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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
6aeacfee5d216a6a | Rubbed | Paisley Rekdal | It’s a simple resistance
between the pull of springs
and struggle of joints: two coiled
silver muscles working
in the lamp against blue washers
and pivot plates, locking nut
coolly swiveling loose with age.
In the arm
it’s done with blood:
tissues plumped then promptly deflated.
What else am I supposed to sta... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-1"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love"
] |
e2285f8f98585526 | Getting Used to Your Name | Marin Sorescu | After you’ve learned to walk,
Tell one thing from another,
Your first care as a child
Is to get used to your name.
What is it?
They keep asking you.
You hesitate, stammer,
And when you start to give a fluent answer
Your name’s no longer a problem.
When you start to forget your name,
It’s very serious.
But do... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
eb30c68d3773b4fa | Kora in Hell: Improvisations II | William Carlos Williams | To Flossie
II
1
Why go further? One might conceivably rectify the rhythm, study all out and arrive at the perfection of a tiger lily or a china doorknob. One might lift all out of the ruck, be a worthy successor to—the man in the moon. Instead of breaking the back of a willing phrase why not try to follow th... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S8-3",
"S10-6",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
9ff921bb127c0416 | [I pinch myself hard on the inner arm] | Susan Hampton | I pinch myself hard on the inner arm,
inwardly smiling yet frightened too – what if
I get caught in this far realm, on the underside of the world,
in these pixelated centuries where humans are exactly
the same, both kind and radically unkind –
So anyway, I say, her husband has his ships ready
to go to war, and he... | [
"S3",
"S8",
"S11"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S3-6",
"S8-3",
"S11-3"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Greek & Roman Mythology",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
539b70e9a8a3923d | Macha | Monica McClure | All my feelings are
different and this one
is the most
Of all places here
where women once retired
from the men for fear
of boring them
I am so bloody in my own bath
of wild hairs
that I couldn't possibly
join you tonight
for that colonial thing
Heroin or whore
Babylon or Bethlehem
No matter what I'm foll... | [
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
4737289d68ae36c9 | Futility | Wilfred Owen | Move him into the sun— Gently its touch awoke him once, At home, whispering of fields half-sown. Always it woke him, even in France, Until this morning and this snow. If anything might rouse him now The kind old sun will know. Think how it wakes the seeds— Woke once the clays of a cold star.Are limbs, so dear-achieved,... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-1",
"S2-4",
"S2-8",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Spring",
"Nature/Winter",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
1b462a01dbd4f024 | from Stanzas in Meditation: Stanza 83 | Gertrude Stein | Why am I if I am uncertain reasons may inclose.
Remain remain propose repose chose.
I call carelessly that the door is open
Which if they may refuse to open
No one can rush to close.
Let them be mine therefor.
Everybody knows that I chose.
Therefor if therefore before I close.
I will therefore offer therefore I... | [
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"S10"
] | [
"S10-2"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics"
] |
7b372514a60370f8 | Infant Sorrow | William Blake | My mother groand! my father wept. Into the dangerous world I leapt: Helpless, naked, piping loud; Like a fiend hid in a cloud. Struggling in my fathers hands: Striving against my swaddling bands: Bound and weary I thought best To sulk upon my mothers breast. | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-2",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Birth & Infancy",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
8930fde5a579500c | Streamers | Arthur Sze | 1 As an archaeologist unearths a mask with opercular teeth
and abalone eyes, someone throws a broken fan and extension
cords
into a dumpster. A point of coincidence exists in the mind
resembling the tension between a denotation and its stretch
of definition: aurora: a luminous ... | [
"S2",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Animals"
] |
a006b38866b5afc3 | Speedway | Cedar Sigo | for John Wieners
I cut out the “Heart with Snowflake”
Myself but it is not mine, Forget
This bloody coat bloody shirt, I
Think it is the writing that makes
Me sick, The scores and scores of
Incidental music, this nosebleed all
Spring all wet, I’m positively angry
with the Impertinence of it! I’m
Sewing up the ... | [
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S10-6"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets"
] |
bab21c1a948211f5 | Song: “Who is Silvia? what is she” | William Shakespeare | (from Two Gentlemen of Verona)
Who is Silvia? what is she, That all our swains commend her? Holy, fair, and wise is she; The heaven such grace did lend her, That she might admirèd be. Is she kind as she is fair? For beauty lives with kindness. Love doth to her eyes repair, To help him of his blindness;... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-4",
"S1-7",
"S1-8"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Love/Classic Love"
] |
788686fb9e915329 | A Ride in the Rain | Blas Falconer | The driver has no knife. He has no knife, no,
you think, and lower your head into his car.A ride in the rain? The dark clouds bellow.
You saw him drinking at the local bar,
you think, and lower your head into his car.
Rain taps on the roof, falls on this familiar man:
You saw him drinking at the local bar.
He shr... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice"
] |
aa72369cd0413644 | The Thing about Feathers | Nathalie Handal | We kept only the keys,
letters, and photos —
everything else stayed behind
when we left the house.
That can happen when
a nation changes overnight,
when those you know
turn into
a gate of feathers —
and the thing about feathers is,
they know what's been missed.
