id stringlengths 16 16 | title stringlengths 1 203 | author stringlengths 2 40 | poem stringlengths 1 87.3k | labels_l1 listlengths 1 10 | labels_l2 listlengths 0 15 | labels_l1_names listlengths 1 10 | labels_l2_names listlengths 0 15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1e42db91bb5ef1f2 | Q&A: Insurance | Alicia Ostriker | If time is an arrow, what is its target
If a Flexible Flyer is the sled I had as a child, when may I become a child again
Do you need help digging the potatoes out of your garden of insults
Do you plan to vote in the next election
Is our country headed in the right direction or the wrong direction
and... | [
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"S3-11"
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"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
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d6a5a526dda26e62 | Driving to Camp Lend-A-Hand | Berwyn Moore | for Emma Grace
The day we picked our daughter up from camp, goldenrod lined the road, towheaded scouts bowing on both sides, the parting of macadam as we drove, the fields dry, the sky lacy with clouds. A farmer waved. A horse shrugged its haughty head. We stopped for corn, just picked, and plums and kale, samp... | [
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"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
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fcb41b4676ad618b | Coin Coin, Run | Harmony Holiday | Damn, son he grunted holding his falling jeans and sprinting sideways in high hay and
concatenation He didn’t even want to chase the favor he hadn’t planned to live forever he
didn’t know he had a fever ... | [
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"S4",
"S9"
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"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice",
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45a0ed2448f8b615 | Winter Journal: Gold Rivulet Weave, Gauded | Emily Wilson | chains of the willow, desolate weft
birds and the slim reprieves
the socketing together of weeds before water
straight-pins of jet
incontrovertible smears of dense cloud
against bullet-train whitenings, unleashed
the reductions to tense
the awful dozes into deep sinks
flush grows upward, secreting, soaki... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-4",
"S2-7"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Winter",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
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c0c78f11f3dc25a7 | At Home from Church | Sarah Orne Jewett | The lilacs lift in generous bloom Their plumes of dear old-fashioned flowers; Their fragrance fills the still old house Where left alone I count the hours. High in the apple-trees the bees Are humming, busy in the sun,— An idle robin cries for rain But once or twice and then is done. The Sunday-morning quie... | [
"S2",
"S5"
] | [
"S2-8",
"S5-2"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion"
] | [
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Religion/Christianity"
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817ecf2abd4288a9 | Contemplations | Anne Bradstreet | 1 Sometime now past in the Autumnal Tide, When Phoebus wanted but one hour to bed, The trees all richly clad, yet void of pride, Were gilded o’re by his rich golden head. Their leaves and fruits seem’d painted but was true Of green, of red, of yellow, mixed hew, Rapt were my senses at this delectable view. 2 I wist not... | [
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"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
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"Living/Death & Dying"
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84047c6bfdd9a25d | The Skyline of a Missing Tooth | Sherwin Bitsui | 1.
The ice hook untwists inside the whirlwind like a tail.
A raven’s rib ripped from the electric socket
heats the palm,
its rusted core bound by the apple’s shaven hide.
Like a concussion cushioned between fingertips—
egg batter congeals in cracks of concrete.
The fourth generation of bees flee t... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S2-10"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Weather",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
] |
f9c5859e5e7136dc | Joan Miró | Shuzo Takiguchi | The wind’s tongue.
The always clear cobalt sky
bit at
your painting.
In a prehistoric poster
words doze like pebbles.
A gallop of feathers
kidnaps
the conversation between coarse ropes and wild beasts.
You paint within a blinking birthmark
the marriage of heaven and hell
faster
than tying a ribbon in a mi... | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-4"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Painting & Sculpture"
] |
c072ae6b2cc7af89 | Sonnet 76: Why is my verse so barren of new pride | William Shakespeare | Why is my verse so barren of new pride,
So far from variation or quick change?
Why with the time do I not glance aside
To new-found methods, and to compounds strange?
Why write I still all one, ever the same,
And keep invention in a noted weed,
That every word doth almost tell my name,
Showing their birth, and w... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-7"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Romantic Love"
] |
764b248f7e3a89b7 | Hunting Manual | Eleanor Wilner | The unicorn is an easy prey: its horn
in the maiden’s lap is an obvious
twist, a tamed figure—like the hawk
that once roamed free, but sits now, fat and hooded,
squawking on the hunter’s wrist. It’s easy
to catch what no longer captures
the mind, long since woven in,
a faded tapestry on a crumbling wall
made by... | [
"S9"
] | [
"S9-5"
] | [
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Sports & Outdoor Activities"
] |
790f42568eb767b8 | Sonnet XXV | George Santayana | As in the midst of battle there is room For thoughts of love, and in foul sin for mirth; As gossips whisper of a trinket’s worth Spied by the death-bed’s flickering candle-gloom; As in the crevices of Caesar’s tomb The sweet herbs flourish on a little earth: So in this great disaster of our birth We can be happy, and f... | [
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"Living",
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"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Living/Aging"
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8d176e988786da37 | The Grasshopper | Richard Lovelace | To My Noble Friend, Mr. Charles Cotton
O thou that swing’st upon the waving hair Of some well-fillèd oaten beard, Drunk every night with a delicious tear Dropped thee from heaven, where now th’ art reared; The joys of earth and air are thine entire, That with thy feet and wings dost hop and fly; And, when thy... | [
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"S2-7",
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"Nature",
"Relationships"
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"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Relationships/Friendship"
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ac2a20e533f66ea2 | Old Strange Book | Kathleen Ossip | In the story of my life there is a fieldfilled with chicory, daisies, and mayflowers.It’s the field behind my childhood house.In summer, I used to spend hours lying in it looking at cloudsbefore my mother brought us to the town poolwhere I spent some more hours swimming.In the other seasons I went to school.In the scho... | [
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"Living",
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"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
7ba78540a8f5fa24 | Taking Everything into Consideration | Margaret Fishback | The problems of a working girl
Are more than meet the naked eye;
And life becomes a dizzy whirl
At times—and dizzy, too, am I.
