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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
49d22453f303c766 | On Hurricane Jackson | Alan Dugan | Now his nose’s bridge is broken, one eye
will not focus and the other is a stray;
trainers whisper in his mouth while one ear
listens to itself, clenched like a fist;
generally shadowboxing in a smoky room,
his mind hides like the aching boys
who lost a contest in the Panhellenic games
and had to take the back r... | [
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"S7",
"S9"
] | [
"S9-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Sports & Outdoor Activities"
] |
cb3bfa5bcb8c5023 | from The People, Yes | Carl Sandburg | Lincoln? He was a mystery in smoke and flags Saying yes to the smoke, yes to the flags, Yes to the paradoxes of democracy, Yes to the hopes of government Of the people by the people for the people, No to debauchery of the public mind, No to personal malice nursed and fed, Yes to the Constitution when a help, No to the ... | [
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"S11"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S11-4"
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"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
71913863a6f9aaf7 | Lepanto | G. K. Chesterton | White founts falling in the courts of the sun,
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;
There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,
It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard,
It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips,
For the inmost sea of all the e... | [
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"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Religion/Christianity"
] |
29a65dfdc0ca9c45 | Less, much less | Moniza Alvi | He hardly spoke any words
only two —
or you could call it one
the last thing
he said
was bye-bye
flight-feathers
veined and hairlike
with interlocking barbules
of sound
the bye-bye trapped
a breath of air
the two linked words
drifted out
on a calm lake
that lay there
with a single purpose —
to receiv... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
2e322c4602da741e | Driving to Santa Fe | Paisley Rekdal | Quick swim up through my headlights: gold eye
a startle in black: green swift glance
raking mine. A full second
we held each other, then gone.
Gone. And how did I know
what to call it? Lynx, the only possible
reply though I’d never seen one. The car
filling with it: moonlight,
piñon: a cat’s acrid smell
of ter... | [
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"S5",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S5-8",
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"Nature",
"Religion",
"Living"
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"Nature/Animals",
"Religion/The Spiritual",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
d3ed59f2d5f6ca20 | "I know that all beneath the moon decays" | William Drummond of Hawthornden | I know that all beneath the moon decays,
And what by mortals in this world is brought,
In Time’s great periods shall return to nought;
That fairest states have fatal nights and days;
I know how all the Muse’s heavenly lays,
With toil of spright which are so dearly bought,
As idle sounds of few or none are sought,
And t... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-6"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated"
] |
38f209aadf1c9d57 | Paradise Lost: Book 7 (1674 version) | John Milton | DEscend from Heav'n Urania, by that name If rightly thou art call'd, whose Voice divine Following, above th' Olympian Hill I soare, Above the flight of Pegasean wing. The meaning, not the Name I call: for thou Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top Of old Olympus dwell'st, but Heav'nlie borne, Before the Hills appeerd, ... | [
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"Religion"
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"Religion/Christianity",
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005f249a6abccf37 | Lacrimarium | David Barber | Were there a tear To spare, where betterTo be sure the gestureWould linger than hereIn its own little bottleBlown from a hot bubbleTo mirror a tear.And were there moreThan one could bear,So much the betterIn the hereafter forThe begetter, a littleVessel to stopperSorrow beyond measure.And were there a tearToo few, far ... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
77042347feb06715 | Conjecture on the Stained Glass Image of White Christ at Ebenezer Baptist Church | Marcus Wicker | For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
—1 Corinthians 12:13
If in his image made am I, then make me a miracle.
Make my shrine a copper faucet leaking everlasting Evian to the masses.
Make this empty water glass a goblet o... | [
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"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Religion/Faith & Doubt",
"Religion/God & the Divine",
"Religion/The Spiritual"
] |
c3d1b82d544fb81b | Lineage | Margaret Walker | My grandmothers were strong.
They followed plows and bent to toil.
They moved through fields sowing seed.
They touched earth and grain grew.
They were full of sturdiness and singing.
My grandmothers were strong.
My grandmothers are full of memories
Smelling of soap and onions and wet clay
With veins rolling rou... | [
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"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
1f1b3f5490147038 | The Future Is One of Place | Brian Kim Stefans | The future is one of place
devoid of race.
A jawbone under a sock
is a geological clock.
The plunking of rain
on the termite-riddled windowpane:
reading a Bible on that ledge
is a tiny college.
A Galápagos tortoise is killed
(or, simply, unwilled).
The Ebola virus weeps, or retires,
because, like us, it tire... | [
"S6",
"S7"
] | [] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [] |
8eb21c63b4388f1d | How to Love Bats | Judith Beveridge | Begin in a cave.
Listen to the floor boil with rodents, insects.
Weep for the pups that have fallen. Later,
you’ll fly the narrow passages of those bones,
but for now —
open your mouth, out will fly names
like Pipistrelle, Desmodus, Tadarida. Then,
listen fo... | [
"S2",
"S4"
] | [
"S2-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Nature/Animals"
] |
b2634db8955c0e41 | Home [“Often I had gone this way before”] | Edward Thomas | Often I had gone this way before: But now it seemed I never could be And never had been anywhere else; 'Twas home; one nationality We had, I and the birds that sang, One memory.