For years I watch
my neighbor's house
from ot... | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [] |
8c34397266218e74 | Sonnet 123: No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change | William Shakespeare | No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change:Thy pyramids built up with newer mightTo me are nothing novel, nothing strange;They are but dressings of a former sight.Our dates are brief, and therefore we admireWhat thou dost foist upon us that is old,And rather make them born to our desireThan think that we before ha... | [
"S6",
"S7",
"S10"
] | [] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [] |
03f8a8ff9db88660 | Immigrants in Our Own Land | Jimmy Santiago Baca | We are born with dreams in our hearts,
looking for better days ahead.
At the gates we are given new papers,
our old clothes are taken
and we are given overalls like mechanics wear.
We are given shots and doctors ask questions.
Then we gather in another room
where counselors orient us to the new land
we will now... | [
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"S4",
"S6",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S3-8",
"S4-1",
"S9-4",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"History & Politics/Money & Economics",
"Activities/Jobs & Working",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
b837291b45fccf3b | Father, Child, Water | Gary Dop | I lift your body to the boat before you drown or choke or slip too far beneath. I didn’t think—just jumped, just did what I did like the physics that flung you in. My hands clutch under year-old arms, between your life jacket and your bobbing frame, pushing you, like a fountain cherub, up and out. I’m fooled ... | [
"S2",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Nature",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
b9830bc10bc79252 | In | Andrew Hudgins | When we first heard from blocks away
the fog truck’s blustery roar,
we dropped our toys, leapt from our meals,
and scrambled out the door
into an evening briefly fuzzy.
We yearned to be transformed—
translated past confining flesh
to disembodied spirit. We swarmed
in thick smoke, taking human form
before we bl... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S9",
"S10",
"S11"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S6-3",
"S9-5",
"S10-5"
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"Nature",
"Living",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Activities/Sports & Outdoor Activities"
] |
d70ef53cd625e7ee | I started Early – Took my Dog – (656) | Emily Dickinson | Highlight Actions
Enable or disable annotations
I started Early – Took my Dog –
And visited the Sea –
The Mermaids in the BasementBasement i.e., the bottom of the ocean
Came out to look at me –
And FrigatesFrigates fast and highly maneuverable warships of the 18th and 19th centuries, used to escort other larger s... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S2-6",
"S2-7"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
] |
751b3b3058f89625 | Christabel | Samuel Taylor Coleridge | PART I 'Tis the middle of night by the castle clock, And the owls have awakened the crowing cock; Tu—whit! Tu—whoo! And hark, again! the crowing cock, How drowsily it crew. Sir Leoline, the Baron rich, Hath a toothless mastiff bitch; From her kennel beneath the rock She maketh answer to the clock, Four for the quarters... | [
"S2",
"S5",
"S6",
"S11"
] | [
"S2-1",
"S2-7",
"S2-8",
"S2-9",
"S2-10",
"S5-2",
"S6-4",
"S11-2"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion",
"Living",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Ghosts & the Supernatural",
"Nature/Spring",
"Nature/Weather",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space",
"Religion/Christianity",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
beaa30ab8c51075a | Congratulating Wedge | Alice Notley | All things belie me, I think, but I
look at them though. Well boys, at
least you’re not dead, right? What’s
the date today? Until something. What?
Of the lady of the whitening blow.
I’m ashamed to keep on babbling
as if I’ve always been oneself,
diamond flow through. Humble
flannel skeleton. Grin, laugh unbecom... | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S10-2",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets"
] |
aec9f9cb0998407f | Montparnasse | Ernest M. Hemingway | There are never any suicides in the quarter among people one knows No successful suicides. A Chinese boy kills himself and is dead. (they continue to place his mail in the letter rack at the Dome) A Norwegian boy kills himself and is dead. (no one knows where the other Norwegian boy has gone) They find a model dead alo... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-4"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
205d619c1dd8457d | Sea Pebbles: An Elegy | Dana Gioia | My love, how time makes hardness shine.
They come in every color, pure or mixed
gray-green of basalt, blood-soaked jasper, quartz,
granite and feldspar, even bits of glass,
smoothed by the patient jeweller of the tides.
Volcano-born, earthquake-quarried,
shaven by glaciers, wind-carved, heat-cracked,
stratified,... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-6"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water"
] |
0d342551afa85c9b | Corinna's going a Maying | Robert Herrick | Get up, get up for shame, the Blooming Morne Upon her wings presents the god unshorne. See how Aurora throwes her faire Fresh-quilted colours through the aire: Get up, sweet-Slug-a-bed, and see The Dew-bespangling Herbe and Tree. Each F... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-1",
"S3-4",
"S9-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Spring",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Activities/Sports & Outdoor Activities"
] |
a92591d18fcfcd07 | Childhood Stories | Matthew Rohrer | They learned to turn off the gravity in an auditorium
and we all rose into the air,
the same room where they demonstrated
pow-wows and prestidigitation.
But not everyone believed it.
That was the most important lesson
I learned—that a truck driven by a dog
could roll down a hill at dusk
and roll right off a doc... | [
"S6",
"S8",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S8-3",
"S9-6",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Activities/Study & Knowledge"
] |
5d4bf8533462f9a7 | Chief Totopotamoi, 1654 | Karenne Wood | after Miller Williams
This is to say we continued. As though continuing changed us.
As though continuing brought happiness as we had known.
