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LGBTQ Poetry Month III: Audre Lorde
Movement Song
Audre Lorde
I have studied the tight curls on the back of your neck
moving away from me
beyond anger or failure
your face in the evening schools of longing
through mornings of wish and ripen
we were always saying goodbye
in the blood in the bone over coffee
before dashing for elevators going
in opposite directions
without goodbyes.
Do not ( Read more... ) -
LGBTQ Poetry Month II: W. H. Auden
Twelve Songs (excerpt)
W. H. Auden
O last night I dreamed of you, Johnny, my lover,
You'd the sun on one arm and the moon on the other,
The sea it was blue and the grass it was green,
Every star rattled a round tambourine;
Ten thousand miles deep in a pit there I lay:
But you frowned like thunder and you went away ( Read more... ) -
LGBTQ Poetry Month I: Sappho
It is April and thus one of the biannual poetry months! It is also a cruel month, wet and full of course essay as it is, but I shall do my best to keep up regular poetry ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
Here is the round-up for this October's Songs Are Poetry Too bonanza!
#1 - Anon., Westron Wynde
#2 - W. B. Yeats, Those Dancing Days Are Gone
#3 - Joni Mitchell, Chelsea Morning
#4 - Langston Hughes, Song For A Dark Girl
#5 - William Shakespeare, Full Fathom Five
#6 - Zhou Lanping and Pan Yingjie/Gao Yudang, 綠島小夜曲 [Green Island Serenade]#7 - Paul ( Read more... ) -
National Poetry Month #31 - Desolation Row
Desolation Row
Bob Dylan
They're selling postcards of the hanging
They're painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They've got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squad, they're restless
They need somewhere to go
( Read more... ) -
National Poetry Month #30 - The Death Song of Boromir
The Death Song of Boromir
J. R. R. Tolkien
Through Rohan over fen and field where the long grass grows
The West Wind comes walking, and about the walls it goes.
'What news from the West, O wandering wind, do you bring to me tonight?
Have you seen Boromir the Tall by moon or by starlight?'
'I saw him ride over seven streams, over waters wide and grey;
( Read more... ) -
National Poetry Month #29 - Strange Fruit
Strange Fruit
Abel Meeropol
Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
( Read more... ) -
National Poetry Month #28 - The Lobster Quadrille
The Lobster Quadrille
Lewis Carroll
“Will you walk a little faster?” said a whiting to a snail.
“There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail.
See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance!
They are waiting on the shingle - will you come and join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the ( Read more... ) -
National Poetry Month #27 - 橄榄树
橄榄树
三毛
不要问我从哪里来
我的故乡在远方
为什么流浪
流浪远方 流浪
为了天空飞翔的小鸟
为了山间清流的小溪
为了宽阔的草原
流浪远方 流浪
还有还有
为了梦中的橄榄树橄榄树
不要问我从哪里来
我的故乡在远方
为什么流浪
为什么流浪 远方
为了我 梦中的橄榄树
[trans. own]
Olive Tree
San Mao
Do not ask me where I come from
My hometown is far away.
Why have I wandered, wandered so far?
For the little birds that soar in the air
For the tiny streams that flow ( Read more... ) -
National Poetry Month #26 - Ain't No Cover
Ain't No Cover
Regina Spektor
it ain't no cover
it ain't no style
I shouldn't bother
he's eight miles high
but I adore him
and I implore him
saying I love none other
but this ain't no style
he sits there smoking
his breath away
he sits there choking
on what they say
but I adore him
and I implore him
saying one of these mornings
I'm going away
the sun is setting ( Read more... )