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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ef8aaf609f718088 | Testament | Connie Voisine | The cat wants to be a strong thing—a hand, a tree. The girl wants to be a pirate, in a tree. The tree wants to be the pond with its face of shining. The pond wants to be the sun who dumps its sugar on the grass. The grass wants to be the foot, its sole, its heel. The foot wants to be the brain who always gets to choose... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S2-8",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Nature/Animals",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi"
] |
bdd0ce61c1284b4c | The Demon | Jennifer Firestone | This is a demon that can take a grown brain and squash it to sponge. There is no loving the state
of a decrepit mind that encourages a decrepit body. Is he sleeping or just not there? States of
awareness flicker inside a gauzy lens. We’ve seen this before—in a film, the man disappearing
as he stands right there, his... | [
"S5",
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S5-8",
"S6-4",
"S6-6",
"S8-3",
"S10-2"
] | [
"Religion",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
"Religion/The Spiritual",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Health & Illness",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
bba3885736e6a605 | Unlocking | Alice B. Fogel | But it is not always quiet here.
Things go on while we sleep the sleep of soldiers.
Ancient branches crack and splinter into dust.
Large wings snap open in spring
like carpets splayed out over the railing.
Granite splits apart at the seams
and great animals cleave roads through woods.
Daily, in the density, ther... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S2-8"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi"
] |
07c5c2984b404436 | Poorly Dressed | Bruce Lansky | I have a friend who’s not well dressed.
He wears no hat. He wears no vest.
Upon his back he wears no shirt,
so you can see there’s lots of dirt.
He wears no shoes upon his feet.
He wears no pants upon his seat.
In fact, he doesn’t wear a stitch,
so he can scratch if there’s an itch.
I hope that you don’t find h... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Animals"
] |
bb30026d5d335171 | Amoretti I: Happy ye leaves when as those lilly hands | Edmund Spenser | Happy ye leaves when as those lilly hands,
Which hold my life in their dead doing might
Shall handle you and hold in loves soft bands,
Lyke captives trembling at the victors sight.
And happy lines, on which with starry light,
Those lamping eyes will deigne sometimes to look
And reade the sorrowes of my dying spri... | [
"S1",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-4",
"S1-7"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Love/Romantic Love"
] |
ec1198799aa3be62 | The Dry Bones | Paul Hoover | My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself —Ezekiel
And into the heavens, as on a bright day after rain,there came the shapes of four creatures,and they each had the likeness of a man,and each man had four wings outstretchedand each wing had four eyes emblazoned, wide open,given to weeping at the wo... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S5",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S4-1",
"S5-2",
"S5-4",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Religion",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"History & Politics/Money & Economics",
"Religion/Christianity",
"Religion/God & the Divine",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
bfac492894e659e0 | The Measure of the Year | James Galvin | A canoe made of horse ribs tipped over in the pasture.
Prairie flowers took it for a meetinghouse.
They grow there with a vengeance.
Buck posts float across the flooded swamp
Where my father rode in and under.
Different horse.
He held her head up out of the mud
And said how he was sorry
Till they came to pull h... | [
"S2",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S8-3",
"S8-8",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
130e7848c8bd4a77 | Blanche Bruce Does the Modernism | Douglas Kearney | let us go then let us go then I said
and the band was I lone every which way way my spit slicked the sax’s brass chitlins. I said
such wet would mud dust and soil red rock. I said
doors to some room blown out the out blown in. let us go then let us go then. I said
check the spit’s phlegm tenements. I said
... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-8",
"S10-3",
"S10-10"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Theater & Dance",
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
6bc57cd991b69940 | White Buttons | Mary Ruefle | Having been blown awayby a bookI am in the gutterat the end of the streetin little pieceslike the alphabet(mother do not worryletters are not fleshthough there’s meaning in thembut not when they are meanmy letters to you were meanI found them after you diedand read them and tore them upand fed them to the windthank you... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
03eea69d0fcc4830 | A Copywriter's Christmas | Margaret Fishback | The Twenty-fifth is imminent
And every known expedient
Designed for making Christmas pay
Is getting swiftly under way.
Observe the people swarming to
And fro, somnambulating through
The stores in search of ties and shirts
And gloves to give until it hurts.
They're eyeing gifts in Saks' and Hearn's
And Macy's, ... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S9"
] | [
"S4-1",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Activities"
] | [
"History & Politics/Money & Economics",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
86cbc2038f86b00c | Food of Love | Carolyn Kizer | Eating is touch carried to the bitter end.
Samuel Butler II
I’m going to murder you with love;
I’m going to suffocate you with embraces;
I’m going to hug you, bone by bone,
Till you’re dead all over.
Then I will dine on your delectable marrow.
You will become my per... | [
"S1",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-7"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Romantic Love"
] |
53b45781b8ec20ea | Words for the Sri Lanka Tourist Office | Indran Amirthanayagam | The King Cobra slides
through our jungles,
and tucked in bushes
by the riverbanks
the grand Kabaragoya
holds court among lizards—
but if you want to swim
at Mount Lavinia, or fly kites
on Galle Face Green, or ride
horse carts in the Jaffna peninsula
of your ancestors, or bear a child
in Colombo General Hospi... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-10"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Weather"
] |
f7c04420b65b0e3b | They Come | Cathy Park Hong | Stamp the earth rind down, shuck our boots & nap on rubber cockscomb pad. Rise up & ride in, poles poked through with hide of kid flap from blither wind. Ride into a town of tires stacked, a tarred prehistoric castle. A town of shacks painted kiwi green latches guano rimmed. Road’s a batter of blood & dust. One... | [
"S3",
"S11"
] | [
"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
e857262c8bfc1d03 | The Picture of Little T. C. in a Prospect of Flowers | Andrew Marvell | See with what simplicity
This nymph begins her golden days!