On a dry field without cover, his skin blistered raw in the sun.
Not one among us came, as though he had no relations.
What did we say to our brother? How could we leave him a... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S6-4",
"S6-5",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
0f246b41026706d3 | Badman of the Guest Professor | Ishmael Reed | for Joe Overstreet, David Henderson, Albert Ayler & d mysterious ‘H’ who cut up d Rembrandts
i
u worry me whoever u are
i know u didnt want me to
come here but here i am just
d same; hi-jacking yr stagecoach,
hauling in yr pocket watches & mak
ing u hoof it all d way to
town. black bard, a robber w/ an
art: i ... | [
"S3",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-6",
"S3-8",
"S9-6",
"S9-7",
"S10-3",
"S10-4",
"S10-6",
"S10-8",
"S10-10"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Theater & Dance",
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Arts & Sciences/Painting & Sculpture",
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Activities/Study & Knowledge",
"Activities/... |
a15ab09d5fed48d4 | Mrs. Kessler | Edgar Lee Masters | Mr. Kessler, you know, was in the army,
And he drew six dollars a month as a pension,
And stood on the corner talking politics,
Or sat at home reading Grant’s Memoirs;
And I supported the family by washing,
Learning the secrets of all the people
From their curtains, counterpanes, shirts and skirts.
For things th... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
ff070ed6e7b087c9 | Prayer | Marin Sorescu | Oh you saints,
Let me enter your society,
If only as a statistician.
You’re old,
Perhaps the years are
Getting you down by now,
Laying themselves over you
In layers of color.
Just let me take care
Of your dirty work in
All the nooks and crannies.
For example I could
Swallow light
At the Last Supper
And ex... | [
"S5"
] | [
"S5-2",
"S5-3"
] | [
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/Christianity",
"Religion/Faith & Doubt"
] |
5853158fe6e5504e | Consider Oedipus’s Father | David Tomas Martinez | It could have been a car door leaving that bruise,as any mom knows,almost anything could take an eye out,and almost anybody could get their tongue frozen to a pole,which is kind of funny to the point of tears plus a knee slap or twothat an eye can be made b... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8",
"S11"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S6-5",
"S6-7",
"S8-7",
"S11-3"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Greek & Roman Mythology",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Mourning",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
37c0a3f2dd4436e5 | In the Gallery of the Ordinary | William Logan | In their excess, their blowsy dreamingand King Solomon-like tempers, the cloudspossess the grandeur of eighteenth-century oils,when a painter earned his professionas an anatomist. Those artists of verdigris and gamboge, too gorged on joy, perhaps,treated that blank pasture of the “heavens”like something that had lived.... | [
"S2",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S10-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Painting & Sculpture",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
] |
a8b42f68283693fa | Rhapsody on a Windy Night | T. S. Eliot | Twelve o'clock.
Along the reaches of the street
Held in a lunar synthesis,
Whispering lunar incantations
Dissolve the floors of memory
And all its clear relations,
Its divisions and precisions,
Every street lamp that I pass
Beats like a fatalistic drum,
And through the spaces of the dark
Midnight shakes the m... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S5",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S2-9",
"S3-1",
"S5-3"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Religion",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Religion/Faith & Doubt"
] |
eff5ad170ddadd0f | Here Is an Ear Hear | Victor Hernández Cruz | Is the ocean really inside seashells
or is it all in your mind?
—PICHON DE LA ONCE
Behold and soak like a sponge.
I have discovered that the island of Puerto Rico
is the ears of Saru-Saru, a poet reputed to have lived
in Atlantis. On the day tha... | [
"S10",
"S11"
] | [
"S10-6",
"S11-1",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Mythology & Folklore/Fairy-tales & Legends",
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism"
] |
733d5ff4d74baf5e | The Ocracoke Ponies | Jennifer Grotz | No one saw the first ones
swim ashore centuries ago,
nudged by waves into the marsh grasses.
When you look into their faces, there is no trace
of the ship seized with terror, the crashing waves
and the horses’ cries when thrown overboard.
Every afternoon you ride your bicycle to the pasture
to watch the twitch o... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Animals"
] |
ac5a1d0db0201a09 | Reading a Memoir at Cedar Island | Nicole Pekarske | We arrive eight hours before morning but the Sound luminesces enough to gloss jabbed brushstrokes of cedar, the strand prickled with fringes of eelgrass, and the world's baby teeth ground down to this pall of sand. It's gusting so strong I can barely pee straight — You can see in each stunted and strung-out live oak ... | [
"S2",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S2-7",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Nature",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
] |
9d348de52fc5ccaa | Freddie | Phil Bolsta | I don’t like doing homework,
I know that it will bore me.
But now I am much happier
’Cause Freddie does it for me!
He greets me at the door each day
When I come home from school.
He just can’t wait to read my books—
I think that’s pretty cool!
I give him all my homework,
Like history and math.