They welcomed me. I had come back That eve somehow from somewhere far: The April mist, the chill, the calm, Meant the same thing familiar And... | [
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"Nature/Animals",
"Relationships/Home Life",
"Activities/Sports & Outdoor Activities",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
54de47198cd5bae4 | Phenomenal Woman | Maya Angelou | Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s ... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
47ebb1d7140806e6 | Inventory | Günter Eich | This is my cap,
this is my overcoat,
here is my shave kit
in its linen pouch.
Some field rations:
my dish, my tumbler,
here in the tin-plate
I’ve scratched my name.
Scratched it here with this
precious nail
I keep concealed
from coveting eyes.
In the bread bag I have
a pair of wool socks
and a few things ... | [
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"S4"
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"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
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"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
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d6e4d0a55258846a | The Lonely Death | Adelaide Crapsey | In the cold I will rise, I will batheIn waters of ice; myselfWill shiver, and shrive myself,Alone in the dawn, and anointForehead and feet and hands;I will shutter the windows from light,I will place in their sockets the fourTall candles and set them a-flameIn the grey of the dawn; and myselfWill lay myself straight in... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-4",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Winter",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
13ede993904617b6 | Image of the Engine | George Oppen | 1
Likely as not a ruined head gasket
Spitting at every power stroke, if not a crank shaft
Bearing knocking at the roots of the thing like a pile-driver:
A machine involved with itself, a concentrated
Hot lump of a machine
Geared in the loose mechanics of the world with the valves jumping
And the heavy frenzy of ... | [
"S2",
"S3"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S3-1",
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"Nature",
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor"
] |
f8caf486ee4eef1e | Nocturne | Louise Glück | Mother died last night,Mother who never dies.Winter was in the air,many months awaybut in the air nevertheless.It was the tenth of May.Hyacinth and apple blossombloomed in the back garden.We could hearMaria singing songs from Czechoslovakia —How alone I am —songs of that kind.How alone I am,no mother, no father — | [
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"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Summer",
"Nature/Winter",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
8bc45e45a8c82b11 | Muier | William Carlos Williams | Oh, black Persian cat! Was not your life already cursed with offspring? We took you for rest to that old Yankee farm, — so lonely and with so many field mice in the long grass — and you return to us in this condition —! Oh, black Persian cat. | [
"S8"
] | [
"S8-8"
] | [
"Relationships"
] | [
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals"
] |
68e5c93b2f41d013 | Empire of Dreams | Charles Simic | On the first page of my dreambook
It’s always evening
In an occupied country.
Hour before the curfew.
A small provincial city.
The houses all dark.
The storefronts gutted.
I am on a street corner
Where I shouldn’t be.
Alone and coatless
I have gone out to look
For a black dog who answers to my whistle.
I ha... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
137697d4f0998305 | New Intelligence | Rae Armantrout | 1Starsare the campfiresof exiles.Language existsto pull thingsclose. *Stop that!Communicationsare being monitored.Collusion is forbidden.Humanitywill be punishedwith the profusionof new jargons. 2Inverted in glass,a white cupinvents the underworld. *Fog thinsto chiffon,nylon,Ea... | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-2"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics"
] |
f7503df361f061b0 | The Foundry Garden | Stanley Plumly | Myths of the landscape—
the sun going down in the mouths of the furnaces,
the fires banked and cooling, ticking into dark, here and there the sudden flaring into roses,
then the light across the long factory of the field, the split and rusted castings,
across the low slant tin roofs of the buildings, across fallow ... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S6",
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"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Relationships/Home Life",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
8e06c0b0390fe146 | Keats’s Phrase | Albert Goldbarth | My father’s been dead for thirty yearsbut when he appears behind my shoulderoffering advice, or condemnation, or a quiet pridein something I’ve done that isn’t even thistledownor tiny shavings of balsa wood in the eyes of the world—“Albie, grip in the middle and turnwith a steady pressure”—it’s measurable,if not the wa... | [
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"S10-5",
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"Arts & Sciences"
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"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
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606cfa90bbb5a84d | Sorrow Gondola No. 2 | Tomas Tranströmer | I
Two old men, father-and son-in-law, Liszt and Wagner, are staying by the Grand Canal
together with the restless woman who is married to King Midas,
he who changes everything he touches to Wagner.
The ocean's green cold pushes up through the palazzo floors.
Wagner is marked, his famous Punchinello profile looks m... | [
"S2",
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"S7",
"S8",
"S10"
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"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
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"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
3d1a0dc78c334fa2 | To an Ungentle Critic | Robert Graves | The great sun sinks behind the townThrough a red mist of Volnay wine . . . . But what’s the use of setting down That glorious blaze behind the town? You’ll only skip the page, you’ll look For newer pictures in this book; You’ve read of sunsets rich as mine. A fresh wind fills the evening airWith horrid crying of night... | [
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
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"S8-4",
"S10-6",
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"Living",
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"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Relationships/Friendship"
] |
35a911248735b67c | One With The Sun | A. F. Moritz | Child
one with the sun
in trackless fields
of yellow grass and thistle, scent
of humid heavy air and the wing music
of bees and flies.