I have not found the answer yet,
And this is just a working plan:
I shove along and do not fret,
Nor yet depend on any man.
To be a mother and a wife,
I'm often urged by all my kith
A... | [
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"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
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2ebda8c4cfcfee07 | Invictus | William Ernest Henley | Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears... | [
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"S5-3"
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"Social Commentaries",
"Religion",
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"Time & Brevity"
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"Religion/Faith & Doubt"
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6704395185f05bc7 | Buckdancer’s Choice | James L. Dickey | So I would hear out those lungs,
The air split into nine levels,
Some gift of tongues of the whistler
In the invalid’s bed: my mother,
Warbling all day to herself
The thousand variations of one song;
It is called Buckdancer’s Choice.
For years, they have all been dying
Out, the classic buck-and-wing men
Of tra... | [
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"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Health & Illness",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
d47a3a712a9e439b | Our Valley | Philip Levine | We don't see the ocean, not ever, but in July and August when the worst heat seems to rise from the hard clay of this valley, you could be walking through a fig orchard when suddenly the wind cools and for a moment you get a whiff of salt, and in that moment you can almost believe something is waiting beyond the Pa... | [
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"S2-6",
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"Nature",
"Religion"
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"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
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1424867d0d82e5e8 | Philomela | Matthew Arnold | Hark! ah, the nightingale— The tawny-throated! Hark, from that moonlit cedar what a burst! What triumph! hark!—what pain! O wanderer from a Grecian shore, Still, after many years, in distant lands, Still nourishing in thy bewilder'd brain That wild, unquench'd, deep-sunken, old-world pain— Say, will it never heal? And ... | [
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"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Mourning",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals"
] |
3086ccc8919b941e | ode to coffee
oda al café | Urayoán Noel | (after Juan Luis Guerra)
from Africa to a Caribbean hill
de África a las lomas del Caribe
to the smiling ruin of our cities
a la feliz ruina de ciudades
anoint the neural vessels we refill
al matorral neural en donde vive
until your acid muse drowns our pities
tu ... | [
"S8",
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"S8-3",
"S9-1",
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44131199ec460965 | Fourth Song | Sir Philip Sidney | Only joy, now here you are,
Fit to hear and ease my care;
Let my whispering voice obtain,
Sweet reward for sharpest pain;
Take me to thee, and thee to me.
No, no, no, no, my dear, let be. Night hath closed all in her cloak,
Twinkling stars love-thoughts provoke:
Danger hence good care doth keep,
Jealousy itself doth sl... | [
"S1",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-4",
"S1-9"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Love/Unrequited Love"
] |
36199713c44d1d2c | Little-Known Facts about People | Joe Brainard | Did you know that Kenneth Koch's wife Janice used to be
an airplane pilot? Once she had to make an emergency landing
on a highway.
When Kenward Elmslie was a kid he wanted to be a tap
dancer. Did you know that Kenward's grandfather was Joseph
Pulitzer?
Kenward once told me that Jane Russell is ... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-7",
"S10-6"
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"Social Commentaries",
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"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
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f8cee899084e014e | And the Ship Sails On | Joel Brouwer | He faced the sink, one foot up
on the edge of the tub. She stood
behind him, reaching around.
In the mirror, her face rose
over his shoulder like the moon,
and like the moon she regarded him
beautifully but without feeling,
and he looked at her as he would
at the moon: How beautiful!How distant! No smiling, no ... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
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"S1-6",
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"Living",
"Relationships"
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"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
25376fa4c48983bf | Everything | Jane Wong | I am the type to go to bed with my feet dirty
A man calling from a balcony is not to be trusted
In 1988, the nation sings a song I can’t understand but I sing it
because everyone looks at me like a thief and no one likes a thief
Algae gather in plastic cups along the Jersey Shore
The dull prongs of a fork still co... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
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"S9"
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"S3-8",
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"History & Politics",
"Living",
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"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Living/Youth",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Activities/Study & Knowledge"
] |
2899737b5a6787b2 | Uniforms | Barbara Schmitz | It is very hot—92 today—to be wearing a stocking cap, but the adolescent swaggering through the grocery store automatic door doesn’t seem to mind; does not even appear to be perspiring. The tugged-down hat is part of his carefully orchestrated outfit: bagging pants, screaming t-shirt, high-topped shoes. The young woman... | [
"S3",
"S6"
] | [
"S3-7",
"S6-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture",
"Living/Aging"
] |
301630e7c68b3fd7 | Buzzards | Ravi Shankar | Gregarious in hunger, a flock of twenty
turn circles like whorls of barbed wire,
no spot below flown over uncanvassed.