And when he’s d... | [
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S8-8",
"S9-6"
] | [
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals",
"Activities/Study & Knowledge"
] |
3e4318cdb3fe1fce | ["Hour in which I consider hydrangea"] | Simone White | Hour in which I consider hydrangea, a salt or sand plant, varietal, the question of varietals, the diet of every mother I know, 5 pounds feels like 20, I have lost … I have lost, yes, a sense of my own possible beauty, grown external, I externalize beauty. Beauty occurs on the surface of plants; the sun darkens the ski... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-8",
"S6-7"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Living/Parenthood"
] |
5363179acfdd1e83 | A Song of a Young Lady to Her Ancient Lover | John Wilmot Earl of Rochester | Ancient person, for whom I
All the flattering youth defy,
Long be it ere thou grow old,
Aching, shaking, crazy, cold;
But still continue as thou art,
Ancient person of my heart.
On thy withered lips and dry,
Which like barren furrows lie,
Brooding kisses I will pour
Shall thy youthful [heat] restore
(Such kind show... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-1"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love"
] |
3f4390c2941d02e5 | In the Elementary School Choir | Gregory Djanikian | I had never seen a cornfield in my life,
I had never been to Oklahoma,
But I was singing as loud as anyone,
“Oh what a beautiful morning. . . . The corn
Is as high as an elephant’s eye,”
Though I knew something about elephants, I thought,
Coming from the same continent as they did,
And they being more like camel... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S9-6",
"S10-3",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Activities/Study & Knowledge"
] |
a146f605c7de8e29 | Steady, Steady | Jennifer Michael Hecht | I believe you can build a boat.
I believe you can get to water.
I do not believe you can get the boat on water.How do other people bearwhat you are still afraid of? The answeris that when big things happenyou do go through the looking glass,but it is still you who goes through,the inner text is all still right to lef... | [
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Living"
] | [] |
ea2d06662a8fdbb7 | From “from a red barn” | Víctor Rodríguez Núñez | 1 the weeds thick between sugar mill drumswithout batting an eyethe moon strungthrough the smokestack’s pupilthe connecting rod and pistonshameless before the cane gone to seedrust scuffles with greasethe toadstool atop the heap of filingsin the smoke box to be shieldedfrom the abysmal ribbinginfinite nuts to throwat ... | [
"S2",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S2-7",
"S8-3",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
efc85b313e02a8de | The Snail | Richard Lovelace | Wise emblem of our politic world,
Sage snail, within thine own self curl’d;
Instruct me softly to make haste,
Whilst these my feet go slowly fast.
Compendious snail! thou seem’st to me,
Large Euclid’s strict epitome;
And in each diagram dost fling
Thee from the point unto the ring;
A figure now triangular,
An ova... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S8-8"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals"
] |
e16e69fad8e57b24 | Their Pleas | Kelly Cherry | They pluck my sleeve, tug my hand, pullmy hair. They do not kneel to kiss my hem.No, it’s not like that but they want tokens.Again, not souvenirs but something smalland useful, something that will help them outafter life, maybe in an underworld.They need a sighted guide to lead them tothe river, and they need a remnant... | [
"S6",
"S11"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S11-2"
] | [
"Living",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Ghosts & the Supernatural",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
59597bc9d1bade4e | There She Is | Linda Gregg | When I go into the garden, there she is. The specter holds up her arms to show that her hands are eaten off. She is silent because of the agony. There is blood on her face. I can see she has done this to herself. So she would not feel the other pain. And it is true, she does not feel it. She does not even see me. It is... | [
"S3",
"S11"
] | [] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [] |
5e8e743704e5d156 | November in the Former DDR | Tomas Tranströmer | The almighty cyclop’s-eye clouded over
and the grass shook itself in the coal dust.
Beaten black and blue by the night’s dreams
we board the train
that stops at every station
and lays eggs.
Almost silent.
The clang of the church bells’ buckets
fetching water.
And someone’s inexorable cough
scolding everything... | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S3-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life"
] |
1da845f92e31474d | Jewel Box | Eamon Grennan | Your jewel box of white balsa strips
and bleached green Czechoslovakian rushes
stands open where you keep it shelved
in the bathroom. Morning and evening
I see you comb its seawrack tangle of shell,
stone, wood, glass, metal, bone, seed
for the bracelet, earring, necklace, brooch
or ring you need. Here's brass f... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S8-5",
"S8-7"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Relationships/Home Life",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
ef8623a88e98b4b5 | My Darling Turns to Poetry at Night | Anthony Lawrence | My darling turns to poetry at night.
What began as flirtation, an aside
Between abstract expression and first light
Now finds form as a silent, startled flight
Of commas on her face — a breath, a word ...
My darling turns to poetry at night.
When rain inspires the night birds to create
Rhyme and formal verse... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S1-6",
"S3-4",
"S8-5",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
23cde7ce4571bcc8 | Money | Reginald Gibbons | The children are eating lunch at home on a summer weekday when a man comes to the door and asks their mother if she has anything that needs fixing or carrying or any yardwork he can do. They chew their food a little dreamily as, with her back straight and her voice carefully polite, she says No, thank you, I’m sorry, a... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S4-1",
"S6-7",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"History & Politics/Money & Economics",
"Living/Parenthood"
] |
8d7323093d087556 | There and Then | Michael Brennan | Friends in a field, their shadows running long into the untilled ground, and I’m busy trying to catch up, calling for them to hold on a moment, the voice unfamiliar and the words not my own, and when
I wake I realize the last thing I called to them might have been the name of the town we were all looking for, but now ... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-1",
"S2-2",
"S2-7",
"S2-8",
"S6-3",
"S6-8"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Spring",
"Nature/Summer",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Living/Youth"
] |
ca98942c9f758f6e | The Season of Phantasmal Peace | Derek Walcott | Then all the nations of birds lifted together
the huge net of the shadows of this earth
in multitudinous dialects, twittering tongues,
stitching and crossing it. They lifted up
the shadows of long pines down trackless slopes,
the shadows of glass-faced towers down evening streets,
the shadow of a frail plant on a... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S2-3",
"S2-7",
"S3-1",
"S3-9"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Nature/Fall",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/Rural & Country Life"
] |
1d55361a6a214841 | Ear | Ko Un | Someone’s coming
from the other world.