Child, slender
nakedness to itself unknown,
true colour of the light
dispersed invisibly
or glowing around the black hulls
of distant thunderheads, around
the grasshopper’s ... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S2-8",
"S10-5"
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"Nature",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi"
] |
ce6f11c2afb3ee45 | Detroit, Tomorrow | Philip Levine | Newspaper says the boy killed by someone,
don’t say who. I know the mother, waking,
gets up as usual, washes her face
in cold water, and starts the coffee pot.
She stands by the window up there on floor
sixteen wondering why the street’s so calm
with no cars going or coming, and then
she looks at the wall clock ... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S3-6",
"S6-4",
"S6-7"
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"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Parenthood"
] |
3f70838ec7e10bb9 | Cousin Nancy | T. S. Eliot | Miss Nancy Ellicott Strode across the hills and broke them, Rode across the hills and broke them — The barren New England hills — Riding to hounds Over the cow-pasture. Miss Nancy Ellicott smoked And danced all the modern dances; And her aunts were not quite sure how they felt about it, But they knew that it was modern... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S7",
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"S10"
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"S3-2",
"S3-7",
"S8-3",
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"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
4fae0ecaf34acbba | Contact | Dani Couture | Cloud cover like a badly made bed, ruched in sections, rushed.
Whatevered for reasons of a lifetime of do-overs. Why bother
trying to change? The gathered duvet sometimes mimics you,
makes double. Dopples a decoy. An escape plan. The safety
of numbers and cover. When the wing dips, a hole in the sky
revealed. Unti... | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S8-7",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Love",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
48f36c2f64df566a | Here and Now | Peter Balakian | The day comes in strips of yellow glass over trees.
When I tell you the day is a poem
I’m only talking to you and only the sky is listening.
The sky is listening; the sky is as hopeful
as I am walking into the pomegranate seeds
of the wind that whips up the seawall.
If you want the poem to take on everything,
wa... | [
"S2",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Nature",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Nature/Bodies of Water"
] |
18b87f83be400455 | The Artichoke | James McMichael | The Artichoke She bore only the heart, Worked at the stem with her Fingers, pulling it to her, And into her, like a cord. She would sustain him, Would cover his heart. The hairy needles And the bigger leaves, These she licked into shape, Tipping each with its point. He is the mud-flower, The thorny hugger. The A... | [
"S9"
] | [
"S9-1",
"S9-2"
] | [
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Eating & Drinking",
"Activities/Gardening & Farming"
] |
ad2468338dd9fe5b | The Art Room | Shara McCallum | for my sisters
Because we did not have threads
of turquoise, silver, and gold,
we could not sew a sun nor sky.
And our hands became balls of fire.
And our arms spread open like wings.
Because we had no chalk or pastels,
no toad, forest, or morning-grass slats
of paper, we had no colour
for creatures. So we squ... | [
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S8-3",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
e745d0d88e38b2e5 | Either Or | Nick Lantz | “He is either alive and well or alive and not too well or not alive.”
—Donald Rumsfeld
You haven’t heard
from your father
in six months
and you can’t
bring yourself
to call. In Bengal,
farmers wore
masks on the backs
of their heads
... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S6-6",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Health & Illness",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
1ef30f99ee519553 | Goose | Richard Emil Braun | Trailing her father, bearing his hand axe,
the girl thought she had never
guessed what earthly majesty
was before
then, as he strode unconcernedly
holding a vicious gander
by the horny mitts and let
the big wings
batter his knees. She was also surprised
to feel a liber... | [
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S8-3",
"S8-8",
"S10-5"
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"Arts & Sciences"
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"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals"
] |
80e36e329575ab11 | Forms of Politeness | Mei-mei Berssenbrugge | 1
Taking advantage of the relationships and interaction, which actually exist between what happens
to her and her desire, she creates some metaphors both obvious and opaque, as screens of rays crisscrossing
the landscape in which herself and what she expected from you in the way of support coincide,
so that I and y... | [
"S3",
"S8",
"S10",
"S11"
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"S3-4",
"S10-5",
"S11-2"
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"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Mythology & Folklore/Ghosts & the Supernatural",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
9f9c65264e3517bb | Whispers of Immortality | T. S. Eliot | Webster was much possessed by deathAnd saw the skull beneath the skin;And breastless creatures under groundLeaned backward with a lipless grin.Daffodil bulbs instead of ballsStared from the sockets of the eyes!He knew that thought clings round dead limbsTightening its lusts and luxuries.Donne, I suppose, was such anoth... | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S10-5",
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"S10-8"
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"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
5f22403dd9b2b7cb | The Book of Thel | William Blake | THEL'S MOTTO Does the Eagle know what is in the pit? Or wilt thou go ask the Mole: Can Wisdom be put in a silver rod? Or Love in a golden bowl?
