Of all the nationsthe United States with veins full of poetical stuffmost need poets —and will doubtless have the greatestand use them the greatest. Of all mankind the great poet is the equitable man.Not in him but off from him things aregrotesque or eccentric or fail of their sanity.Nothing out of its place is…
ὁδὸς ἄνω κάτω μία καὶ ὡυτή The way upward and the way downwardis one and the same — Heraclitus V To communicate with Mars, converse with spirits,To report the behaviour of the sea monster,Describe the horoscope, haruspicate or scry,Observe disease in signatures, evokeBiography from the wrinkles of the palmAnd tragedy from fingers; release omensBy…
I was told that it is windy in New Mexico this time of year. For someone that lives in the Midwest, eighty degrees with a stiff, dry wind, is a hot day in April… On the way to Albuquerque New Mexico we glimpsed an abandoned structure, a wrecked shell, with a small parking lot…
Standing by a Shelf by Brandon D. Johnson for Reuben When he looks at the edges, The covers of books and records, He remembers when and where He got them, how it felt. Everything’s a testament To life lived on the fringe Of some sense of sanity. All the vehicles for imbibing These treasures…
High, Higher, Highest by Samuel Hazo Viewed from space, the world’s impersonal. France appears, but no Frenchmen. Then Germany, without…
Reinforcements Marianne Moore The vestibule to experience is not to Be exalted into epic grandeur. These men are goingTo their work with this idea, advancing like a school of fish through Still water—waiting to change the course or dismiss The idea of movement, till forced to. The words of the GreeksRing in our ears, but they…
How to Kill by Keith Douglas Under the parabola of a ball, a child turning into a man, I looked into the air too long. The ball fell in my hand, it sang in the closed fist: Open Open Behold a gift designed to kill. Now in my dial of glass appears the soldier…
Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower By Rainer Maria Rilke Quiet friend who has come so far, feel how your breathing makes more space around you. Let this darkness be a bell tower and you the bell. As you ring, what batters you becomes your strength. Move back and forth into the change….
Yesterday I wondered if they celebrate February 14 as Valentine’s Day in Ukraine. I consulted the Oracle, no longer at Delphi. The answer: yes they do. That it is possible to celebrate love when surrounded by serried ranks of armor, self-propelled artillery, motorized infantry seemed a truly human image of resistance. We ought to…
Wake Up, Mario by Martín Espada For Mario Gonzalez Arenales (1994-2021) He’s not doing anything wrong. He’s just scaring my wife.—call to the Alameda Police Department, April 19, 2021 They watched him from the window of the house, a man at the fencein a crooked wool cap, chipping at their tree with a comb,…