The closer to death the closer they come,
waiting on wings with keen impatient
perseverance, dark blades lying in wake
until age or wound has turned canter
into carcass or near enough for them
... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
28274a39f3fd0031 | The Year of What Now | Brian Russell | I ask your doctor
of infectious disease if she's
read Williams he cured
sick babies I tell her and
begin describing spring
and all she's looking at the wall
now the floor now your chart
now the door never
heard of him she says
but I can't stop explaining
how important this is
I need to know your doct... | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-6",
"S10-6",
"S10-8"
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"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
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"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Living/Health & Illness"
] |
45eb26ceeae20739 | Coming of the August Grandchild | Brandon Shimoda | Not even the males and the men of the males
make use of their pinched tongues
to sing, not even the females
and the women of the females, corollas stemmed to spray on end
sing their ruddy stones
The males and the men of the males
feel the sea
the ranch and the wheat, rice ears
polyglottal weddings
... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S8",
"S10"
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"S8-3",
"S10-2"
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"History & Politics",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
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"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
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] |
a60801dabb78ac16 | Mud Season | Tess Taylor | We unstave the winter’s tangle.
Sad tomatoes, sullen sky.
We unplay the summer’s blight.
Rotted on the vine, black fruit
swings free of the strings that bound it.
In the compost, ghost melon; in the fields(,)
grotesque extruded peppers.
We prod half-thawed mucky things.
In the sky, starlings eddying.
Tomorrow,... | [
"S9"
] | [
"S9-2"
] | [
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Gardening & Farming"
] |
167e9bf401534663 | A Duck's Tune | LeAnne Howe | Ya kut unta pishno ma*Ya kut unta pishno maYa kut unta pishno maYa kut unta pishno ma
So I moved to this place,
Iowa City, Ioway
Where green-headed mallards
walk the streets day and night,
and defecate on sidewalks.
Greasy meat bags in wetsuits,
disguise themselves as pets
and are free as birds.
Maybe Indians ... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S10-3"
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"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
139d4c7b79d8b9a6 | Estuary | Katrina Roberts | How it must have been for them, when wind came
to strike cottonwoods they called home down
—silver bridges across a gun-smoke creek-bed, joining
yellow meadow to meadow...how it must have been
like the beginning of time, when the first one beat
great wings (though so silent a field mouse
would never even hear bef... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S2-6"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Nature/Bodies of Water"
] |
56d63615eef786b5 | The Seventh Inning | Donald Hall | 1. Baseball, I warrant, is not the whole
occupation of the aging boy.
Far from it: There are cats and roses;
there is her water body. She fills
the skin of her legs up, like water;
under her blouse, water assembles,
swelling lukewarm; her mouth is water,
her cheekbones cool water; water flows
in her rapid hai... | [
"S9"
] | [
"S9-5"
] | [
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Sports & Outdoor Activities"
] |
b7126e501a3ecb72 | Good Bones | Maggie Smith | Life is short, though I keep this from my children.
Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine
in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,
a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways
I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least
fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative
estimate, though I keep this from my chi... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6"
] | [
"S6-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Parenthood"
] |
e7c62b47e2dd7d0b | Ars Poetica | Archibald MacLeish | A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit,
Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,
Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown—
A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.
*
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,
Leaving,... | [
"S2",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S10-6",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Nature",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
] |
7f01ce8713acb59c | Not for Him the Fiery Lake of the False Prophet | Martín Espada | When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best.... They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.
— Donald Trump, June 16, 2015
They woke him up by pissing in his face. He opened his mouth
to scream in Spanish, so his mouth became a urinal at the ballpark.
Scott and Steve: the Leader... | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S3-6",
"S3-8"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
a3b5e0dfd72fa482 | Lincoln, Man of the People | Edwin Markham | When the Norn Mother saw the Whirlwind Hour Greatening and darkening as it hurried on, She left the Heaven of Heroes and came down To make a man to meet the mortal need. She took the tried clay of the common road— Clay warm yet with the genial heat of Earth, Dashed through it all a strain of prophecy; Tempered the heap... | [
"S3",
"S11"
] | [
"S11-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism"
] |
33d408ac94398da1 | International Hour of Prayer for the Yellowstone Buffalo Herd | Wendy Rose | Noon, March 6, 1997
From morning’s mouth
the bones emerge,
a prayer is whispered
over rounded horns;
the prairie is beyond
the quivering hump
and holy smoke sparkles
released in the breath.
Braided sweetgrass,
be about their hooves;
although the grip of hunger
lies heavy on the land,
let endless native gra... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S3-8",
"S3-11",
"S8-3",
"S8-8"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals"
] |
b3fd139b579c872a | The Children | Mark Jarman | The children are hiding among the raspberry canes.