I The daughters of Mne Seraphim led round their sunny flocks.All but the youngest; she in paleness sought the secret air. To fade away like morning beauty from her mortal day:... | [
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"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Activities",
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"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Nature/Animals",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
91ec8cf7b35bd259 | A Worm Fed on the Heart of Corinth | Isaac Rosenberg | A worm fed on the heart of Corinth,Babylon and Rome.Not Paris raped tall Helen,But this incestuous worm,Who lured her vivid beautyTo his amorphous sleep.England! famous as HelenIs thy bethothal sung.To him the shadowless,More amorous than Solomon. | [
"S11"
] | [
"S11-3"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Greek & Roman Mythology"
] |
c0c291d322fadd02 | On the Bus Someday | Jessica Greenbaum | Of that string of memories about our lost friendship I rememberbeing invited places as a pair, like a comedy team; and afterone party, our self-parody of our own stammeringspeechlessness when introduced to Henrik, the Swedish godauto mechanic; our twin, garish, purple-flowered swimsuitsfrom Kmart, outlining, around Te... | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-5",
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"S8-4",
"S10-5"
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"Love",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Living/Mourning",
"Relationships/Breakups & Separation",
"Relationships/Friendship"
] |
74db8b361ed5e440 | Patterns for Arans | Linda Norton | We could paint semi-darkness in semi-darkness. And the ‘right lighting’ of a picture could be semi-darkness.
Wittgenstein
from Remarks on Color
These islands lie off the west coast of Ireland
as i... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S3-9",
"S9-4",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Social Commentaries/Rural & Country Life",
"Activities/Jobs & Working",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
b18ccaa79a8c66f1 | Clotilde | Guillaume Apollinaire | Anemone and columbine
Where gloom has lain
Opened in gardens
Between love and disdain
Made somber by the sun
Our shadows meet
Until the sun
Is squandered by night
Gods of living water
Let down their hair
And now you must follow
A craving for shadows | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S2-9"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space"
] |
5bb7b83c89bf7ea2 | Town Eclogues: Monday; Roxana or the Drawing-Room | Lady Mary Wortley Montagu | ROXANA from the court retiring late,
Sigh'd her soft sorrows at St. JAMES's gate:
Such heavy thoughts lay brooding in her breast,
Not her own chairmen wth more weight opprest;
They groan the cruel load they're doom'd to bear ;
She in these gentler sounds express'd her care.
" Was it for this, that I these Roses wear,
"... | [
"S3",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-2"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor"
] |
ffaa5b1fd80931ca | from One Big Self: "Count heads" | C. D. Wright | Count heads. Count the men's. Count the women's. There are five
main counts in the cell or work area. 4:45 first morning count. Inmate
must stand for the count. The count takes as long as it takes. Control
Center knows how many should be in what area. No one moves from area
A to area B without Control knowing. If i... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice"
] |
c33a941be9fba742 | Helen: A Revision | Jack Spicer | zeus: It is to be assumed that I do not exist while most people in the vision assume that I do exist. This is to be one of the extents of meaning between the players and the audience. I have to talk like this because I am the lord of both kinds of sky—and I don't mean your sky and their sky because they are signs, I me... | [
"S6",
"S11"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S11-3",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Living",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Greek & Roman Mythology",
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
44474203dad89c80 | Appetite | Paulann Petersen | Pale gold and crumbling with crust
mottled dark, almost bronze,
pieces of honeycomb lie on a plate.
Flecked with the pale paper
of hive, their hexagonal cells
leak into the deepening pool
of amber. On your lips,
against palate, tooth and tongue,
the viscous sugar squeezes
from its chambers, sears sweetness
into your th... | [
"S9"
] | [
"S9-1"
] | [
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
a13fcc8df3516aa4 | The Pool | H. D. | Are you alive? I touch you. You quiver like a sea-fish. I cover you with my net. What are you—banded one? | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S2-6"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Nature/Bodies of Water"
] |
8520285820670291 | “Embrace Them All” | Katy Didden | Parc Georges-Brassens, Paris
Most afternoons, I’d run laps through Parc Brassens where grows the second smallest vineyard I have ever seen, and where those silver, pruned-back stalks looked blunt, strung-out on wires, and mostly dead all winter. That was how I saw them. That’s all I expected. Even in the c... | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-6"
] | [
"Love",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Realistic & Complicated"
] |
a862cb67c429d28c | Autobiography: New York | Charles Reznikoff | I
It is not to be bought for a penny
in the candy store, nor picked
from the bushes in the park. It may be found, perhaps,
in the ashes on the distant lots,
among the rusting cans and Jimpson weeds.
If you wish to eat fish freely,
cucumbers and melons,
you should have stayed in Egypt.
II
I am alone—
and glad... | [
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"S10"
] | [
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"S9-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
b256039645c30e5d | Ships that Pass in the Night | Paul Laurence Dunbar | Out in the sky the great dark clouds are massing;
I look far out into the pregnant night,
Where I can hear a solemn booming gun
And catch the gleaming of a random light,
That tells me that the ship I seek is passing, passing.
