Stephen Dunn (June 24, 1939 -) Why you need to have oneis not much more mysterious thanwhy you don’t say what you thinkat the birth of an ugly baby.Or, you’ve just made loveand feel you’d rather have beenin a dark booth where your partnerwas nodding, whispering yes, yes,you’re brilliant. The secret lifebegins early, is kept …
Octavio Paz – Letter of Testimony Cantata
Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) 1There is an uncertain territorybetween night and day.It is neither light nor shadow: it is time.An hour, a precarious pause,a darkening page,a page …
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Márton Kálasz – Legacy
Márton Kálasz (August 09, 1934 -) I don’t see my mother dancing—in my thoughts she still trims vinessprayed blue with copper sulfatefor her two bags of wheat, eight bushels rye.I don’t know if her young facewas lovely, if the other tenantsadmired her dragonfly form,or if my blonde father tethered his horse onlyat our cabin on …
Alejandra Pizarnik – All Night I Hear The Noise Of Water Sobbing
Alejandra Pizarnik (April 29, 1936 – September 25, 1972) All night I hear the noise of water sobbing. All night I make night in me, I make the day that begins on my account, that sobs because day falls like water through night. All night I hear the voice of someone seeking me out. All …
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Elizabeth Acevedo – Ode to the Head Nod
Elizabeth Acevedo the slight angling up of the foreheadneck extension quick jut of chin meeting the strangers’ eyesa gilded curtsy to the sunfill in another in yourself tithe of respectin an early version the copy editor deleted the word “head” from the titlethe copy editor say sit’s implied the copy editor means wellthe copy editor …
Alison Luterman – Some Girls
Alison Luterman Some girls can’t help it; they are lit sparklers,hot-blooded, half naked in the depths of winter,tagging moving trains with the bright insignia of theirfury.I’ve seen their inked torsos: falcons, swans, meteorshowers.And shadowed their secret rendezvous,walking and flying all night over paths traced like veinsthrough the deep body of the forestwhere they are trying …
Kim Addonizio – Sestina: Writing
Kim Addonizio (July 31, 1954 -) I spent an entire day at my desk writingvapid effluvia like I’m so sick of writingpages of drivel, not feeling like a writerat all even though “A writer writesand doesn’t just talk about writing”was drilled into me by a writing instructor years ago. “Writingbegets writing”was another lesson I learned …
Joyce Sutphen – The Art of Revision
Joyce Sutphen (August 10, 1949 -) In the morning I take outmost of what I put in last night.I cross out everything that seemsexcessive, every frill and fandango,anything fluffy—a word that shouldnever again appear in a poem,along with blossom and awesome.Once I have deleted everythingexcept the title—which now seemsto have been written by a poetwho …
Denise Levertov — The Secret
Priscilla Denise Levertov (October 24, 1923 – December 20, 1997) Two girls discoverthe secret of lifein a sudden line ofpoetry.I who don’t know thesecret wrotethe line. Theytold me(through a third person)they had found itbut not what it wasnot evenwhat line it was. No doubtby now, more than a weeklater, they have forgottenthe secret,the line, the …
Julia de Burgos – Julia de Burgos
Julia de Burgos (February 17, 1914 – July 6, 1953) Already the people murmur that I am your enemybecause they say that in verse I give the world your me. They lie, Julia de Burgos. They lie, Julia de Burgos.Who rises in my verses is not your voice. It is my voicebecause you are the …
Tracy K. Smith – Alternate Take: Levon Helm
Tracy K Smith (April 16, 1972 -) I’ve been beating my head all day long on the same six lines,Snapped off and whittled to nothing like the nub of a pencilChewed up and smoothed over, yellow paint flecking my teeth.And this whole time a hot wind’s been swatting down my door,Spat from his mouth and …
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