In the green grass she loves to lie,
And there with her fair aspect tames
The wilder flowers, and gives them names:
But only with the roses plays;
And them does tell
What colour best becomes them, and what smell.
Who can foretell for what hig... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S6-2",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Living/Birth & Infancy"
] |
8a626165dbb635a8 | Trying to Get Through | Eleanor Ross Taylor | I make a knife of words.I sit here waiting.I play with crumbs.Her eyes that should lookstraight at me aretoward the window, glazed—husband’s horizon?Not armored. Only armedwith pots and pans.Not out of arm’s reach,beyond curtains of doorbells,garden gates.She puts up ironworkin her eyes; it draws a boltover what’s real... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
1496929c2c043d61 | No Second Troy | William Butler Yeats | Why should I blame her that she filled my days With misery, or that she would of late Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways, Or hurled the little streets upon the great, Had they but courage equal to desire? What could have made her peaceful with a mind That nobleness made simple as a fire, With beauty like a t... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S11"
] | [
"S1-3",
"S1-4",
"S1-9",
"S3-11",
"S11-3",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Love/Heartache & Loss",
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Love/Unrequited Love",
"Mythology & Folklore/Greek & Roman Mythology",
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
fd729cffee958de5 | The Bustle in a House (1108) | Emily Dickinson | The Bustle in a House
The Morning after Death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted opon Earth –
The Sweeping up the Heart
And putting Love away
We shall not want to use again
Until Eternity – | [
"S6",
"S9"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S6-5",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Living",
"Activities"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
e26705405162859b | Acts of Vexation | Pam Rehm | The only thing under the sun
I can run to
is Ecclesiastes
for there is nothing gathered into one self
that can be kept
Want is humbled by death
as every purpose manifests it
Feeling this all my life
a piercing fright
gathers in the stomach's pit
This is it and this is not the end
of the road
for even despai... | [
"S5",
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Religion",
"Living"
] | [] |
93ac8716b526d882 | Stripe for Stripe | C. D. Wright | Driving through this part of Louisiana you can pass four prisons in less than an hour. "The spirit of every age," writes Eric Schlosser, "is manifest in its public works." So this is who we are, the jailers, the jailed. This is the spirit of our age.
"You won't be back will you," asked the inmate who told me he wanted... | [
"S3",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-6",
"S8-3",
"S10-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Photography & Film",
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
b1ab0c70b3242f4e | All the Women Caught in Flaring Light | Minnie Bruce Pratt | 1
Imagine a big room of women doing anything,
playing cards, having a meeting, the rattle
of paper or coffee cups or chairs pushed back,
the loud and quiet murmur of their voices,
women leaning their heads together. If we
leaned in at the door and I said, Those women
are mothers, | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S6-5",
"S6-7",
"S8-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Mourning",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Relationships/LGBTQ+"
] |
a588628958a4298d | Jane | Howard Moss | The startling pleasures all broke down,
It was her first arthritic spring.
Inside her furs, her bones, secure,
Suddenly became a source of pain
And froze on a Saturday afternoon
While she was listening to “La Boheme.”
Strength had been her weakness, and
Because it was, she got to like
The exhilaration of catast... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S6-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Living/Aging"
] |
f940dc2f59f1bb66 | The cars | Kathleen Fraser | Sprinting across the freeway just ahead of them having set his left foot down
directly onto the pavement from the ledge of the cement divide and edging his
other leg forward deliberately—caught the way sports pages show an athlete with
muscles condensed in the effort of crossing through a particular space—and then
... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
6b0acbe829440f18 | Gift | Jennifer Wong | ''At one time, I dreaded everything I was making.'
Yayoi Kusama (Winter 1999)
First it is just a measling of the tablecloth
but soon it spills
in all colours, all gaiety:
desk floor lamp flowers
tatami, my underwear
then dares to paw across
Moth... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-5",
"S6-6",
"S8-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Mourning",
"Living/Health & Illness",
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
cdc01091b1d22823 | Echo & Elixir 2 | Khaled Mattawa | Cairo’s taxi drivers speak to me in English.
I answer, and they say your Arabic is good.
How long have you been with us? All my life
I tell them, but I’m never believed.
They speak to me in Farsi, speak to me in Greek,
and I answer with mountains of gold and silver,
ghost ships sailing the weed-choked seas.
And ... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S3-8",
"S8-4",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Relationships/Friendship",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
e591a6b3a53db3ba | Follow Your Saint | Thomas Campion | Follow your saint, follow with accents sweet;
Haste you, sad notes, fall at her flying feet.
There, wrapp'd in cloud of sorrow, pity move,
And tell the ravisher of my soul I perish for her love:
But if she scorns my never-ceasing pain,
Then burst with sighing in her sight and ne'er return again.