My tearful eyes my soul's deep hurt are glassing;
For I would hail and check that ... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S3-8"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
8ea2e57f5a7fe10d | Natural Selection | Alan R. Shapiro | proceeds by chance
and necessity
becomes nonrandom
through randomness
builds complexity
from simplicity
nurtures consciousness
unconsciously
evolves purposelessly
creatures who demand
purpose
and discover
natural selection | [
"S2",
"S10"
] | [
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"S10-9"
] | [
"Nature",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Arts & Sciences/Sciences"
] |
e857883fd718cd64 | Astrophil and Stella 47: What, have I thus betrayed my liberty? | Sir Philip Sidney | What, have I thus betrayed my liberty? Can those black beams such burning marks engrave In my free side? or am I born a slave, Whose neck becomes such yoke of tyranny? Or want I sense to feel my misery? Or sprite, disdain of such disdain to have? Who for long faith, though daily help I crave, May get no alms but scorn ... | [
"S1",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-4"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes"
] |
1c4964e5f54508aa | Anseo | Paul Muldoon | When the Master was calling the roll
At the primary school in Collegelands,
You were meant to call back Anseo
And raise your hand
As your name occurred.Anseo, meaning here, here and now,
All present and correct,
Was the first word of Irish I spoke.
The last name on the ledger
Belonged to Joseph Mary Plunkett Wa... | [
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S9-6",
"S10-2"
] | [
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
"Activities/Study & Knowledge"
] |
a977267c470621d6 | Sequence | Vijay Seshadri | 1. HELLYou’d have to be as crazy as Dante to get those down, the infernal hatreds. Shoot them. Shoot them where they live and then skip town.Or stay and re-engineer the decrepit social contraptionto distill the 200-proofelixir of fearand torture the...the what from the what? And didn’t I promise,under threat of self-in... | [
"S5",
"S6"
] | [
"S5-7"
] | [
"Religion",
"Living"
] | [
"Religion/Other Religions"
] |
008244809fab232c | From “R E D” | Chase Berggrun | chapter viii
Tired I walk toward everything except fear
over seaweed-covered rocks
I think that someday some new women
will be allowed to see each other happy
happy more than usual
I looked in all the other open rooms of my heart
A vague fear obscured the whole scene into a diorama of ruin
As sharp as a swor... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S6-1",
"S6-5",
"S8-1"
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"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Aging",
"Living/Mourning",
"Relationships/Breakups & Separation"
] |
de6a6b5d07d91e8b | from Stanzas in Meditation: Stanza 2 | Gertrude Stein | I think very well of Susan but I do not know her name
I think very well of Ellen but which is not the same
I think very well of Paul I tell him not to do so
I think very well of Francis Charles but do I do so
I think very well of Thomas but I do not not do so
I think very well of not very well of William
I think ... | [
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] | [
"S10-2"
] | [
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
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] |
f53019b9cb0449bf | [lady in red] "at 4:30 AM" | Ntozake Shange | at 4:30 AM
she rose
movin the arms & legs that trapped her
she sighed affirmin the sculptured man
& made herself a bath
of dark musk oil egyptian crystals
& florida water to remove his smell
to wash away the glitter
to watch the butterflies melt into
suds & the rhinestones fall beneath
her buttocks like smoot... | [
"S1",
"S3"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-6",
"S3-4",
"S3-8"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
e2281b35d111954c | Insomnia | Rynn Williams | I try tearing paper into tiny, perfect squares— they cut my fingers. Warm milk, perhaps, stirred counter-clockwise in a cast iron pan— but even then there’s burning at the edges, angry foam-hiss. I’ve been told to put trumpet flowers under my pillow, I do: stamen up, the old crone said. But the pollen stains, ... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S6-6"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Health & Illness"
] |
38608eb12d44604a | from Pamphilia to Amphilanthus: Song 5 | Lady Mary Wroth | Time only cause of my unrestBy whom I hop’d once to bee blest How cruell art thou turned?That first gav’st lyfe unto my love,And still a pleasure nott to move Or change though ever burned;Have I thee slack’d, or left undunOne loving rite, and soe have wunn Thy rage or bitter changing?That now noe minutes I sha... | [
"S1",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-6",
"S8-1"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Relationships/Breakups & Separation"
] |
8b149ecc430172ab | To the Virginian Voyage | Michael Drayton | You brave Heroique Minds,
Worthy your countries name,
That honour still pursue,
Goe, and subdue,
Whilst loyt'ring Hinds
Lurke here at home, with shame.
Britans, you stay too long,
Quickly aboord bestow you,
And with a merry Gale
Swell your stretch'd Sayle,
With Vowes as strong,
As the Winds that blow you.
You... | [
"S3",
"S9",
"S10",
"S11"
] | [
"S9-7",
"S10-8",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
f9420a02d5c9c860 | After the Funeral | Peter Everwine | We opened closets and bureau drawers and packed away, in boxes, dresses and shoes, the silk underthings still wrapped in tissue. We sorted through cedar chests. We gathered and set aside the keepsakes and the good silver and brought up from the coal cellar jars of tomato sauce, peppers, jellied fruit. We dismantled, we... | [
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
11941115af4d4eda | Dialogue with an Artist | Matthew Sweeney | the lonely Incorporating the words of L.S. Lowry I used to paint the sea, but never a shore,and nobody was sailing on it. It wasn’t eventhe sea, it was just my own loneliness.It’s all there, you know. It’s all in the sea.The battle is there, the inevitability of it all,the purpose. When I switched to peoplethey were al... | [
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"S10",
"S11"
] | [
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"S10-4",
"S11-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Painting & Sculpture",
"Mythology & Folklore/Greek & Roman Mythology",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
0a35052f3e856ebe | Love Lives Beyond the Tomb | John Clare | Love lives beyond The tomb, the earth, which fades like dew— I love the fond, The faithful, and the true Love lives in sleep, 'Tis happiness of healthy dreams Eve’s dews may weep, But love delightful seems. 'Tis seen in flowers, And in the even's pearly dew ... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-7"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Romantic Love"
] |
23f83aff63ae8c37 | The Drought | Gary Soto | The clouds shouldered a path up the mountains
East of Ocampo, and then descended,
Scraping their bellies gray on the cracked shingles of slate.
