A state you must dare not enter
   with hopes of staying,
quicksand in the marshes, and all

the roads leading to a castle
   that doesn't exist.
But there it is, as promised,

with its perfect bridge above
   the crocodiles,
and its doors forever open.

Fifteen years ago I found my father's ( Read more... )

I have a request and a poem. The request: my friend remembers a poem about spring where there's a line like, "I think I will not kill (or hang) myself this year." Does anyone know what it is? We're dying to find out.

The Sacred
by Stephen Dunn
After the teacher asked if anyone had
a sacred place
and the students fidgeted and shrank
in their chairs, the ( Read more... )

I know it's your birthday and I am an hour
late. I didn't think there would be another 
girl for me to talk with, as I was putting on my

coat, turning off the light. Soft touch or not,
you know how hard it is for me to say no
when someone asks to speak with me and it is

their eyes that say first what they have
to say. I've read all the numbers that make ( Read more... )

A couple of weeks ago, somebody posted The Rain by Zbigniew Herbert in greatpoets which I loved (it's such a bittersweet, saddening poem) and, when I was in high school, I really enjoyed studying poems about WW1 and/or WW2. So, I'd like request some poems regarding or alluding to modern warfare or modern concepts of war. Any recommendations would ( Read more... )

What the Doctor Said
by Raymond Carver

He said it doesn't look good
he said it looks bad in fact real bad
he said I counted thirty-two of them on one lung before
I quit counting them
I said I'm glad I wouldn't want to know
about any more being there than that
he said are you a religious man do you kneel down
in forest groves and let yourself ask ( Read more... )

They are writing our names in the sky ( Read more... )

It’s like this, the king marries ( Read more... )

When, next day, I found one of your earrings ( Read more... )

Welcome
by Stephen Dunn

if you believe nothing is always what's left
after a while, as I did,
If you believe you have this collection
of ungiven gifts, as I do (right here
behind the silence and the averted eyes)
If you believe an afternoon can collapse
into strange privacies-
how in your backyard, for example,
the shyness of flowers can be ( Read more... )