All that I sung still... | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-5",
"S1-6",
"S1-7",
"S1-9"
] | [
"Love",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/New Love",
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Love/Unrequited Love"
] |
2bcf4738a2f37173 | Athena | Amy Clampitt | Force of reason, who shut up the shrill
foul Furies in the dungeon of the Parthenon,
led whimpering to the cave they live in still,
beneath the rock your city foundered on:
who, equivocating, taught revenge to sing
(or seem to, or be about to) a kindlier tune:
mind that can make a scheme of anything—
a game, a g... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S10",
"S11"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S10-8",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Arts & Sciences",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
69a725d8e442acb7 | Why Brownlee Left | Paul Muldoon | Why Brownlee left, and where he went,
Is a mystery even now.
For if a man should have been content
It was him; two acres of barley,
One of potatoes, four bullocks,
A milker, a slated farmhouse.
He was last seen going out to plough
On a March morning, bright and early.
By noon Brownlee was famous;
They had foun... | [
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Living"
] | [] |
53d3775538d8c503 | The Love Cook | Ron Padgett | Let me cook you some dinner.
Sit down and take off your shoes
and socks and in fact the rest
of your clothes, have a daquiri,
turn on some music and dance
around the house, inside and out,
it’s night and the neighbors
are sleeping, those dolts, and
the stars are shining bright,
and I’ve got the burners lit
fo... | [
"S1",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S9-1"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
8efdf6b56223f175 | Almost As If I’ve Been Given an Horizon | Graham Foust | The giant world
is no damned genius
with its basket of latitude,
its schedule for wanting
to be touched.
Now, slow asleep
I’m song
to break in on,
a strength less lost
than gone.
I borrow minute, hour,
day, day.
The waves as cruel replacements pass
for crutches. | [
"S6",
"S7"
] | [] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [] |
a4815abc2d3ff49e | Self-Portrait at Ten | Roxane Beth Johnson | A boarded-up house. Ransacked inside — broken glass and toppled tables, chairs overturned, books shaken for hidden money.
There are mouths in dreams full of gold teeth, chewing bread and meat. The body is hollow as flame and will burn down anything if pointed straight.
A bird flies in through the door, then flutters ... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor"
] |
09bf6d7c919eb0de | To Orpheus | Blas Falconer | It isn’t madness but shame for wanting
and shame for not having what I want,
which is a kind of madness—drunk,
3 a.m., the stairwell too steep to climb.
The bed can wait. I go to the pool instead,
strip and step in, the smell of smoke and sweat
washing from hair and skin. The wet kiss:
his mouth pressed here, my... | [
"S1",
"S8",
"S10",
"S11"
] | [
"S10-6",
"S11-3",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Mythology & Folklore/Greek & Roman Mythology",
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism"
] |
a5741902879ac274 | Summer Garden | Brenda Hillman | ~~ & thus you entered
a forest of solitudes
where in this great
sense your life had
been pursued, till like
a shadow breaking off
a rising body, a
need hovered & grew.
Some lined feature of
another fate strives to
be met, sits low
& upright. Those qualities
which had been energy
or grace past pain
wove fr... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-2",
"S9-2"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Summer",
"Activities/Gardening & Farming"
] |
08835acc41cd3698 | Rosary (Prayer One) | J. Michael Martinez | Wherein she martyrs the mirror: this carnival of stone, her lips dilate the negation—space into starpoint
Wherein she, to be both sacrum & wrist— neither the fugitive epidermis, nor the unlocked ashblack— sovereigns t... | [
"S1",
"S5",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S5-2",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Love",
"Religion",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Religion/Christianity",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
f158e7ba7f9d3be5 | Passive Voice | Laura Da' | I use a trick to teach students
how to avoid passive voice.
Circle the verbs.
Imagine inserting “by zombies”
after each one.
Have the words been claimed
by the flesh-hungry undead?
If so, passive voice.
I wonder if these
sixth graders will recollect,
on summer vacation,
as they stretch their legs
on the way... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S9-6",
"S10-2"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Activities/Study & Knowledge"
] |
2d5806f71654ea39 | Frying Trout while Drunk | Lynn Emanuel | Mother is drinking to forget a man
who could fill the woods with invitations:
come with me he whispered and she went
in his Nash Rambler, its dash
where her knees turned green
in the radium dials of the 50's.
When I drink it is always 1953,
bacon wilting in the pan on Cook Street
and mother, wrist deep in red w... | [
"S9"
] | [
"S9-1"
] | [
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
db1cda4e0b98ad43 | Poem | Lucy Ives | This isn’t a great poem.
I’m not writing this to write a great poem.
I am writing this because I am one person.
I am only one.
I have a face and a front of my face.
I have two shoulders and two hips.
I’m living.
I live.
So what can I do with my face if it can’t see that person’s face?
What do I tell my eyes to... | [
"S1",
"S6"
] | [
"S1-9"
] | [
"Love",
"Living"
] | [
"Love/Unrequited Love"
] |
84ba5cb195a5d657 | Madrigal: "Like the Idalian queen" | William Drummond of Hawthornden | Like the Idalian queen,
Her hair about her eyne,
With neck and breast’s ripe apples to be seen,
At first glance of the morn
In Cyprus’ gardens gathering those fair flowers
Which of her blood were born,
I saw, but fainting saw, my paramours.