They entered the valley, and passed the roads that went
Trackless, the houses blown open, their cellars creaking
And lined with the bottles that held their breath for year... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-10"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Weather"
] |
99a7c79380266e23 | Becoming a Redwood | Dana Gioia | Stand in a field long enough, and the sounds
start up again. The crickets, the invisible
toad who claims that change is possible,
And all the other life too small to name.
First one, then another, until innumerable
they merge into the single voice of a summer hill.
Yes, it’s hard to stand still, hour after hour,
... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-8"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Plants & Fungi"
] |
409ccae427c98d89 | Literary | Kenneth Fearing | I sing of simple people and the hardier virtues, by Associated Stuffed Shirts & Company, Incorporated, 358 West 42d Street, New York, brochure enclosed
of Christ on the Cross, by a visitor to Calvary, first class
art deals with eternal, not current verities, revised from last week's Sunday supplement
guess ... | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-6",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books"
] |
3de8b9264390842e | Children in Slavery | Eliza Lee Follen | When children play the livelong day, Like birds and butterflies; As free and gay, sport life away, And know not care nor sighs: Then earth and air seem fresh and fair, All peace below, above: Life’s flowers are there, and everywhere Is innocence and love. When children pray with fear all day, A blight mu... | [
"S3"
] | [] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [] |
c708bbb1217cf0f3 | A Geography of Poets | Andrei Codrescu | is all wrong, ed
what poets now live
where they say they do
where they started out
where they want to
half the midwesterners
did time in new york
the other half in california
only new yorkers write
as if they are from new york
and mostly they are not
the ones in california
were wounded elsewhere
when they ... | [
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"S6",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
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"S9-7",
"S10-6"
] | [
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"Living",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
6693e710b6305925 | from Fanny | Fitz-Greene Halleck | I Fanny was younger once than she is now, And prettier of course: I do not mean To say that there are wrinkles on her brow; Yet, to be candid, she is past eighteen— Perhaps past twenty—but the girl is shy About her age, and Heaven forbid that I II Should get myself in trouble by revealing A secret of th... | [
"S1"
] | [] | [
"Love"
] | [] |
3a6dafcf4d8e1a3d | Over the Roofs | Sara Teasdale | I
Oh chimes set high on the sunny tower
Ring on, ring on unendingly,
Make all the hours a single hour,
For when the dusk begins to flower,
The man I love will come to me! ...
But no, go slowly as you will,
I should not bid you hasten so,
For while I wait for love to come,
Some other girl is standin... | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-3",
"S1-6"
] | [
"Love",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Heartache & Loss",
"Love/Realistic & Complicated"
] |
13cb5b6bbed0f321 | Fairy Tales from the Web | Ish Klein | Somebody who would never refuse money told me this—
about the syncretic effect when each person plugs
their attention into a field to read ad copy, let’s just say
they become opened up and other beings can see into
their minds. This was considered a science fiction idea
to many people, but not to me.
In my negati... | [
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"S4",
"S6",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-7",
"S4-1",
"S9-3"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture",
"History & Politics/Money & Economics",
"Activities/Indoor Activities"
] |
a3b146cb7f81b33f | Once I Had an Acceptance Speech | Anthony Anaxagorou | Driving too close to the curb. Admit
to being poor. Stash pumpkin seeds
for my kid. Hustle the Christian way.
Starch my shirt collars. Value a strong
smudge. Give pigeons saintly names.
Cream both my feet. Recycle. Sign off
emails with warm regards. Double tap
#vegan. Heart statuses which start withI’m delighted... | [
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"S6",
"S10"
] | [
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"S4-1",
"S10-6"
] | [
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"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice",
"History & Politics/Money & Economics"
] |
3dfd5bd4e134b8c4 | Train above Pedestrians | Reginald Gibbons | Where moonlight angles
through the east-west streets,
down among the old
for America
tall buildings that changed
the streets of other
cities circulate
elevated trains
overhead shrieking
and drumming, lit by
explosions of... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S4-1",
"S9-4",
"S10-1"
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"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Architecture & Design",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"History & Politics/Money & Economics",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
563a56c5896370c1 | [Sometimes I want a corset like...] | Lisa Robertson | Sometimes I want a corset like
to harden me or garnish. I
think of this stricture—rain
language, building—as a corset: an
outer ideal mould, I feel
the ideal moulding me the ideal
is now my surface just so very
perfect I know where to buy it and I
take it off. I take it off. If all things fall
and we are just ... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-10"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Weather"
] |
f3280a623102176b | Virtue is its Own Reward | Margaret Fishback | I wish my frank and open face
Held just one tiny little trace
Of something that approaches guile.