Hiss of night rain.
Someone’s going there now.
The two are sure to meet.
Translated from the Korean | [
"S2",
"S5"
] | [
"S2-10",
"S5-8"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion"
] | [
"Nature/Weather",
"Religion/The Spiritual"
] |
2aa5759b1844cce5 | Once upon a Time | Anthony Madrid | Once upon a time,There was a beautiful shark.She combed her long, blonde hair,And it made the halibut bark.It made the chicken oink,And the whale to run for Congress.A man should never obstructThe course of material progress.Yet a lamb cannot but weepWhen the kiddies come home from college.For they have forgotten to ke... | [
"S3",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S3-7",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture"
] |
70f31f972b0d8a69 | Song of the Open Road | Walt Whitman | 1 Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose. Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune, Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing, Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous cri... | [
"S9"
] | [
"S9-7"
] | [
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
84ff1c8cc47a06fe | Medley of the Cut | John Peck | The column of the commander yielded to our first sweep.
Even the water jar for our diggers we set on the south wall
of the general’s tomb without knowing it. So we began.
His armies retook Nubia, Libya, and the Levant,
lost under the sway-bellied lantern-jawed Sun King.
Overseer of all scribes, Overseer of the pri... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S4",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-6",
"S1-9"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Love/Unrequited Love"
] |
7a4c94dab2541dfd | First Storm and Thereafter | Scott Cairns | What I notice first within this rough scene fixedin memory is the rare quality of its lightning, as ifthose bolts were clipped from a comic book, pastedon low cloud, or fashioned with cardboard, daubedwith gilt then hung overhead on wire and fine hooks.What I hear most ... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-10"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Weather"
] |
0db07e35406612e9 | Today | Thomas Carlyle | So here hath been dawning
Another blue Day:
Think wilt thou let it
Slip useless away.
Out of Eternity
This new Day is born;
Into Eternity,
At night, will return.
Behold it aforetime
No eye ever did:
So soon it forever
From all eyes is hid.
Here hath been dawning
Another blue Day:
Think wilt thou let it
Slip useless awa... | [
"S6",
"S7"
] | [] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [] |
2527872c41d12d92 | Tender Only to One | Stevie Smith | Tender only to one
Tender and true
The petals swing
To my fingering
Is it you, or you, or you?
Tender only to one
I do not know his name
And the friends who fall
To the petals’ call
May think my love to blame.
Tender only to one
This petal holds a clue
The face it shows
But too well knows
Who I am tender ... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-4"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
f3bcc10aa1a830fb | Paradise Lost: Book 11 (1674 version) | John Milton | THus they in lowliest plight repentant stood Praying, for from the Mercie-seat above Prevenient Grace descending had remov'd The stonie from thir hearts, & made new flesh Regenerate grow instead, that sighs now breath'd Unutterable, which the Spirit of prayer Inspir'd, and wing'd for Heav'n with speedier flight Then lo... | [
"S5"
] | [
"S5-2",
"S5-4"
] | [
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/Christianity",
"Religion/God & the Divine"
] |
951eb41d457bef17 | Almond Blossom | D. H. Lawrence | Even iron can put forth,
Even iron.
This is the iron age,
But let us take heart
Seeing iron break and bud,
Seeing rusty iron puff with clouds of blossom.
The almond-tree,
December's bare iron hooks sticking out of earth.
The almond-tree,
That knows the deadliest poison, like a snake
In supreme bitterness.
Up... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-4",
"S2-8"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Winter",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi"
] |
8e1c4e5eb21ed236 | I Didn't See It | Prageeta Sharma | for Adam
And I didn't see that now you were here on the page
writing poems too: poems silken with blue, fortified with a metaphor passing through. But I knew this speaker was you and knew there was so much about you that could reach around the metaphor to a personal etymology, one that could brighten and darken the p... | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-6"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets"
] |
205f5c086dffa025 | Introit & Fugue | D. Nurkse | After death, my father
practices meticulously
until the Bach is seamless,
spun glass in a dream,
you can no longer tell
where the modulations are,
or the pedal shifts
or the split fingerings . . .
if he rests
it’s to wind the metronome
or sip his cup of ice . . .
but who is the other old man
in the identica... | [
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S8-3",
"S10-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
116ebc88fa9dd654 | First Grade Homework | D. Nurkse | The child’s assignment:
“What is a city?”
All dusk she sucks her pencil
while cars swish by
like ghosts, neighbors’ radios
forecast rain, high clouds,
diminishing winds: at last
she writes: “The city is everyone.”
