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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4a276ad1f60c6b78 | ["She thinks the monkey's bad luck..."] | Philip Jenks | I.
She thinks the monkey's bad luck because
of all the Institutions it's seen.
A curious curious George hooked to my hoodie,
with arguably racialized, inappropriate lips
curling out to smile and greet the staff
as I ask for the nth time why no release
or where is Albeheary? By now,
anything may well prove to be... | [
"S3",
"S6"
] | [
"S3-8",
"S6-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Living/Health & Illness"
] |
21b43dbe62b54a3d | 10-Year-Old Shot Three Times, but She’s Fine | Patricia Smith | Dumbfounded in hospital whites, you are picture-book
itty-bit, floundering in bleach and steel. Braids untwirl
and corkscrew, you squirm, the crater in your shoulder
spews a soft voltage. On a TV screwed into the wall
above your head, neon rollicks. A wide-eyed train
engine perfectly smokes, warbles a song about f... | [
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"S6"
] | [
"S3-6",
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"S6-8"
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"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
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"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Living/Youth"
] |
21983498c15d2ea7 | The Roll Call | Thomas Sayers Ellis | Any half-decent rapper
Can conjure the dead,
Can reach into graves
And accuse God
Of Indian-giving.
The trick is ancestral,
No more magic than memory’s
Hidden strings & chains.
Trust me,
We haven’t forgotten a name.
Say them. Raise your hands.
Holler at me! | [
"S3",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-7",
"S10-3"
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"Social Commentaries",
"Arts & Sciences"
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"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture"
] |
cc50e962ae003411 | Age Appropriate | Philip Schultz | Sometimes, mystified by the behaviorof one of my sons, my wife will point out if it’s age-appropriate, making me wonder why I still shout at ballplayers on tv and argue with the dead. Last week, my oldest son,with a wild pitch, turned my left ankle into an eggplant. I didn’t yell at the doctors who refused my insuran... | [
"S6",
"S10"
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"S10-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy"
] |
204cb1875eea02db | The decade the country became known throughout the world | William Archila | The ground cracked
like the rough pit of a peach
and snapped in two.
The sun behind the mountains
turned into an olive-green glow.
To niña Gloria this was home.
She continued to sell her bowl of lemons,
rubbing a cold, thin silver Christ
pocketed in her apron. Others
like Lito and Marvin played
soldiers in th... | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
7a08785d5f0f4d71 | Dream of Ink Brush Calligraphy | Karen An-hwei Lee | In prayer:quiet opening,my artery is a thin shadow on paper—margin of long grass, ruderal hair, sister to this not yet part of our bodiesyour lyric corpus of seedin rough drafts of pine ash,chaogao or grass calligraphy in rough drafts of pine ash—your lyric corpus of seed not yet part of our bodies: ruderal hair, s... | [
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"S10"
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"S10-4"
] | [
"Living",
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"Arts & Sciences/Painting & Sculpture"
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7732ca64edc70321 | He Said Turn Here | Dean Young | and then Tony showed us the lake
where he had thrown some of his sadness last summer
and it had dissolved like powder
so he thought maybe the lake could take
some of the radiant, aluminum kind
he had been making lately.
And it did.
It was a perfect lake,
none of the paint had chipped off,
no bolts showing, the... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-2",
"S2-5",
"S2-6"
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"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Summer",
"Nature/Animals",
"Nature/Bodies of Water"
] |
3965be6fd9b6de41 | The Silliest Teacher in School | Darren Sardelli | Our teacher gave detention
to the fountains in the hall.
She handed extra homework
to the artwork on the wall.
We saw her point a finger
at a banner and a sign.
She said their bad behavior
was completely out of line.
The principal approached her
and said, “What is all this fuss?