They look big to one another, the garden small.
Already in their mouths this soft fruit
That lasts so briefly in the supermarket
Tastes like the past. The gritty wall,
Behind the veil of leaves, is hollow.
There are yellow wasps inside it. The children know.
The... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S7",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-8",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi"
] |
65406737f017582c | The Songs of Maximus: SONG 1 | Charles Olson | colored pictures
of all things to eat: dirty
postcards
And words, words, words
all over everything
No eyes or ears left
to do their own doings (all
invaded, appropriated, outraged, all senses
including the mind, that worker on what is
... | [
"S3",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S10-2"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life"
] |
da96f03dbbcfe1c2 | We Tend to Sleep Better When the Clock Is Wound | Todd Boss | than we do
when it’s all
wound down.
I don’t know
why we settle
to the sound.
Somehow
the regular
click and chime
of passing time,
like water, turns
a water wheel
that turns a gear
that turns a stone
that turns upon
another stone
and fine
and finer in between
our dreams like grain
are ground. | [
"S6",
"S7",
"S9"
] | [] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Activities"
] | [] |
3bd62b1e561e85df | Nocturne | W. S. Di Piero | Where are you now,my poems, my sleepwalkers?No mumbles tonight?Where are you, thirst,fever, humming tedium?The sodium streetlights burr outside my window, steadfast, unreachable, little astonishments lighting the way uphill.Where are you now,when I need you most? It’s late. I’m old. ... | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-6"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets"
] |
b9f92f20c0d7c987 | August | Peter Cole | Homage to Morton Feldman
“Before the oracle, with the flowers”
—1 Kings 7:49
1
Here in the gloaming,
a wormwood haze —
the “m” on its head,
a “w,” amazed
at what the
drink itself does:
Vermouth,
god bless you — th.2
What really matters now is begonia,
he thought, distracted while reading —
their amber... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-2",
"S2-8"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Summer",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi"
] |
bc05ec89886b2af6 | The Evening-Watch: A Dialogue | Henry Vaughan | BODY Farewell! I go to sleep; but when
The day-star springs, I’ll wake again.
SOUL Go, sleep in peace; and when thou liest
Unnumber’d in thy dust, when all this frame
Is but one dram, and what thou now descriest
In sev’ral parts shall want a name,
Then may his peace be with thee, and each dust
Writ ... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S7",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-9",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space"
] |
b29d978966e778ce | Mystic Bounce | Terrance Hayes | Even if you love the racket of ascension, you must know how the power leaves you. And at this pitch who has time for meditation? the sea walled in by buildings. I do miss the quiet, don't you? When I said, "Fuck the deer antlered and hithered in fur," it was because I had seen the faces of presidents balled into a fist... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S5"
] | [
"S4-1",
"S5-8"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Religion"
] | [
"History & Politics/Money & Economics",
"Religion/The Spiritual"
] |
67c7b92874b1250c | The Delta | Bruce Bond | If you are going there by foot, prepare to get wet. You are not you anymore.You are a girl standing in a pool of clouds as they catch fire in the distance.There are laws of heaven and those of placeand those who see the sky in the water,angels in ashes that are the delta’s now. They say if you sweep the trash from ... | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S3-8"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
a8b476405b79dae9 | Spleen (Hollyhock) | Sylvia Legris | Unblacken the holy mallow,the incorrupt, the foregutinconclusion. St. Cuthbert’s cole,a stalky stand-up, the deadpanpeevish. Splenetic, the maroonedfascicles, the testy watchman-hockleaf-clock. Ad hoc the anti-antibodies, the ripped-openopen-pollinating poultice,the self-sowing aggrievement. | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-8",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
702673cd9c7de752 | Note Held | Fred Marchant | “Nothing but sunlight and gleaming, linoleum flecked with flame,a thick coat of wax that flasheddown a corridor and led to a room,a place where I curled up a few innocuous inches off the floor. Straps—word out of strophe,the restraints of line and stanza—straps hung in loops on closet hooks. On the nightstand a basket ... | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-6",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Living/Health & Illness"
] |
9b774aa229c79531 | What Is a Grackle? | Susan Elizabeth Howe | A comfort common to Southwest desertparking lots, a familiar, a messenger,an overlooked angel oiled by asphalt,consolation of the casino, supermarketspiritual guide picking at a free-todayhot dog, a dropped grape or lentil,its purple-green head iridescent,its long keel of a tail.Black birds but not blackbirdswith their... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-5"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Mourning"
] |
1dca7c216dd27c13 | In Knowledge of Young Boys | Toi Derricotte | i knew you before you had a mother,
when you were newtlike, swimming,
a horrible brain in water.
