Almost

Carl Adamschick

The rain is almost
falling
like snow.

Some three a.m. car passes.

The corner utility pole
holds a cone of light
to its mouth

and is screaming
at the pavement.

We are almost here
suffering,
almost drifting through

the world without purpose

as the rain vanishes
in the darkness
beyond.

I Carried Statues

Ágnes Nemes Nagy

I carried statues on the ship,
their enormous anonymous faces.
I carried statues on the ship
to the island, to take their places.
Between the ear and the nose
was an angle of ninety degrees,
for the rest of their faces were blank.
I carried statues on the ship,
and in that way I sank.

Translated from the ( Read more... )

I just bought a book of Asian American poetry at a library sale, and holy shit there's a poem about the San Fernando Valley in here. The house I grew up in is about ten miles away from this intersection. The Thai temple is still there, and it is still "a busy corner."

Near Roscoe and Coldwater(the Northeast San Fernando Valley, 1985 ( Read more... )

The Return of Julian the Apostate to Rome

Ishmael ReedJulian ( Read more... )

And that means a poem a day! I'm already late . . . I'll sneak an extra one in there before the end.

To start us off, an ancient Hebrew poem, rendered in beautiful 17th century English. These verses had some special meaning for an ancestor of mine, who chose his family name from within it (although he wasn't reading the KJV).

Song of Songs 2.10- ( Read more... )

Click to view

(I'm in the audience somewhere in the middle)

Pelican

Barbara Ellen Sorensen

Under warm New Mexico sun,
we watched the pelican place
himself down among the mallards
as if he had been there all along,
as if they were expecting the large,
cumbersome body, the ungainliness.
And he, sensing his own unsightly
appearance, tucked his head close
to his body and took on the smooth
insouciance of a

I posted this on greatpoets a few days ago. Now it's here, because I miss the Central Coast so much.

Early Fall Along The Shores of Los Osos

Patrice VecchioneAt first light, breeze makes the fennel bush shake ( Read more... )

Optimism

Jane HirshfieldMore and more I have come to admire resilience ( Read more... )

Remember what I said about finding poems on the same theme back-to-back? Credit for this goes to othergoose, whose poems I was browsing today.

Audubon Examines a Bittern

Andrew HudginsA lady brought me a Least Bittern ( Read more... )