I heard you tried to punish
a... | [
"S6",
"S9"
] | [
"S6-8",
"S9-6"
] | [
"Living",
"Activities"
] | [
"Living/Youth",
"Activities/Study & Knowledge"
] |
9564024e7fc6d777 | A Red, Red Rose | Robert Burns | O my Luve is like a red, red rose That’s newly sprung in June; O my Luve is like the melody That’s sweetly played in tune. So fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I; And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a’ the seas gang dry. Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt wi’ the... | [
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"Love",
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Love/Classic Love",
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi"
] |
b4d05d97b4848270 | The Red Cadillac | Reginald O'Hare Gibson | Willie “Slick” Williams reads William Carlos Williams, then writes a letter to the producers of the TV makeover show Pimp My Ride, explaining why his car should be featured on the program.
so much depends upon a red cadillac slick with turtle wax beside the white chicks | [
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] |
7e21cda2d030fb1a | Meadowlark West | Philip Lamantia | Choppers in the night husk the brilliants of thought
Beyond the cities of patina grow caves of thought
Coyote Hummingbird Owl are rivers of thought
The lumens the pumpkins dance: pits of correspondence over the land
Birds the dream tongues warble Iroquois Mojavé Ohlone
Market Street of “The Mad Doctor” via the occ... | [
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696a88b0d2bb0f95 | Lectures to Women on Physical Science | James Clerk Maxwell | I.
PLACE. —A small alcove with dark curtains.
The class consists of one member.
SUBJECT.—Thomson’s Mirror Galvanometer. | [
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641ba2d5899735f7 | Chartres | Edith Wharton | I Immense, august, like some Titanic bloom, The mighty choir unfolds its lithic core, Petalled with panes of azure, gules and or, Splendidly lambent in the Gothic gloom, And stamened with keen flamelets that illume The pale high-altar. On the prayer-worn floor, By worshippers innumerous thronged of yore, A ... | [
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"Arts & Sciences/Architecture & Design",
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] |
0c5c53abef3e02d8 | The Human Figure in a Dress | Mary Jo Bang | Naked or not, I’m a costume that moves, figurine with a face that changes. You could call me a mood. I begin cheerful but sometimes turn solemn when confronted with my own mythology (wolf in a cape, cat scratch on a cupboard door, mouse tail in the hand of a bland farmer’s wife, a drop of blood on her shoe). Today’s be... | [
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"S6"
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"S1-1",
"S1-6"
] | [
"Love",
"Living"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Realistic & Complicated"
] |
922e32557e67394f | The Leopard | Lorenzo Thomas | The eyeballs on her behind are like fire
Leaping and annoying
The space they just passed
Just like fire would do
The ground have no mouth to complain
And the girl is not braver herself
She is beautiful in her spotted
Leopard ensemble. Heartless so
To keep her fashionalbe in New York
Leopards are dying
Crude c... | [
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"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S3-1"
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"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
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] |
60603a366d922463 | The End | Dorothea Lasky | Promising myself I would not do this againIs what kept me goingA friend told me toAnd I listenedTaking a thing to the end of its lifeIs what I was made to doI think I am not attunedTo the things that breatheWell that’s not trueI am in tune to breath and lifeAnd little falls of flowersWhen the moon was highI went out ... | [
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"S8"
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"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
230b94cd8d04ab35 | The Robin Hood Estate | S.J. Fowler | 12 foxes thumping; rechristened people.
The Elizabethan Underworld as a precursor to the furnished.
In the year of the calm fox, girls.
The heavyweight watch just to see the mechanics
of victory, that is, as above, a precursor to a tradition, changed into a cartoon.
The furry, soon to be protected from insults, or... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S2-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
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"Nature/Animals"
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411cb33188d62f00 | Johnny One Note | W. S. Di Piero | Bobby Hutcherson in Oakland
The mallet strikes but something's off, and so he hits again, curling that lower lip, purses his brow, as if this sign, this minor woe, were speech the vibes might understand, so when he lifts bluish lids as if wakened to the desired tone that rings now, it seems, it sounds, under wraps, a ... | [
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"S10-3"
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"Social Commentaries",
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"Arts & Sciences/Music"
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cdbb68d951676e1e | To Any Reader | Robert Louis Stevenson | As from the house your mother sees You playing round the garden trees, So you may see, if you will look Through the windows of this book, Another child, far, far away, And in another garden, play. But do not think you can at all, By knocking on the window, call That child to hear you. He intent Is all on his play-busin... | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S10-5",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books"
] |
fd033b8bfe428f52 | Salter's Gate | Anne Stevenson | There, in that lost
corner of the ordnance survey.