i knew you when your connections
belonged only to yourself,
when you had no history
to hook on to,
barnacle,
when you had no sustenance of metal
when you had no boat to travel
when you stayed in the same
place, t... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-7"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Parenthood"
] |
78f3a948c49d3a6b | from Don't Let Me Be Lonely: “There is a button on the remote control called FAV...” | Claudia Rankine | There is a button on the remote control called FAV. You can program your favorite channels. Don’t like the world you live in, choose one closer to the world you live in. I choose the independent film channel and HBO. Neither have news programs as far as I can tell. This is what is great about America—anyone can make th... | [
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
f8c3f1bb3b54c623 | You That I Loved | A. F. Moritz | You that I loved all my life long, you are not the one. You that I followed, my line or path or way, that I followed singing, and you earth and air of the world the way went through, and you who stood around it so it could be the way, you forests and cities, you deer and opossums struck by the lonely hunter and left de... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-6",
"S2-7",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
4a7815555e70ee1e | The Coffins | Michael Chitwood | Two days into the flood they appear, moored against a roof eave or bobbing caught in the crowns of drowned trees. Like fancy life boats from an adventurer’s flag ship, brass plating and grips, walnut sheen, scroll work, they slip through the understory on this brief, bad river. What have they discovered and come back t... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-10",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Weather",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
4f71c3e37924c359 | An Arbor | Linda Gregerson | The world’s a world of trouble, your mother must
have told you
that. Poison leaks into the basements
and tedium into the schools. The oak
is going the way
of the elm in the upper Midwest—my cousin
earns a living by taking the dead ones
... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-8",
"S3-2",
"S6-5",
"S6-6",
"S6-7"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Living/Mourning",
"Living/Health & Illness",
"Living/Parenthood"
] |
e218a2adef628496 | Afton Water | Robert Burns | Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes, Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise; My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream, Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream. Thou stock-dove, whose echo resounds thro' the glen, Ye wild whistling blackbirds in yon thorny den, Thou green-crested lapwing, t... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-7",
"S2-6"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Nature/Bodies of Water"
] |
217c0ddab1c110d6 | Brothers-American Drama | James Weldon Johnson | (THE MOB SPEAKS:)
See! There he stands; not brave, but with an air
Of sullen stupor. Mark him well! Is he
Not more like brute than man? Look in his eye!
No light is there; none, save the glint that shines
In the now glaring, and now shifting orbs
Of some wild animal caught in the hunter’s trap.
How came this bea... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-6",
"S3-8"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
c821995c2061dcde | The Lawn Mower | Sarah Barber | When we finally flip it over the fireflies are out. The neighbor boy has had his stitches in so I can finally admit I think it is all fantastic: the suck of the spark plug undone, the stuck blade bent into the guard, and the sound of the hammer’s head reshaping the metal. In this our suburban Eden we’ve o... | [
"S2",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-1",
"S9-2"
] | [
"Nature",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Spring",
"Activities/Gardening & Farming"
] |
7fae648aa2000475 | Coconut Milk | Dan Taulapapa McMullin | Coconut Milk, 2015 | [
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S8-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Relationships/LGBTQ+"
] |
a8b3514f25dc9105 | New Rooms | Kay Ryan | The mind mustset itself upwherever it goesand it would bemost convenientto impose itsold rooms—justtack them uplike an interiortent. Oh butthe new holes aren’t where the windowswent. | [
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Living"
] | [] |
de7eba6ed0290728 | Almost | Randall Mann | One last meal, family-style — no family, and with suspect style. November first, my almost-groomfresh off his flasher costume discharge at the office. Harris tweed.I read it on his antisocial feed. The motel life is all a dream —we were, as they say, living the dream. I appreciate our quandary, hot-plate dates and frow... | [
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Living"
] | [] |
6d003aae9f350ff5 | Sheep | Judy Grahn | The first four leaders had broken knees
The four old dams had broken knees
The flock would start to run, then freeze
The first four leaders had broken knees
‘Why is the flock so docile?’ asked the hawk.
‘Yes, why is the flock so docile,’ laughed the dog,
‘The shepherd’s mallet is in his hand,
The shepherd’s hand... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S8-8"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals"
] |
f8cd9c2cd85e2edd | Before Anything Happened the House Had No Skeleton | Karyna McGlynn | the termites had deboned the thing
it was clean there was no saving it
in one bedroom a dresser with blue drawers
its peg-legs rested on pure membrane
a girl just stood in her underwear
ran the tips of her fingers over her ribs
thought greyhound no one knew no explaining
why she didn’t fall through the floor
th... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-2",
"S8-5",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Nature/Summer",
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
fb4d39d7bd32df92 | [All night I hear the noise of water sobbing.] | Alejandra Pizarnik | All night I hear the noise of water sobbing. All night I make night in me, I make the day that begins on my account, that sobs because day falls like water through night.
All night I hear the voice of someone seeking me out. All night you abandon me slowly like the water that sobs slowly falling. All night I ... | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-5",
"S8-1"
] | [
"Love",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Mourning",
"Relationships/Breakups & Separation"
] |
a0118cb22d525370 | Anniversary | Dan Beachy-Quick | You are for me as you cannot beFor yourself, chaos without demandTo speak, the amethyst nothingHidden inside the trinket shop’s stone,Dark eyes dark asterisks where lightFootnotes a margin left blank. YouDon’t look up to look up at the sky. Your ears parenthesize nothingThat occurs, that I keep from occurring,In the po... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
e912b53abc486929 | A Birthday | Christina Rossetti | My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
Be... | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-4",
"S1-7",
"S1-8"
] | [
"Love",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Love/Classic Love"
] |
b72a51c5fc3ee83a | The Anti-Grief | Marianne Boruch | Day after day of rain. A ticket straight to
the mild-mannered hell of rethinking whatever,
the drive to EconoFoods: not a lot of grief in that.