The Graces naked danced about the place,
The winds and trees amazed
With silenc... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-4"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes"
] |
15e9ac5eeaa9890d | Census | Carol Muske-Dukes | Here's how we were counted:
firstborn, nay-sayers,
veterans, slow-payers,
seditionists, convicts,
half-breeds, has-beens,
the nearly defined dead,
all the disenfranchised live.
Once everybody had a place
among the nameless. Now we
can't afford to be anonymous.
Consider, they said, the poor,
the misfit—consid... | [
"S3"
] | [] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [] |
d5d6276208ed8beb | Love Poem | Dora Malech | If by truth you mean hand then yes
I hold to be self-evident and hold you in the highest—
KO to my OT and bait to my switch, I crown
you one-trick pony to my one-horse town,
dub you my one-stop shopping, my space heater,
juke joint, tourist trap, my peep show, my meter reader,
you best batteries-not-included bari... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-7"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Romantic Love"
] |
11ab475457c4673b | Wasps' Nest | Michael Schmidt | It was the fruit I wanted, not the nest.
The nest was hanging like the richest fruit
against the sun. I took the nest
and with it came the heart, and in my hand
the kingdom and the queen, frail surfaces,
rested for a moment. Then the drones
awoke and did their painful business.
I let the city drop upon the stone... | [
"S2",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S2-8",
"S9-1"
] | [
"Nature",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
00753d834c60f47b | Beat! Beat! Drums! | Walt Whitman | Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!
Through the windows—through doors—burst like a ruthless force,
Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation,
Into the school where the scholar is studying,
Leave not the bridegroom quiet—no happiness must he have now with his bride,
Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ... | [
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S9-4",
"S10-3"
] | [
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
8ff98c9a6f86c013 | In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII: 30 | Alfred, Lord Tennyson | With trembling fingers did we weave The holly round the Christmas hearth; A rainy cloud possess'd the earth, And sadly fell our Christmas-eve. At our old pastimes in the hall We gambol'd, making vain pretence Of gladness, with an awful sense Of one mute Shadow watching all. We paused... | [
"S2",
"S5",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-4",
"S5-2",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Winter",
"Religion/Christianity",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
26ae4cf32d568069 | Ladders | Richard Garcia | First the people had to invent ladders. No one had ever seen a ladder. Once they had ladders they invented walls to climb over. Soon they realized it took two ladders to climb a wall. One to climb up one side—one to climb down the other. People would ascend one side of the wall, descend the other side of the wall, and ... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S11"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S11-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Fairy-tales & Legends",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
820ff1a58cbe799d | They Sit Together on the Porch | Wendell Berry | They sit together on the porch, the dark Almost fallen, the house behind them dark. Their supper done with, they have washed and dried The dishes–only two plates now, two glasses, Two knives, two forks, two spoons–small work for two. She sits with her hands folded in her lap, At rest. He smokes his pipe. They do not sp... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S6-1",
"S8-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Aging",
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
dedf63faaa79441c | Argyle on Knocknagaroon | Thomas P. Lynch | Because he barely heard the voice of Godabove the hum of other choristers—batwing and bird-whistle, gathering thunder,the hiss of tides retreating, children, cattle;because he could not readily discernthe plan Whoever Is In Charge Here has,he wondered about those who claimed to haveblessed assurances or certainty:a One... | [
"S5"
] | [
"S5-3",
"S5-4"
] | [
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/Faith & Doubt",
"Religion/God & the Divine"
] |
d4edd25f28e6c239 | Baghdad Song | Ibn Al-`Arabi | Oh, for corniced palace of Baghdad! not the palatial cornices of Sindád al-Híra— It crowns the gardens cascading below, a virgin unveiled in a perfumed chamber. Wind plays in the branches. They bend. Lovers at last coming together. Her neck necklaced by the river Tigris, her lord our master our Imám al-Hádi, Násir, M... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S8"
] | [] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Relationships"
] | [] |
eaed1f68a3bbc72d | Grieve Not | Walter Clyde Curry | Grieve not that winter masks the yet quick earth, Nor still that summer walks the hills no more; That fickle spring has doffed the plaid she woreTo swathe herself in napkins till rebirth.These buddings, flowerings, are nothing worth; This ermine cloud stretched firm across the lakes Will pre... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S2-1",
"S2-2",
"S2-3",
"S2-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Nature/Spring",
"Nature/Summer",
"Nature/Fall",
"Nature/Winter"
] |
90778082f4004ca4 | Appetite | Rynn Williams | The merest suggestion of mouth
and I was ravenous—I filled the house
with chocolate, chestnuts, strudel,
blood sausage; I bathed in butter.
A glimpse of tongue and I was undone,
simply a hint of heavy cream
and the wax came off in a greasy slab,
there were no cauldrons large enough.
I imagined his body drawn in... | [
"S9"
] | [
"S9-1"
] | [
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
57aeecebd308042c | Pommes Sautées | Matthew Sweeney | As I walked up the Rue des Martyrs with my bag of small, perfect, waxy potatoes I doffed my imaginary hat to Monsieur Parmentier. Well, I do have a hat and wore it a lot not so long ago to cover a healing wound on my forehead but this wasn’t necessary anymore, and anyway the hat wasn’t with me now in Paris. Nor was Mon... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S9"
] | [
"S9-1",
"S9-2"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Eating & Drinking",
"Activities/Gardening & Farming"
] |
36791c355166d08e | Light the Festive Candles | Aileen Lucia Fisher | (FOR HANUKKAH)
Light the first of eight tonight—
the farthest candle to the right.
