, aurora ...
Little Soul.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> Little Soul Little soul little straylittle drifternow where will you stayall pale and all aloneafter the wayyou used to make fun of things </Pre> Translated from the Latin by W.S. Merwin Translator's Note It must have ...