You need staples — bread, rice, eggs.
Here’s a list: almonds, yogurt, all the little
anti-griefs add up.
Did I tell you? my grandfather sings from the grave.
They have m... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
e1a3c1626589bce9 | Nothing Gold Can Stay | Robert Frost | Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay. | [
"S2",
"S5",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S2-1",
"S2-2",
"S2-8",
"S5-8",
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"S6-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Nature/Spring",
"Nature/Summer",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Religion/The Spiritual",
"Living/Aging",
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
d5cb3f87b20a28c9 | Ice Child | John Haines | Cold for so long, unable to speak,
yet your mouth seems framed
on a cry, or a stifled question.
Who placed you here, and left you
to this lonely eternity of ash and ice,
and himself returned to the dust
fields, the church and the temple?
Was it God—the sun-god of the Incas,
the imperial god of the Spaniards?
O... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S7",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
261531ed9feec2aa | Windows | Sumita Chakraborty | After Rilke's “Les Fenêtres”
i
how much loss
gains suddenly in emphasis
and brilliant sadness
iifar from that which lives and turns
iii
languages
of our vain comings and goings wilt and gnaw
ivbeat them, punish
them for having said and always said
v
tear out, f... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S1-6",
"S2-9"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space"
] |
094f0a348014512a | Sand Flesh and Sky | Clarence Major | Our ropes are the roots
of our life. We fish
low in the earth,
the river beneath runs through our veins,
blue and cold in a riverbed.
When the sun comes up,
the moon moves slowly to the left.
I tie the logs and limbs together,
holding them in place.
The ocean beats them
smooth like rock.
Here my sense of tim... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S7",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S9-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Activities/Sports & Outdoor Activities"
] |
6c4b1274a80ffffd | Rebus | Jane Hirshfield | You work with what you are given,
the red clay of grief,
the black clay of stubbornness going on after.
Clay that tastes of care or carelessness,
clay that smells of the bottoms of rivers or dust.
Each thought is a life you have lived or failed to live,
each word is a dish you have eaten or left on the table.
Th... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-5"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Mourning"
] |
65d41deac9f03fab | All Is Fair in Love and War | Sabrina Orah Mark | “Who is Beatrice,” wondered Walter B., “to give Beatrice up her hope?” Beatrice sulked under her cauliflower-colored hat. “It is like,” said Beatrice, “I can barely crack another joke.” “This is correct,” said Walter B. “It is most certainly like that. Nevertheless, whoever you are it is not up to you to give up your h... | [
"S8"
] | [] | [
"Relationships"
] | [] |
3adcc5cce81f21e5 | . . . (In Exion) | Jennifer Scappettone | can walk without
a frame, he
whose exions last
and saw into
limbs livid still
the sum, comic,
dome-hosting wall shop
captivating everything in
a proleptic sale
while sand-horse negotiates
his clop versus
some floor one
erected in ardor
prostrate again and
happy penultimate slough-opening
as the news
tha... | [
"S10"
] | [] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [] |
284875455be6ec93 | the smell | Emelihter Kihleng | ke pwoahn Pohnpei
I told him as we kissedis that a good thing?
he askedhell yea
I wanted to say
replaced it with another kiss
inhaling the mix of last night’s sakau en Pohnpei
seir en wai, sweat
rain
intoxicating
taking me home
he left that smell behind
it would barely linger by the time
he reached his des... | [
"S1",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-6",
"S8-1"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Relationships/Breakups & Separation"
] |
454bb1ea414333c0 | Through a Glass Eye, Lightly | Carolyn Kizer | In the laboratory waiting room
containing
one television actor with a teary face
trying a contact lens;
two muscular victims of industrial accidents;
several vain women—I was one of them—
came Deborah, four, to pick up her glass eye.
It was a long day:
Deborah waiting for the blood vessels
painted
on her iris... | [
"S6",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-6",
"S6-7",
"S9-3",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Living/Health & Illness",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Activities/Indoor Activities"
] |
c390cb181345a86e | Akiba | Muriel Rukeyser | THE WAY OUT
The night is covered with signs. The body and face of man,
with signs, and his journeys. Where the rock is split
and speaks to the water; the flame speaks to the cloud;
the red splatter, abstraction, on the door
speaks to the angel and the constellations.