Light the first and second, too,
when tomorrow's day is through.
Then light three, and then light four—
every dusk one candle more
Till all eight burn bright and high,
honoring a day gone by
When the Temple was restored,
rescue... | [
"S5"
] | [
"S5-6"
] | [
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/Judaism"
] |
46402f7f5f4a4b90 | Like New | Linda Gregerson | The ones too broke or wise to get parts
from a dealer come here where the mud is red
and eternal. Eight front ends
are stacked on girders he salvaged too.
Ask for Bruce, he said on the phone, and doesn’t
crack a smile when you show up.
Twenty-four fifty if we find one, sister.Bruce, it says on his coveralls, and ... | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S3-2",
"S4-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"History & Politics/Money & Economics"
] |
9b59fe37eeafabb4 | Words for Departure | Louise Bogan | Nothing was remembered, nothing forgotten.
When we awoke, wagons were passing on the warm summer
pavements,
The window-sills were wet from rain in the night,
Birds scattered and settled over chimneypots
As among grotesque trees.
Nothing was accepted, nothing looked beyond.
Slight-voiced bells separated... | [
"S6",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S8-1",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Relationships/Breakups & Separation",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
6952fa5622c33c5e | from A Short History of Israel, Notes and Glosses | Charles Reznikoff | XI
A hundred generations, yes, a hundred and twenty-five,
had the strength each day
not to eat this and that (unclean!)
not to say this and that,
not to do this and that (unjust!),
and with all this and all that
to go about
as men and Jews
among their enemies
(these are the Pharisees you mocked at, Jesus).
W... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S5",
"S8"
] | [
"S5-6",
"S8-3",
"S8-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Religion",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Religion/Judaism",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Relationships/Friendship"
] |
cba0fd6938232eb7 | from The Seasons: Spring | James Thomson | As rising from the vegetable World
My Theme ascends, with equal Wing ascend,
My panting Muse; and hark, how loud the Woods
Invite you forth in all your gayest Trim.
Lend me your Song, ye Nightingales! oh pour
The mazy-running Soul of Melody
Into my varied Verse! while I deduce,
From the first Note the hollow Cuckoo sin... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-1",
"S2-5"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Spring",
"Nature/Animals"
] |
18dc2e31c00b0468 | Reapers | Jean Toomer | Black reapers with the sound of steel on stones
Are sharpening scythes. I see them place the hones
In their hip-pockets as a thing that’s done,
And start their silent swinging, one by one.
Black horses drive a mower through the weeds,
And there, a field rat, startled, squealing bleeds.
His belly close to ground. ... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S3-8",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
03d14b8e50b5b26c | Present Light | Charles Ghigna | If I could
hold light
in my hand
I would
give it
to you
and watch it
become
your shadow. | [
"S1",
"S8"
] | [] | [
"Love",
"Relationships"
] | [] |
f8e964d7cf5f5ad2 | The Mayfly | Douglas Florian | A mayfly flies
In May or June.
Its life is over
Far too soon.
A day or two
To dance,
To fly—
Hello
Hello
Good-bye
Good-bye. | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
51a76c5de8508beb | The Silver Swan | Orlando Gibbons | The silver swan, who living had no note, When death approached, unlocked her silent throat; Leaning her breast against the reedy shore, Thus sung her first and last, and sung no more: “Farewell, all joys; Oh death, come close mine eyes; More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.” | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
1a1e6f37e12cc239 | The Fair Singer | Andrew Marvell | To make a final conquest of all me, Love did compose so sweet an enemy, In whom both beauties to my death agree, Joining themselves in fatal harmony; That while she with her eyes my heart does bind, She with her voice might captivate my mind. I could have fled from one but singly fair, My disentangled soul itself might... | [
"S1",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S1-4",
"S10-3"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Arts & Sciences/Music"
] |
382d54442e9f5248 | Yizker Bukh | Erika Meitner | Memory is
flotsam (yes) just
below the surface
an eternal city
a heap of rubble
debris smaller
than your fist
an animal with-
out a leash
organized wreck-
age ghost net
or one hanging
silence on the phone—she's gone, my sister said,
and we wept and wept
over my grandmother
while my sister sat
with her b... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S5",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S5-6",
"S6-4",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Religion",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Religion/Judaism",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
0cff416422983ef4 | How to Be a Poet | Wendell Berry | (to remind myself)
i Make a place to sit down. Sit down. Be quiet. You must depend upon affection, reading, knowledge, skill—more of each than you have—inspiration, work, growing older, patience, for patience joins time to eternity. Any readers who like your poems, doubt their judgment. ii B... | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-6"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets"
] |
a5d65231e0e22332 | Pacemaker | W. D. Snodgrass | I "One Snodgrass, two Snodgrass, three Snodgrass, four . . . I took my own rollcall when I counted seconds; "One two three, Two two three, Three . . .," the drum score Showed only long rests to the tympani's entrance. "Oh-oh-oh leff; leff; leff-toh-righ-toh-leff," The sergeant cadenced us foot... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S6-6"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Living/Health & Illness"
] |
3a61b582697b0d81 | The Woman Who Laughed on Calvary | Heather McHugh | I.
