Occasional Poem
“Ms. Marcus says that an occasional poem is a poem
written about something
important
or special
that’s gonna happen
or already did.
Think of a specific occasion, she says—and write about it.”
Posts Tagged "poem"
El Olvido
“It is a dangerous thing
to forget the climate of your birthplace,
to choke out the voices of dead relatives
when in dreams they call you
by your secret name.”
Sentences
“My mother kept a chest of letters
my father sent me from prison.
She didn’t let me see them
until I was old enough to read
profanity.”
Document
“The day is winter bright. I blink against it.
Each time the sun glints in my eyes,
each time I close my lids & let them go”
Salt Sky
“The bright night sky,
Doorway to everything—
In all that black
All those stars:”
Christmas Mail
by Ted Kooser Cards in each mailbox, angel, manger, star and lamb, as the rural carrier, driving the snowy roads, hears from her bundles the plaintive bleating of sheep, the shuffle of sandals, the clopping of camels. At stop after stop, she opens the little tin door and places deep in the shadows the shepherds…
Famous
“The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds
watching him from the birdhouse.”
Rogue Corn
“My fav event as harvest season approaches
is the rough seed that escaped the plots.”
Summer
“Last summer, two discrete young snakes left their skin
on my small porch, two mornings in a row. Being
postmodern now, I pretended as if I did not see
them, nor understand what I knew to be circling”
History Lesson
I am four in this photograph, standing
on a wide strip of Mississippi beach,
my hands on the flowered hips
of a bright bikini.
At Last the New Arriving
“Don’t worry ’bout nothing. Don’t mean
no thing. It will leave you stunned
as a fighter with his eyes swelled shut
who’s told he won the whole damn purse.
Why Are Your Poems So Dark?
“When God demanded light,
he didn’t banish darkness.”
The Last Slave
“You never could tell: people disappeared
suddenly in the old days, left rumors
and big black gaping holes in family trees.”
From the Sky
“When I die,
bury me in the sky—
no one is fighting over it.”
Hinotama
“The ball of light that bounced above the concentration camp
held in its patience
the memory of the unusual flower
the Japanese man was reaching for
when he was shot”