The grains of sand on the sea-floor sp... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S5",
"S6",
"S9"
] | [
"S5-8",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Religion",
"Living",
"Activities"
] | [
"Religion/The Spiritual",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
b3b260a50240a978 | “I am happy living simply” | Marina Tsvetaeva | I am happy living simply:like a clock, or a calendar.Worldly pilgrim, thin,wise—as any creature. To knowthe spirit is my beloved. To come to things—swiftas a ray of light, or a look.To live as I write: spare—the wayGod asks me—and friends do not.1919 | [
"S5",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S5-8",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Religion",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Religion/The Spiritual"
] |
f35b701dcf6881e6 | Tender Arrivals | Amiri Baraka | Where ever something breathesHeart beating the rise and fallOf mountains, the waves upon the skyOf seas, the terror is our ignorance, that’sWhy it is named after our home, earthWhere art is locked betweenGone and DestinationThe destiny of some other where and feelingThe ape knew this, when his old lady pulled him upOff... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-8",
"S9-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
fcd78029f489d6bf | Talking to Vladimir Mayakovsky | Ron Padgett | All right, I admit it:
It was just a dream I had last night.
I was trudging along a muddy path
in a column of downcast men
on the blackened outskirts of New York,
the twilight dingy and ruined,
the fu... | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-6",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books"
] |
893533d31ea11c46 | The Brooklyn–Battery Bridge in the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel | Samuel Amadon | You might make a choice between what descends
with these tiles lined before you, or arcing
forward through a history that is constant against us.
A bridge to block out the dawn. Or monoxide
that passes like breath. My breath. I know all about what’s
underground, and I keep my searches for the invisible
there. In ... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
eef9838b09cc89cf | Open the Gates | Israel Zangwill | Open the gates—the gates of the Temple,Swift to Thy sons, who Thy truths have displayed.Open the gates—the gates that are hidden,Swift to Thy sons, who Thy Law have obeyed.Open the gates—of the coveted Temple,Swift to Thy sons who confess and seek grace.Open the gates—of the armies celestial,Swift to Thy sons, Judah’s ... | [
"S5"
] | [
"S5-3",
"S5-6"
] | [
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/Faith & Doubt",
"Religion/Judaism"
] |
fa098b9384c8c5da | Amoretti LXXIX: Men Call you Fair | Edmund Spenser | Men call you fair, and you do credit it,
For that your self ye daily such do see:
But the true fair, that is the gentle wit,
And vertuous mind, is much more prais'd of me.
For all the rest, how ever fair it be,
Shall turn to naught and lose that glorious hue:
But only that is permanent and free
From frail corruption, t... | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-6"
] | [
"Love",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated"
] |
5ff530750ded0013 | from From the Theatre of Illusion | Pierre Corneille | Act 2, Scene 2Clindor, a young picaresque hero, has been living by his wits in Paris, but has now drifted to Bordeaux, to become the valet of a braggart bravo named Matamore. He is chiefly employed as a go-between, carrying Matamore's amorous messages to the beautiful Isabelle—who only suffers the master because she is... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S8",
"S11"
] | [
"S1-4",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism"
] |
7172692a9520c205 | Washing the Elephant | Barbara Ras | Isn't it always the heart that wants to wash
the elephant, begging the body to do it
with soap and water, a ladder, hands,
in tree-shade big enough for the vast savannahs
of your sadness, the strangler fig of your guilt,
the cratered full moon's light fueling
the windy spooling memory of elephant?
What if Father... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
458d14c1c5344be1 | Burning the Old Year | Naomi Shihab Nye | Letters swallow themselves in seconds.
Notes friends tied to the doorknob,
transparent scarlet paper,
sizzle like moth wings,
marry the air.
So much of any year is flammable,
lists of vegetables, partial poems.
Orange swirling flame of days,
so little is a stone.
Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,
... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S2-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Nature/Winter"
] |
2c4ea225ee213f96 | Statue and Birds | Louise Bogan | Here, in the withered arbor, like the arrested wind,
Straight sides, carven knees,
Stands the statue, with hands flung out in alarm
Or remonstrances.
Over the lintel sway the woven bracts of the vine
In a pattern of angles.
The quill of the fountain falters, woods rake on the sky
Their brusque tangles.
The bird... | [
"S2",
"S10"
] | [
"S10-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Painting & Sculpture"
] |
046b200682d555b1 | Unreal | Mark Ford | . . . I drank
and was surprised to see what looked like tea leaves at the bottom of the cup . . . minuteslater a great warm green wave or cloud began advancing towards me. “Look at the boats on his shirt,” I felt myself tryingto say, in Spanish, or Moroccan, yet knowing I knewnone of the words . . . ... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-6",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
1bc92115655e33b9 | The Lamb | William Blake | Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee Gave thee life & bid thee feed. By the stream & o'er the mead; Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing wooly bright; Gave thee such a tender voice, Making all the vales rejoice! Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made th... | [
"S5",
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S5-2",
"S8-8",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Religion",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Religion/Christianity",
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals"
] |
458c99ef3b82f84e | In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII: 82 | Alfred, Lord Tennyson | I wage not any feud with Death For changes wrought on form and face; No lower life that earth's embrace May breed with him, can fright my faith. Eternal process moving on, From state to state the spirit walks; And these are but the shatter'd stalks, Or ruin'd chrysalis of one. Nor bl... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-4"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
89f98036104e3b61 | Thrashing Seems Crazy | Juliana Spahr | this is true
a man in an alley grabbed my arm
this is true
someone called me and left the phone dangling at the post office
this is true
a man stalked me
someone tells a story
someone tells a story to another person
another person says I don't believe this
someone tells the story again in an attempt to convinc... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S11"
] | [
"S3-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
bcad51695e008bf9 | In the Past | Trumbull Stickney | There lies a somnolent lakeUnder a noiseless sky,Where never the mornings breakNor the evenings die.Mad flakes of colour Whirl on its even faceIridescent and streaked with pallour;And, warding the silent place,The rocks rise sheer and grayFrom the sedgeless brink to the skyDull-lit with the light of pale half-dayThro’ ... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S7",
"S11"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S6-4",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
56031337db18a0a9 | Defense Mechanism | Calvin Thomas Jr. | This is about heroes, and you should know
I do not mean old men with membranous snow
Already patching them on hand and cheek;
I mean the medaled models from the Greek
On whom the air force lavishes technique
Like tennis lessons and engineering toys
Given at schools for preparatory boys.
