Archives for “poetry”
The mystic poet Hafiz explains why I’m so stubborn about love. Even after all this time The sun never says to the Earth, “You owe me.” Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky.
Apparently I’m on a poetry kick. There is poetry clawing at the inside of my skull, or pecking, hoping to crack me open so it can escape. But I gird myself with reminisces and meta. This is by Billy Collins, one of my favorite poets. Introduction to Poetry I ask them to take a poem [...]
Today my son cried for the first time about you leaving. My son–our son– has always said he understands. He’s always said he was ok. “Ok” without warm arms around him for so long.”Ok” without a warm breast to lie on. You are “cool.” You’re his “really good friend.” And he’s said that’s just fine. [...]
(For Tracy, around 2006) An earthquake shook my shoes on Saturday night, and my hat. It was centered, I am told, nine miles below that first kiss, at Burnside and Thirty-first. Nine miles seems far, but the roots I pulled up to get to this place were planted thirty times as far from that kiss, [...]
This is a poem by Hafiz of Shiraz, an Islamic mystic from the 14th century, translated by Daniel Ladinsky. (I found it on the website of Gina Cenciose, a teacher of empathy and mindfulness practices based on NVC.) I know the way you can get by Hafiz I know the way you can get, When [...]
In the 80s, when “Message in a Bottle” and “Roxane” were on the radio, I wasn’t really listening. I didn’t know Sting from Adam from Gordon Sumner. But now I’m reading his memoir, Broken Music. How that happened is this: I was looking up version of “People Get Ready”, and I found one that Sting [...]
What if every time we choose love over fear every time we let redemption happen every time we forgive we add a thread to the tapestry of reality what if all those threads of love and grace become the substance that makes up the universe? What if they become god? What if we are creating [...]
A few months ago, I wrote what may turn out to be my last poem. There’s a part of me that that would love to put together more words, this time to tell you how we are one, how you and I are a universe, all by ourselves, a singularity that split itself in two [...]
Time for poetry Are you a poet the new guy asks, trying to assess my fuckability I don’t know how to answer How do I say I’m too busy being the creative force of the universe to be his poet, fuckable or not How do I say that being god occupies nearly every waking moment, [...]
July 15, 2006. I used to be a child. I had great parents who loved me and respected me as a person. But sometimes, it was scary. And sometimes, I remember. So tonight, I was explaining something to my son, and I said, “Do you remember the story of that time my family was playing [...]
I will walk strong. When I cannot walk, I will stand. When I cannot stand, I will sit. When I cannot sit, I will lie down, until I can rise again. When we’re working with our arms, I often have to stop, and let my shoulders rest. I also sit down, sometimes. But no matter [...]
Up late, again. I’ve noticed when something’s worrying me, I will stay up late, keeping vigil. Tonight, my task is to make sure the world doesn’t blow up. And now, a poem for your entertainment. On August 6, 1945, President Truman ordered the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. The U.S. forces affectionately named the nuclear bomb [...]
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