Smilers, smirkers, chucklers, grinners,
platitudinizers, euphemists: it wasn't you
I emulated there, in that
Godawful place. What kind
of face
to put on it? How simple
is a simon's sign? To my mind
laughter's not the mark of pleasure, not
a pleasantry that spread; instead
it's intimate with sheer
delirium... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [] |
251e13b8d727ae1d | A Step Away from Them | Frank O'Hara | It’s my lunch hour, so I go
for a walk among the hum-colored
cabs. First, down the sidewalk
where laborers feed their dirty
glistening torsos sandwiches
and Coca-Cola, with yellow helmets
on. They protect them from falling
bricks, I guess. Then onto the
avenue where skirts are flipping
above heels and blow up ... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life"
] |
b917fdb21e07f67a | Mehr Licht | Tim Dlugos | were the last wordsof Goethe on hisdeathbed as the darknessclosed around him.But Mayor Lichtwas also the chiefexecutive of Providence,Rhode Island in the earlyEighties. I’m dreamingof the best politicalcommercial of all time—Weimar in the | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S10"
] | [] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [] |
078abc232f51b6de | X as a Function of Distance from Ignatz | Monica Youn | (she opens the door)
(he is twelve inches
away) her fingers
still splayed across the
battened-down brass latch
of his sternum (she
closes the door) (he
is eight feet away)
her palm skids down the
banister clings to
the fluted globe of
the finial (he
is twenty-eight feet
away) (she opens
the door) the blac... | [
"S3",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S3-7",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture"
] |
22b1b5dad6e9ebe1 | Molecular Evolution | James Clerk Maxwell | At quite uncertain times and places, The atoms left their heavenly path, And by fortuitous embraces, Engendered all that being hath. And though they seem to cling together, And form “associations” here, Yet, soon or late, they burst their tether, And through the depths of space career. So we who... | [
"S3",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S9-6",
"S10-5",
"S10-9"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Arts & Sciences/Sciences",
"Activities/Study & Knowledge"
] |
b1b43bcb54306bed | Tortoise Gallantry | D. H. Lawrence | Making his advances
He does not look at her, nor sniff at her,
No, not even sniff at her, his nose is blank.
Only he senses the vulnerable folds of skin
That work beneath her while she sprawls along
In her ungainly pace,
Her folds of skin that work and row
Beneath the earth-soiled hovel in which she moves.
And so he st... | [
"S1",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-6",
"S8-8"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals"
] |
50cf13cf5f213e17 | Song | Brenda Cárdenas | You shout my name
from beyond my dreams,
beyond the picture window
of this Rosarito beach house.
Rushing from bed to shore
I glimpse their backs—
volcanoes rising out of the sea.
Your back, a blue-black silhouette,
feet wet with the wash of morning waves.
Fountains spring from mammal minds,
my hands lifting a... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-9",
"S2-6",
"S8-4",
"S8-8"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Unrequited Love",
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Relationships/Friendship",
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals"
] |
d0c65348d8941f49 | The Voice | Thomas Hardy | Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me,
Saying that now you are not as you were
When you had changed from the one who was all to me,
But as at first, when our day was fair.
Can it be you that I hear? Let me view you, then,
Standing as when I drew near to the town
Where you would wait for me: yes, as I knew y... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-3",
"S1-9",
"S3-4",
"S8-1"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Heartache & Loss",
"Love/Unrequited Love",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Relationships/Breakups & Separation"
] |
f8a88172736ab7f3 | Hospital | John Unterecker | I. PULSE
Light over the Hudson recovers a Caribbean I have
never seen.
We list islands: Molokai, Oahu, Kauai; St. Lucia,
Haiti….
The surf folds tunnels of light
while a hand folds over a wrist (tell-tale pulse),
counting. The long tunnel is a wrist of blown spume.
It is like a dance, I think, this... | [
"S3",
"S6"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S6-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Living/Health & Illness"
] |
4abb74436979aa68 | Handling Destiny: Tools of the Trade | Adrian Castro | 1.
They make such uncomfortable clank
child of earth
child of fire
These are your tools of the trade
difficult when you use them
A large trunk with children darting
in all directions
appears slippery in its sheen
adorned with thorns
There comes a day in a man's life
when the machete he was given early on
ca... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-3",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
ee048c01f9efc4c0 | The Bookshelf of the God of Infinite Space | Jeffrey Skinner | You would expect an uncountable number,
Acres and acres of books in rows
Like wheat or gold bullion. Or that the words just
Appear in the mind, like banner headlines.
In fact there is one shelf
Holding a modest number, ten or twelve volumes.
No dust jackets, because — no dust.
Covers made of gold or skin
Or gol... | [
"S5",
"S10"
] | [
"S5-4",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Religion",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Religion/God & the Divine"
] |
a2e8ab6221aa3824 | Poor light, | Mark Waldron | what a saint you are, shining on everything,
drawn to the world like flames are to moths,
like honey to bees. So readily do you dole
yourself out, and in such abundance so that
we might operate our otherwise redundant eyes.