Now it’s time
for math, borrowing and exchanging,
the long discipleship
to zero, the str... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S6-7",
"S8-3",
"S9-6",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Activities/Study & Knowledge"
] |
f779a15f872669b6 | 1979 | Roddy Lumsden | They arrived at the desk of the Hotel Duncanand Smithed in, twitchy as flea-drummed squirrels.Her coat was squared and cream, his patent shoeswere little boats you wouldn’t put to sea in.People, not meaning to, write themselves into the soap that your life is, rise or fall in the plot.Seems that they were fleeing from ... | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S1-1"
] | [
"Love",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love"
] |
4969aa18729fe86b | Crown | Kay Ryan | Too much rain
loosens trees.
In the hills giant oaks
fall upon their knees.
You can touch parts
you have no right to—
places only birds
should fly to. | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S2-7",
"S2-8"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi"
] |
63a2ac058f0f1f09 | The Murder of Beauty / The Beauty of Murder | Tory Dent | "If you cut off my hands, I'll offer you my stumps."
If you knock out my teeth, I'll still go down on you, conscientiously,
vine along a trellis, and suck you with my gums.
If you smash my toes, employing an ice crusher, one by one,
I'll heal myself with such truancy that someday I'll run on my knees.
"If you cut ... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S6"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S3-4"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
9a9dd9003d7d3eb4 | Delia Rexroth | Kenneth Rexroth | died June 1916
Under your illkempt yellow roses,
Delia, today you are younger
Than your son. Two and a half decades –
The family monument sagged askew,
And he overtook your half-a-life.
On the other side of the country,
Near the willows by the slow river,
Deep in the earth, the white ribs retain
The curve of y... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S6-5",
"S6-7",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Living/Mourning",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
abc59e09756db5cc | Because I could not stop for Death – (479) | Emily Dickinson | Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fiel... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-4"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
952c5d8d44b56c4b | The Milk One | Anthony Madrid | HE has no gift for friendship, for he is void of all curiosity. Or rather,
He’s only interested in matters touching the Lord Hamlet himself.
He was born in a lab whose walls were lined with giant, steamy jars
Of the milk of the various mammals, from the milk of camels to the milk of men.
Pig milk, monkey milk, rat ... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S10",
"S11"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S10-2",
"S11-2"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
"Mythology & Folklore/Ghosts & the Supernatural",
"Nature/Animals"
] |
56e811390b7ba570 | First Love | Jan Owen | Titian’s Young Englishman with a Glove, circa 1530
It happened in Physics,
reading a Library art book under the desk,
(the lesson was Archimedes in the bath)
I turned a page and fell
for an older man, and anonymous at that,
hardly ideal –
he was four hundred and forty-five,
I was fourteen.
‘Eureka!’ streaked e... | [
"S1",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S1-4",
"S1-5",
"S1-9",
"S9-6",
"S10-5",
"S10-8",
"S10-9"
] | [
"Love",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Love/New Love",
"Love/Unrequited Love",
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Arts & Sciences/Sciences",
"Activities/Study & Knowledge"
] |
7b4ccb0dceedc842 | far memory | Lucille Clifton | a poem in seven parts
1convent
my knees recall the pockets
worn into the stone floor,
my hands, tracing against
the wall their original name, remember
the cold brush of brick, and the smell
of the brick powdery and wet
and the light finding its way in
through the high bars.
and also the sisters singing
at ma... | [
"S5"
] | [
"S5-2",
"S5-3"
] | [
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/Christianity",
"Religion/Faith & Doubt"
] |
a0b7839880748198 | Lunchbox Love Note | Kenn Nesbitt | Inside my lunch
to my surprise
a perfect heart-shaped
love note lies.
The outside says,
“Will you be mine?”
and, “Will you be
my valentine?”
I take it out
and wonder who
would want to tell me
“I love you.”
Perhaps a girl
who’s much too shy
to hand it to me
eye to eye.
Or maybe it
was sweetly penned
in... | [
"S1",
"S8"
] | [] | [
"Love",
"Relationships"
] | [] |
899dceb5a35910b6 | The Curator | Miller Williams | We thought it would come, we thought the Germans would come,
were almost certain they would. I was thirty-two,
the youngest assistant curator in the country.
I had some good ideas in those days.
Well, what we did was this. We had boxes
precisely built to every size of canvas.
We put the boxes in the basement and ... | [
"S3",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S10-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Painting & Sculpture",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
caaba129fda66067 | Clubfoot | Rachel Wetzsteon | Meanwhile, meanwhile used to be my limp’s
accompaniment. Meanwhile (as my legs
maneuvered an abyss), a ballet is
beginning, and the dancer’s perfect feet
propel her downstage, where applause is waiting.
Meanwhile a sad man stomps his gloom away
by stomping evenly: one two, one two
means never blue, his motto goe... | [
"S6",
"S11"
] | [
"S11-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Greek & Roman Mythology"
] |
c1d6b845abe2ee14 | Rain | Ian Pople | A lexicon of words that were not
said in childhood, and all of those
that were, were said beside
an upturned boat, lapped
planking of the creosoted shed,
were said into the wind on
tussocky ground, by farm-rust vehicles.