Say what you will, this f... | [
"S3",
"S11"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
6b81640e22c5eb9a | Deed | Diane Gilliam Fisher | Let it finally be Friday, let me drive
downtown before five, park in the one
space left open in front and feed the meter
the exact change it needs. Let me go into the office,
sit and nod, unfold my check on the table
and sign. Let the line not be dotted, let it
be solid. Let it be my name.
Let it be final.
Let ... | [
"S8"
] | [
"S8-5"
] | [
"Relationships"
] | [
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
64f9bde492d4c954 | Super Bowl | Mary Ruefle | Who won? I said.
The game’s tomorrow, he said.
And I became the snail I always was,
crossing the field in my helmet.
But I’d given it my all,
while the plane arced on its way
to a landing, when I overheard
the woman behind us sayI was gathering wildflowers to make a wreath
to lay on my mother’s grave when my so... | [
"S3",
"S6"
] | [
"S3-7",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
80022da4a3c50a86 | Fragment 10: The Three Sorts of Friends | Samuel Taylor Coleridge | Though friendships differ endless in degree , The sorts , methinks, may be reduced to three. Ac quaintance many, and Con quaintance few; But for In quaintance I know only two— The friend I've mourned with, and the maid I woo! | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S8-4"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Relationships/Friendship"
] |
da74fae06480c0af | the drone | Clint Smith | the drone was once a scrap of metal the drone looks as if it might be a toy the drone is not a toy the drone could have been something other than a killing machine the drone could have been a house the drone could have been a spoon the drone could have been a swing the drone does not know w... | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
ae8b8d0d4d45f208 | Inside My Head | Robert Creeley | inside my head
Inside my head a common room,
a common place, a common tune,
a common wealth, a common doom
inside my head. I close my eyes.
The horses run. Vast are the skies,
and blue my passing thoughts’ surprise
inside my head. What is this space
here found to be, what is this place
if only me? Inside my he... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-8",
"S2-9",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
e70fd1475603c9a1 | Little Brown Baby | Paul Laurence Dunbar | Little brown baby wif spa'klin' eyes,
Come to yo' pappy an' set on his knee.
What you been doin', suh — makin' san' pies?
Look at dat bib — you's es du'ty ez me.
Look at dat mouf — dat's merlasses, I bet;
Come hyeah, Maria, an' wipe off his han's.
Bees gwine to ketch you an' eat you up yit,
Bein' so sticky an s... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-8",
"S6-2",
"S6-7",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Living/Birth & Infancy",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
0d1fc2366ef6a5c8 | Driving Through | Mark Vinz | This could be the town you’re from, marked only by what it’s near. The gas station man speaks of weather and the high school football team just as you knew he would— kind to strangers, happy to live here. Tell yourself it doesn’t matter now, you’re only driving through. Past the sagging, empty porches locked up tight t... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S6-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Living/Aging"
] |
0bf3c709e2a81157 | Lothar’s Wife | Colleen J. McElroy | he’s only a smart-ass when he’s home
with Mandrake
he’s silent and obedient as a snail
his bald pate bowing into the cape’s
trail and dreaming
of tales he’ll bore me with
his one night home
once a month
that’s what I get like clockwork
and always on the full moon
half my allowance he reserves
for sheets, tea... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S3-8"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
9871753699112473 | It Was the Animals | Natalie Diaz | Today my brother brought over a piece of the arkwrapped in a white plastic grocery bag.He set the bag on my dining table, unknotted it,peeled it away, revealing a foot-long fracture of wood.He took a step back and gestured toward itwith his arms and open palms — It’s the ark, he said. You mean No... | [
"S2",
"S5",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S5-2",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Religion/Christianity",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
774313ea9a846d49 | Robert Frost at Eighty | Peter Boyle | I think there are poems greater and stranger than any I have known.
I would like to find them.
They are not on the greying paper of old books
or chanted on obscure lips.
They are not in the language of mermaids
or the sharp-tongued adjectives of vanishing.
They run like torn threads along paving stones.
They are... | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Living/Aging"
] |
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