For they’d be useless even as shiny bibelots
that studded the otherwise dull surfaces of f... | [
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Living"
] | [] |
4ab97ded66bab4ef | To the Cuckoo | William Wordsworth | O blithe New-comer! I have heard,
I hear thee and rejoice.
O Cuckoo! shall I call thee Bird,
Or but a wandering Voice?
While I am lying on the grass
Thy twofold shout I hear;
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
At once far off, and near.
Though babbling only to the Vale
Of sunshine and of flowers,
Thou bringest unto me... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S2-7",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Nature/Animals",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
] |
bed93c1974249aea | Dangers | Rodney Jones | From the first, I was too reluctant, achieving by dribs and drabs,
Happy to linger in shallows while others jackknifed from cliffs, wrong
To exact perfection from a sad piece or add notes to a proven tune;
But ever the classicist:
in swimming lessons, slowest to learn;
In fight... | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-3",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Living/Coming of Age"
] |
5de4157d1d2bf8d3 | Rorschach Test | Franz Wright | To tell you the truth I’d have thought it had gone out of use long ago;
there is something so 19th-century about it,
with its absurd reverse Puritanism.
Can withdrawal from reality or interpersonal commitment be gauged
by uneasiness at being summoned to a small closed room to discuss
ambiguously sexual material wi... | [
"S8",
"S10"
] | [] | [
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [] |
80fae186d5771c98 | Water Poppies Open as the Mouth | J. Michael Martinez | The Body as Nature, History
All motivations intermingle as the core of history, the internal becomes external... all as parts of the body.
—maurice merleau-ponty
i. the positing of space, corporeal history
medium of my body | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [] |
3fe5b12324682a3a | Jewel Thief Movie | Patricia Lockwood | I was so happy in the gem room.
The sun was president, I was just
dug up, all hell had shrunk
to a sulphur crystal. Something danced
on the point; it must have been me.
I had a hundred faces, and one of them
served up the ceiling in a perfect slice —
like a twelve-year-old saint
in some countryside where they ... | [
"S6",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S9-7",
"S10-7"
] | [
"Living",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Photography & Film",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
e5e9b3862dc53fe6 | From “Anagrams” [xiii] | Luke Kennard | But not before several undisputed stone-cold classics. This is why we keep writing about Cain: for all its self-indulgent flaws it just gets it so right sometimes. Every standard element is here: the gang is still drinking far too many cocktails in one sitting, Cain is a hypocrite, Adah exists only to be interpreted by... | [
"S3",
"S5",
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S5-2",
"S10-10"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Religion",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Theater & Dance",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Religion/Christianity"
] |
147a89614c9efb32 | Rock Island Line | Richard Owens | watchdog howling (all caved in
beyond the pale—tis my home
cold wind implacable driven
unaccounted sooth shawl of sorrow
unplanned unmapped swallow order
blunt trees mended like man
even our shadows belabored in light
commonplace rumble—shaken
alliterative portrait of a ploughman
struck down cattle thief
cont... | [
"S2",
"S3"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S3-9"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Social Commentaries/Rural & Country Life"
] |
dc7e2ec8a2391ceb | Track 1: Lush Life | Jericho Brown | The woman with the microphone sings to hurt you,
To see you shake your head. The mic may as well
Be a leather belt. You drive to the center of town
To be whipped by a woman's voice. You can't tell
The difference between a leather belt and a lover's
Tongue. A lover's tongue might call you bitch,
A term of endearme... | [
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S8-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Relationships/LGBTQ+"
] |
772a0b55e1407501 | Diorama (woman on a cameo brooch) | Catie Rosemurgy | Watch for them. Faint as aspen, peeled as birch,
walking the edge of the field raw. Any minute now,
you should start to see remote women flickering in the distance,
their smiles more flickering inside the flickering.
It isn’t hard to find them, but once you do, don’t believe them.
Confessing is just a big part of ... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
d4ee52cf4672a5e7 | Blackbody Curve | Samiya Bashir | Stairs: a rushed flight down thirty-eight; French doors unlocked always.Always: a lie; an argument.Argument: two buck hunters circle a meadow’s edge.Edge: one of us outside bleeding.Bleeding: shards of glass; doors locked.Locked: carpet awash with blood.Blood: lift and drop; a sudden breeze.Breeze: its whistle through ... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S2-7",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
6f364bbec41aa5d8 | The Ghost of a Hunter | Keith Waldrop | He reads: What soul suffers in secret, the flesh shows openly.
Deep within, in a region hardly accessible, a bold self-image
sends messages of bloodshed and conquest, which reverberate in
his heart of hearts.
[I forget which hand is writing.]
He does not doubt that he exists.
The five senses have ... | [
"S6",
"S9"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S6-3",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Living",
"Activities"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
19174870f3545d53 | Megan Married Herself | Caroline Bird | She arrived at the country mansion in a silver limousine.
She’d sent out invitations and everything:
her name written twice with “&” in the middle,
the calligraphy of coupling.
She strode down the aisle to “At Last” by Etta James,
faced the celebrant like a keen soldier reporting for duty,
her voice shaky yet sur... | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-6",
"S8-7"
] | [
"Love",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
b2c128c9ee9d5297 | from Stone: 122 | Osip Mandelstam | Let me be in your service
like the others
mumbling predictions,
mouth dry with jealousy.
Parched tongue
thirsting, not even for the word—
for me the dry air is empty
again without you.