The buildings I could not complete
without my father’s help, the wind
in which I was at se... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S8",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-2",
"S2-3",
"S2-10",
"S6-8",
"S8-3",
"S8-5",
"S9-4",
"S10-2"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
"Nature/Weather",
"Nature/Summer",
"Nature/Fall",
"Living/Youth",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Relationships/Home Life",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
4fac17baa6b96fde | The Mermaids | Marianne Boruch | The spell is a mouth’sperilous-o as they dark circle the boats intheir most resplendent pliable armor.The concept fish aligning with girlor love with deathto bring down men at sea, temptationconfused into offering,the mismatch of like plus unlikereally likes, straight to rock bottom.No equation has ever been this badas... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S6",
"S8",
"S9",
"S11"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S3-4",
"S9-7",
"S11-1"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Fairy-tales & Legends",
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
ccf662d8d602d83f | Choose | Carl Sandburg | THE single clenched fist lifted and ready,
Or the open asking hand held out and waiting.
Choose:
For we meet by one or the other. | [
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S8-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Relationships/Friendship"
] |
50043c502d90a732 | Prayer for the Living | Hayan Charara | Go to the mother,
to the father, to the house
where no trees grow,
to the bedroom, the door
closed, to her fear
and to his fear,
and their shame,
their longing, and to their bodies,
their bodies young,
their bodies separate,
their bodies together.
How far must you
go back? Her womb.
Her child body
and his... | [
"S8"
] | [
"S8-3"
] | [
"Relationships"
] | [
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
63cff4a25e1761bf | Poor Crow! | Mary Mapes Dodge | Give me something to eat, Good people, I pray; I have really not had One mouthful today! I am hungry and cold, And last night I dreamed A scarecrow had caught me— Good land, how I screamed! Of one little children And six ailing wives (No, one wife and six children), Not one of them thrives. So pity... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-5"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Animals"
] |
2603be44dde85059 | On a Day, In the World | Brenda Hillman | We had a grief
we didn't understand while
standing at the edge of
some low scrub hills as if
humans were extra
or already gone;—
what had been in us before?
a life that asks for mostly
wanting freedom to get things done
in order to feel less
helpless about the end
of ... | [
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
3c2970e6c5ffd0e4 | Wings | Miroslav Holub | We have
a microsopic anatomy
of the whale
this
gives
Man
assurance
William Carlos Williams
We have
a map of the universe
for microbes,
we have
a map of a microbe
for the universe.
we have
a Grand Master of chess
made of electronic circuits.
But above all
we have
the ability
to sort peas,
to cup wat... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S10-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy"
] |
4904e0d094602e5c | Reading Primo Levi Off Columbus Circle | J. T. Barbarese | Re-reading him in Bouchon
past noon, it is mobbed midtown,
like an ant farm seen through painkillers.
God, what a bust it’s all been,
capitalism, communism, feminism,
this lust to liberate.
Che should have stayed in medicine.
The girls here admit they can’t wait
to marry and get to the alimony,
before they hit... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S1-6",
"S8-7",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
1a77a5dfdad0c607 | O Captain! My Captain! | Walt Whitman | O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S11"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S6-5",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
a86c5a232b873c24 | To His Mistress | John Wilmot Earl of Rochester | Why dost thou shade thy lovely face? O why
Does that eclipsing hand of thine deny
The sunshine of the Sun’s enlivening eye?
Without thy light what light remains in me?
Thou art my life; my way, my light’s in thee;
I live, I move, and by thy beams I see.
Thou art my life-if thou but turn away
My life’s a thousand deaths... | [
"S1",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-4",
"S1-6",
"S1-7",
"S1-9"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Love/Unrequited Love"
] |
d2dc9fafe64d4592 | Cool gales shall fan the glades | Harry Mathews | But how choose the appropriate sticking point to start at?Who wants to write a poem without the letter e,Especially for Thee, where the flourished vowel lends such panache to your carnet de bal | [
"S1",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S9-1",
"S10-2"
] | [
"Love",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
e10d6272ccb3ff1c | Insanity | Calvin Thomas Jr. | The quick-sliding cape of mind
Drags wrinkled on a dusty floor,
A party dress,
Sagging from those shoulders
of a smile
that stalks through crooked time
followed by a goat
nipping the petticoat.
Scape-goat, grin out loud.
Make the cloak a shroud.
He whinnys through t... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-6"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Health & Illness"
] |
da43ada60cb38037 | A Serious and Pathetical Contemplation of the Mercies of God | Thomas Traherne | For all the mysteries, engines, instruments, wherewith the world is filled, which we are able to frame and use to thy glory.
For all the trades, variety of operations, cities, temples, streets, bridges, mariner's compass, admirable picture, sculpture, writing, printing, songs and music; wherewith the world is beautifi... | [
"S5",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S5-4",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Religion",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Religion/God & the Divine"
] |
d0535ff5c30a0925 | Philosophia Perennis | Anne Waldman | I turned: quivering yellow stars in blackness
I wept: how speech may save a woman
The picture changes & promises the heroine
That nighttime & meditation are a mirage
To discuss pro & contra here is mute
Do I not love you, day?