I'd like an enigmatic smile
And heavy-lidded eyes instead
Of just a regulation head. | [
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Living"
] | [] |
83bb0a169f75912d | Solstice Litany | Jim Harrison | 1
The Saturday morning meadowlark
came in from high up
with her song gliding into tall grass
still singing. How I'd like
to glide around singing in the summer
then to go south to where I already was
and find fields full of meadowlarks
in winter. But when walking my dog
I want four legs to keep up with her
as ... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S2-7",
"S2-8",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
6b4fdb9de3598bd6 | Last Poem | Ronald Johnson | shambles this way
antipodean being
come full circle
sparks in darkness
lightning’s eternal return
flipped the ecliptic | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [] |
2b21c00cb5f4dc7d | Turning | Wendy Rose | The song is Gaelic now,
peridot words
the color of fresh
timothy gathered
by red-haired women;
or the song
is the bony white oak
and rhythm of Miwu,
a knowing that breathes
against angles of granite
and meets the ground
in a flurry of sound.
Or the song rides down from a star
over burgundy boulders
beneat... | [
"S2",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S10-3"
] | [
"Nature",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
] |
bcacb86591b64102 | Clean | Jeff Vande Zande | Her small body shines with water and light. Giggling, she squeals “daddy,” splashes until his pants darken. Five more minutes, he thinks, stepping out quickly, pouring himself a drink, not expecting to return to find her slipped under, her tiny face staring up through the undulating surface. Before he can move, or drop... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-7",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Parenthood",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
364743fa1207f22e | Countrywomen | Katherine Mansfield | These be two
Country women.
What a size!
Great big arms
And round red faces;
Big substantial
Sit down places;
Great big bosoms firm as cheese
Bursting through their country jackets;
Wide big laps
And sturdy knees;
Hands outspread,
Round and rosy,
Hands to hold
A country posy
Or a baby or a lamb—
A... | [
"S10"
] | [] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [] |
c76e762fc0affec2 | Wonders | Linda Bierds | In a wide hoop of lamplight, two children—
a girl and her younger brother—jump marbles
on a star-shaped playboard. Beside them,
in a chair near a window, their father
thinks of his mother, her recent death
and the grief he is trying to gather.
It is late October. The hooplight spreads
from the family, through th... | [
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S8-5",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
34eef9d1317dc150 | Zeus to Juno | Fiona Sampson | He— You saw the way her body looked at me all address calling me down she was so well-turned, curve and volume her body presented itself— Clay— I could mold it She— You were taboo not totem— covered her though your wing ga... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S3",
"S6",
"S8",
"S11"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S3-4",
"S6-4",
"S8-7",
"S11-3",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Mythology & Folklore/Greek & Roman Mythology",
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
089699253d99799f | Marionette | Ross Gay | for Amadou Diallo
The few strings snap and pull
the doll’s flimsy limbs for his last
ballet, an American piece, arms flung
like a flamingo’s wings, his sashay
a flame’s undulation, dip, wave, head
snapped into a skygaze, a pained grin white
beneath the doorway’s light, legs braiding
in the climactic pirouette, ... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-6",
"S3-8"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
80613c180ec3c3ea | Self-Help | John Skoyles | I was someone in the distance
who never got closer.
I lived in the past, so the present
was my future.
When I shook hands, I dissolved
into a mirror
where I tended
my reflection
of features so faint
my mother
strained to see them.
I was the rind, the zest,
a heart marooned
in the guest of a friend
in the ... | [
"S6",
"S7"
] | [] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [] |
10131b8921a3107a | Resumé | Dorothy Parker | Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren’t lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live. | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-4"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
d8939d823726a135 | The moon now rises to her absolute rule | Henry David Thoreau | The moon now rises to her absolute rule, And the husbandman and hunter Acknowledge her for their mistress. Asters and golden reign in the fields And the life everlasting withers not. The fields are reaped and shorn of their pride But an inward verdure still crowns them; The thistle scatters its down on the pool And yel... | [
"S2",
"S10"
] | [
"S10-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy"
] |
ca3fd1e20a869005 | Brothers in Arms | Carl Phillips | The sea was one thing, once; the field another. Either way,something got crossed, or didn’t. Who’s to say, abouthappiness? Whatever country, I mean, where inconceivablewas a word like any other lies far behind me now. I’velearned to spare what’s failing, if it can keep what’s livingalive still, maybe just ... | [
"S6",
"S7",
"S9"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S9-1"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Activities"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
4273533998b47f21 | The Garden by Moonlight | Amy Lowell | A black cat among roses, Phlox, lilac-misted under a first-quarter moon, The sweet smells of heliotrope and night-scented stock. The garden is very still, It is dazed with moonlight, Contented with perfume, Dreaming the opium dreams of its folded poppies. Firefly lights open and vanish High as the tip buds of the g... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S3-4",
"S6-1",
"S8-3",
"S8-6"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Aging",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Relationships/LGBTQ+"
] |
09617c1bfecdbd6f | An Hymn Of Heavenly Beauty | Edmund Spenser | Rapt with the rage of mine own ravish'd thought,
Through contemplation of those goodly sights,
And glorious images in heaven wrought,
Whose wondrous beauty, breathing sweet delights
Do kindle love in high-conceited sprights;
I fain to tell the things that I behold,
But feel my wits to fail, and tongue to fold.