I’m not jealous any more
but I want you.
I carry myself like a victim
to the hangman.
I will not call you
either joy or lo... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-6"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated"
] |
4ef1f258338c8d38 | Taking Aim at a Macy’s Changing Room Mirror, I Blame Television | Marcus Wicker | No chain link fences leapt in a single bound. No juke move Nike commercial, speeding bullet Skittles-huedCross Trainers. No brown skin Adonis weaving trails of industrial Vaseline down a cobblestone street. Heisman-shuckingtrash receptacles. Grand jeté over the little blue recycling bin, a prism of clouds rising beneat... | [
"S3",
"S6"
] | [
"S3-8",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
0861d66cc04fc82a | Another Night in the Ruins | Galway Kinnell | 1
In the evening
haze darkening on the hills,
purple of the eternal,
a last bird crosses over,
‘flop flop,’ adoring
only the instant.
2
Nine years ago,
in a plane that rumbled all night
above the Atlantic,
I could see, lit up
by lightning bolts jumping out of it,
a thunderhead formed like the face
of ... | [
"S2",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S2-10",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Nature",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Weather",
"Nature/Animals",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
703e44976b92a84a | I Like | Joe Brainard | I Joe
You lie
About pineapples
There are none under anywhere
I look
I see
I find only dirty tulips
Or orchid ribbons
Orange
With big black words
A royal sky:
It lets one see
And what a good thing a white shirt is!
Nice
Nice to see red by night
to know pink well
to understand yellow bir... | [
"S3",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture"
] |
1b676017f6efbbcb | Desdichada | Muriel Rukeyser | I.
For that you never acknowledged me, I acknowledge
the spring’s yellow detail, the every drop of rain,
the anonymous unacknowledged men and women.
The shine as it glitters in our child’s wild eyes,
one o’clock at night. This river, this city,
the years of the shadow on the delicate skin
of my hand, movin... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
8a5d8120b3e6bf4b | Grendel’s Mother | Heidy Steidlmayer | When the moon’s worn scutcheon touches the flint-gray flood,I will lave him in foxglove and vetch until the bloodof his wretched heart heals.Without a scar, he stood—as the men make their way into the quaking wood. | [
"S3",
"S10",
"S11"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S10-6",
"S11-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Arts & Sciences",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Mythology & Folklore/Fairy-tales & Legends",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
9dce20d7d70eabd5 | Ancestral | Archibald MacLeish | The star dissolved in evening—the one star
The silently
and night O soon now, soon
And still the light now
and still now the large
Relinquishing
and through the pools of blue
Still, still the swallows
... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-9",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space"
] |
e97e5c9bdeeef3b0 | Party Ship | Kay Ryan | You are aland I can’t stand leavingand can’t not.My party shipis pulling out.We all havehats. I try totoot some notesyou’ll understandbut this was notour instrumentor plan. | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-1"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love"
] |
0c3a9d61bfb99532 | In a Field Outside the Town | Gabriel Spera | Three days later, Suljic was finally given a drink
of water and marched with a dozen other men
onto a small livery truck, one of two, fenced
along each side by wooden planks,
the back left open to give a clear shot
to the automatic weapon poking out the window
of the red sedan that followed, the squat nose
train... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
9cd6ef2723c69f55 | To the Sour Reader | Robert Herrick | If thou dislik’st the piece thou light’st on first, Think that of all that I have writ the worst; But if thou read’st my book unto the end, And still dost this and that verse reprehend, O perverse man! If all disgustful be, The extreme scab take thee and thine, for me. | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-6",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books"
] |
b2bb75643ba86004 | Counsel—In the South | Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt | My boy, not of your will nor mine You keep the mountain pass and wait, Restless, for evil gold to shine And hold you to your fate. A stronger Hand than yours gave you The lawless sword—you know not why. That you must live is all too true, And other men must die. My boy, be brigand if you must, But... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
fb564fb70237f9be | I Woke Up | Jameson Fitzpatrick | and it was political.
I made coffee and the coffee was political.
I took a shower and the water was.
I walked down the street in short shorts and a Bob Mizer tank top
and they were political, the walking and the shorts and the beefcake
silkscreen of the man posing in a G-string. I forgot my sunglasses
and later, ... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S3-4",
"S3-7",
"S3-8",
"S9-4",
"S9-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Activities/Jobs & Working",
"Activities/Study & Knowledge"
] |
28a60f3e9a001d15 | Bound for Hell | Marina Tsvetaeva | Hell, my ardent sisters, be assured,
Is where we’re bound; we’ll drink the pitch of hell—
We, who have sung the praises of the lord
With every fiber in us, every cell.
We, who did not manage to devote
Our nights to spinning, did not bend and sway
Above a cradle—in a flimsy boat,
Wrapped in a mantle, we’re now bo... | [
"S3",
"S6"
] | [
"S3-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
3543da17e1fe7584 | The Smile | William Blake | There is a Smile of Love And there is a Smile of Deceit And there is a Smile of Smiles In which these two Smiles meet And there is a Frown of Hate And there is a Frown of disdain And there is a Frown of Frowns Which you strive to forget in vain For it sticks in the Hearts deep Core And it sticks in the deep Back bone A... | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-4",
"S1-6",
"S1-7"
] | [
"Love",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Love/Romantic Love"
] |
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