Drive through the vanity —
two pubs and a garage — of Satley,
then right, cross the A68
past down-at-heel farms and a quarry,
you can't miss it, a 'T' instead of a 'plus'
where the road meets a wall.
If it's a usual day
there... | [
"S2",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S2-7",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
99ae1955039faa85 | Poplar Street | Chen Chen | Oh. Sorry. Hello. Are you on your way to work, too?I was just taken aback by how you also have a briefcase,also small & brown. I was taken by how you seem, secretly,to love everything. Are you my new coworker? Oh. I see. No.Still, good to meet you. I’m trying out this thing where it’s goodto meet people. Maybe, beyond ... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S3-4",
"S6-5",
"S6-7",
"S8-3",
"S8-5"
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"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Mourning",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
b05355da8733ac4d | Arms and the Boy | Wilfred Owen | Let the boy try along this bayonet-blade How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood; Blue with all malice, like a madman's flash; And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh. Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-leads, Which long to nuzzle in the hearts of lads, Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth Sha... | [
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"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
ad370a92da17ac8c | from By the Well of Living and Seeing, Part III, Section 11: “The house in which we now lived was old” | Charles Reznikoff | The house in which we now lived was old—
dark rooms and low ceilings.
Once our maid, who happened to be Hungarian,
reached her hand up into the cupboard for a dish
and touched a dead rat
that had crawled there to die—poisoned, no doubt.
“Disgusting, disgusting,” she kept saying in German
and, to my amusement, sh... | [
"S3"
] | [] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [] |
b88bde1ed34879d5 | Echo | Christina Rossetti | Come to me in the silence of the night;
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
As sunlight on a stream;
Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years.
Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
Whose wakening should have been in... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-3",
"S1-7"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Heartache & Loss",
"Love/Romantic Love"
] |
083ad0a43c5aa200 | Burlesque | Amaud Jamaul Johnson | Watch the fire undress him,
how flame fingers each button,
rolls back his collar, unzips him
without sweet talk or mystery.
See how the skin begins to gather
at his ankles, how it slips into
the embers, how it shimmers
beneath him, unshapen, iridescent
as candlelight on a dark negligee.
Come, look at him, at a... | [
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"S10"
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"S10-10"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
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"Arts & Sciences/Theater & Dance"
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63cbdee81bd8fbfe | Signs of the Times | Paul Laurence Dunbar | Air a-gittin' cool an' coolah, Frost a-comin' in de night, Hicka' nuts an' wa'nuts fallin', Possum keepin' out o' sight. Tu'key struttin' in de ba'nya'd, Nary step so proud ez his; Keep on struttin', Mistah Tu'key, Yo' do' know whut time it is. Cidah press commence a-squeakin' Eatin' apples sto'ed away, ... | [
"S2",
"S8",
"S10"
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"S2-3",
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"S8-8"
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"Nature",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Nature/Fall",
"Relationships/Home Life",
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals"
] |
efd1f2a09831678f | Kef 21 | Henry Dumas | First there was the earth in my mouth. It was there like a running stream, the July fever sweating the delirium of August, and the green buckling under the sun. The taste of sick dust ran in the currents of saliva which I heaved up and tried to picture when all the people would curse their own stinking guts and die. No... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-2"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Summer"
] |
e652fb7e7ed4cf1d | The Lady of Shalott (1832) | Alfred, Lord Tennyson | Part I On either side the river lie Long fields of barley and of rye, That clothe the wold and meet the sky; And thro' the field the road runs by To many-tower'd Camelot; The yellow-leaved waterlily The green-sheathed daffodilly Tremble in the water chilly Round about Shalott. Willows whiten, aspens shive... | [
"S11"
] | [] | [
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [] |
d546f56919878fc4 | A Poet’s Poem | Brenda Shaughnessy | If it takes me all day,
I will get the word freshened out of this poem.
I put it in the first line, then moved it to the second,
and now it won’t come out.