A pure output of teleological intentions
& she babbles, developing a picture-theory of... | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-5"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy"
] |
0e966d38b6463590 | Battle-Hymn of the Republic | Julia Ward Howe | Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fatal lightning of his terrible swift sword: His truth is marching on. I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; They have builded Him an altar in... | [
"S3",
"S5",
"S11"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S5-2",
"S5-4",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Religion",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Religion/Christianity",
"Religion/God & the Divine"
] |
011254958505f10d | Ave Atque Vale | Algernon Charles Swinburne | In Memory of Charles Baudelaire Nous devrions pourtant lui porter quelques fleurs; Les morts, les pauvres morts, ont de grandes douleurs, Et quand Octobre souffle, émondeur des vieux arbres, Son vent mélancolique à l'entour de leurs marbres, Certe, ils doivent trouver les vivants bien ingrats. Les Fleurs du Mal.
I S... | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S6-5",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
7b493b3b0956a915 | Neighbor: Miss Peach’s Body Didn’t Turn Out Right | Catie Rosemurgy | But whose did? She’s crumpled where she’s supposed to be unfolded,
something bad written on a piece of paper. Her walking
is a devolution that hunches and shrinks everyone
as she moves up the tree-lined street. I’m on my porch waving to my neighbors
and having one of those honeyed afternoons when I don’t know who I... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S6-6",
"S8-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Health & Illness",
"Relationships/Friendship"
] |
740a3552f5adfacf | Pulling Over to Inspect a Pillbox with a North American Tourist | Rory Waterman | It lists beneath a sycamoreswashing in high summer leaf,and takes a hit from underneath:a root knuckle bulges along the floor.Its eight loopholes have fissures, sproutingthistles; through each the wheat is fattening.“What’s this thing for?” A starling singsits wind-up song. The sun slides out.And this taste of piss, ... | [
"S3",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
6d42647f21d5ec50 | The Forced Departure | Eileen R. Tabios | I consider the woman’s choice in liberating a red dress with pale-green sandals.
My penury depresses me into a staring contest with a melting ice cube.
A friend excited my husband with an invitation to pilot a boat with powerful thrusters.
My gift of chocolate in pink cellophane failed to make the blonde smile.
Con... | [
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S3-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
78991461d1daa6ed | Thanks | W. S. Merwin | Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water thanking it
standing by the windows looking out
in our directions
ba... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S3-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life"
] |
106167ccd401c0e5 | The Shrubbery | William Cowper | Oh happy shades—to me unblest!
Friendly to peace, but not to me!
How ill the scene that offers rest,
And heart that cannot rest, agree!
This glassy stream, that spreading pine,
Those alders quiv'ring to the breeze,
Might sooth a soul less hurt than mine,
And please, if any thing could please.
But fi... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S2-8",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
a9c8b025d825c566 | Before Sextet | Bernadette Mayer | Use a new conductor every time-out
you have sextet—before foreshore,
before pen name gets anywhere
near any bogey opera glass
(to avoid expulsion to any bogey
flunkey that can carry infidel)
Handle conductor gently
Put conductor on as soon as
pen name is hard
be sure rolled-up ringworm is on
the outspokenness... | [
"S1",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S10-2"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics"
] |
b59310675a25e6a7 | [sack for PICTS] | Roberto Harrison | i make signs everywhere, with sticks, stones and leaves
for those in the clouds from below the line to arrive
i don’t have a language to speak to you with, my tongues are all fish
i know that a one is a circle, and that nothing is round,
except every corner i saw by the hearts
... | [
"S3",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture"
] |
b3ec183e0a6026ed | even tho yr sampler broke down on you | Ntozake Shange | magnolias & forsythia blossom
from yr Sugar Hill/ Ray Drummond
plays nasty riffs & i imagine
alla the Palm Cafe turns out
when you glow at dusk on
Convent Avenue/ slidin easily by
the just-for-us propositions Gylan Kain
fashioned at every other Harlem corner/
we usedta leave deluxe issues of
love potions/ reme... | [
"S1",
"S3"
] | [
"S1-7",
"S3-1",
"S3-8"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
cc68e929fe324193 | The Watchers | William Stanley Braithwaite | Two women on the lone wet strand (The wind's out with a will to roam)The waves wage war on rocks and sand, (And a ship is long due home.)The sea sprays in the women's eyes— (Hearts can writhe like the sea's wild foam)Lower descend the tempestuous skies, (For the wind's out with a will to roam.)"O daughter, thi... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S3-4",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
9ac887a66b7c14fc | Bride of the New Dawn | Laura Mullen | She appears to be recognized as herself and not herself, new because endlessly recycled, not what she was but not what she will be—see? Not married and not not married, the processional’s a ritual meant to extend a magical present, until the head of this pin is the size of a rented hall and all of us angels stepping ou... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S8-7",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
f3d556f5c82970fb | Night Dive | Samuel Green | Down here, no light but what we carry with us. Everywhere we point our hands we scrawl color: bulging eyes, spines, teeth or clinging tentacles. At negative buoyancy, when heavy hands seem to grasp & pull us down, we let them, we don’t inflate our vests, but let the scrubbed cheeks of rocks slide past in amniotic... | [
"S2",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S9-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Activities/Sports & Outdoor Activities"
] |
50b59cc7767ad49f | Scattering the March | D. Nurkse | I was not beaten
but the boy beside me was.
He broke stride, stumbled,
the sticks circled over him,
corralling him into their world.
I met his eyes and lip-read
“run,” a whisper
engulfed in sirens.
I slowed down
in an unknown neighborhood,
a street of watch repairers,
tinsmiths, tailors sitting
cross... | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S3-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life"
] |
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