Vouchsaf... | [
"S5"
] | [
"S5-4"
] | [
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/God & the Divine"
] |
f08a84c2f7ce9ff3 | Dear Mr. Merrill | Moira Egan | I hope you'll pardon the informality of this letter, postmarked Olympia (Greece, not Washington), its task not simple: crossing lines you've crossed, time, mortality, to find you, who spent a lifetime crossing lines out, twisting, polishing them to shine cool and lustrous as the statue I fell in love with... | [
"S10",
"S11"
] | [
"S10-4",
"S10-6",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Painting & Sculpture",
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism"
] |
4c88ab40cc83fa6c | She Walks in Beauty | Lord Byron (George Gordon) | She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every r... | [
"S1",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-7",
"S1-8"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Love/Classic Love"
] |
db2a764d86b9bc91 | Psalm 114 | Isaac Watts | Miracles Attending Israel’s Journey
When Isr’el, freed from Pharaoh’s hand, Left the proud tyrant and his land, The tribes with cheerful homage own Their king; and Judah was his throne. Across the deep their journey lay; The deep divides to make them way. Jordan beheld their march, and led, With backward current, to h... | [
"S5"
] | [
"S5-2",
"S5-4"
] | [
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/Christianity",
"Religion/God & the Divine"
] |
e579ee27e3bf9159 | vegas | Charles Bukowski | there was a frozen tree that I wanted to paint
but the shells came down
and in Vegas looking across at a green sunshade
at 3:30 in the morning,
I died without nails, without a copy of the Atlantic Monthly,
the windows screamed like doves moaning the bombing of Milan
and I went out to live with the rats
but the l... | [
"S6",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S9-7",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Living",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
7e27b2f54b015db8 | Venus | D. Nurkse | Death is comingand you must build a starshipto take you to Venus.Make it from a catsup bottle,a flashlight coil,a penny, the cat’s bell,Mom’s charm bracelet.They say that planet is torment,whipped by circular wind,choked in vitriol clouds.But no. When you get thereit is a light in the skyand I am with you.If you find n... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-9",
"S6-4",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
91617e6c9b107f71 | After Preparing the Altar, the Ghosts Feast Feverishly | Jane Wong | How hard it is to sleep
in the middle of a life.
— Audre Lorde
We wake in the middle of a life, hungry.
We smear durian along our mouths, sing soft
death a lullaby. Carcass breath, eros of licked fingers
and the finest perfume. What is love if not rot?
We wear the fruit’s ... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S8",
"S9",
"S11"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S6-4",
"S8-3",
"S9-1"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
61621c7ac7d48578 | Late Ripeness | Czeslaw Milosz | Not soon, as late as the approach of my ninetieth year,
I felt a door opening in me and I entered
the clarity of early morning.
One after another my former lives were departing,
like ships, together with their sorrow.
And the countries, cities, gardens, the bays of seas
assigned to my brush came closer,
ready no... | [
"S6",
"S7",
"S9"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Activities"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
b2acf77a74774d9e | The Pond Museum | Brandon Shimoda | The fenestrate surface of the pond
surfaces in old companions snag ripples
namely, Saburo
I recommend his face for the pond museum
above the fox’s skulking face
the hare’s face, death’s polished stone
the crane’s larval pearl
eyes transmitting the code for a sodden voice
in the splintering reeds
And wh... | [
"S2",
"S8"
] | [] | [
"Nature",
"Relationships"
] | [] |
63387b9d5dee56e5 | Dear Adam | Eileen Myles | I said cake
I said top hat
I said microphone
four little golden baby heads
wait I said pirate ghost
wait wait I said closed eye smiling cat
he scrawled back oh my god
I thought fuck yeah I can read this at the marathon
he said Eileen smilesehhh I can use it
the bell of my computer rang
same message
wait the ... | [
"S3",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S3-7",
"S3-8",
"S10-2"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
478929f280d3bc24 | Pigeons | Huang Fan | I’ve never seen pigeons argue
I only see them soar
I don’t know if a pigeon is naïve or worldly
I just know it has no past to make it toil through life
Maybe they’re the tongues of the air
Lazily expressing cars’ sighs
Maybe they’re lined up on the roof
Vying to perform snow’s wedding
One day I stick my head ou... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S2-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Nature/Animals"
] |
9d988aa37e31adf2 | Vessels | Paisley Rekdal | Shouldn’t it ache, this slit into the sweetand salt mix of waters comprising the mussel, its labial meats winged open: yellow- fleshed, black and grayaround the toughadductor? It hurtsto imagine it, regardlessof the harvester’sdenials, swiveling his knife to make the incision: onedull cyst nickedfrom the oyster’s mant... | [
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Living"
] | [] |
4501d1d85b0b0910 | With Emma at the Ladies-Only Swimming Pond on Hampstead Heath | Linda Gregerson | In payment for those mornings at the mirror while,
at her
expense, I’d started my late learning in Applied
French Braids, for all
the mornings afterward of Hush
and Just stand still,
to make some small amends for every reg-
... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-2",
"S2-6",
"S6-7"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Summer",
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Living/Parenthood"
] |
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