It’s stuck. I’m so frustrated,
so I went out to my little porch all covered in snow
and watched the icicles drip, as I smoked
a cigarette.
Finally I reached... | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-6"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets"
] |
b6752d7f3980f6fe | Inhibited | Louis Untermeyer | I could not pity your pain but I pitied the branches
Losing what little the frost had left them to hold.
I could not warm you with sorrow; I turned to the sparrows,
Clustered like heavy brown blossoms puffed out by the cold.
They could not help me. I looked at my hands; they were helpless;
Strange and detached, le... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-5"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Mourning"
] |
2b8db768b0ec48fa | The Woman Who Turned Down a Date with a Cherry Farmer | Aimee Nezhukumatathil | Fredonia, NY
Of course I regret it. I mean there I was under umbrellas of fruit
so red they had to be borne of Summer, and no other season.
Flip-flops and fishhooks. Ice cubes made of lemonade and sprigs
of mint to slip in blue glasses of tea. I was dusty, my ponytail
all askew and the tips of my fingers ran, of c... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S2-2"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Nature/Summer"
] |
7f465ee9a3447403 | The Buffalo Coat | Thomas McGrath | I see him moving, in his legendary fleece,
Between the superhighway and an Algonquin stone axe;
Between the wild tribes, in their lost heat,
And the dark blizzard of my Grandfather’s coat;
Cold with the outdoor cold caught in the curls,
Smelling of the world before the poll tax.
And between the new macadam and th... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4",
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"S7"
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"S2-5",
"S4-1"
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"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"History & Politics/Money & Economics"
] |
1c5e9c6601f02d8e | Want | Gretchen Marquette | When I was twelve, I wanted a macaw
but they cost hundreds of dollars. If we win the lottery? I asked.
Macaws weren’t known to be great talkers,
but they were affectionate.
Yes, my mother said. If we win the lottery.
I was satisfied, so long as it wasn’t impossible.
The macaw would be blue. | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S6-8"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Living/Youth"
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136809932081e330 | Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg | William Wordsworth | When first, descending from the moorlands,
I saw the Stream of Yarrow glide
Along a bare and open valley,
The Ettrick Shepherd was my guide.
When last along its banks I wandered,
Through groves that had begun to shed
Their golden leaves upon the pathways,
My steps the Border-minstrel led.
The mighty Minstrel breathes n... | [
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"S6"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
c0812ee41668e9c9 | Teresa the Idiot | Cecilia Vicuña | In reality my lovesare the strange box of a Polish dollThe blonde’s eyes appearingfixed to her hips long after midnightthe garret always singular to loosena massive mane across her back, its strandsthick and fine drapingher otter-like chinDeliberately she’d peer out from the wall and nothing could be seen but the shado... | [
"S1",
"S6"
] | [
"S1-1"
] | [
"Love",
"Living"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love"
] |
e28b6996b7a1c4cf | “No one cares less than I” [Bugle Call] | Edward Thomas | “No one cares less than I, Nobody knows but God, Whether I am destined to lie Under a foreign clod,” Were the words I made to the bugle call in the morning. But laughing, storming, scorning, Only the bugles know What the bugles say in the morning, And they do not care, when they blow The call that I heard and made wo... | [
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"S5-3",
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"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Religion/Faith & Doubt"
] |
b3ecfe2f47e8ad43 | The Rule of Three | Kathy Fagan | One of the first I learned was the trinity, three persons in one
God: father, son, and holy spirit, née ghost. Then I started writing
JMJ on all my homework and tests, for good luck, but also because
My ballpoint’s blue ink looked pretty beside the paper’s purple
Ink, like the inside of a clamshell when I teared up... | [
"S5",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S5-2",
"S6-4",
"S6-8",
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"Religion/Christianity",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Youth",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
8ecfcec251e018b0 | Migrant Serenade | Khaled Mattawa | We come to the city; we embrace the pantheon,
but they dream of their one and only god.
They want to be villagers again.
Just when you began to distinguish
the sound of your history from its echo,
they want to be villagers again.
You must not kill their sacred animal;
you must give up your taboo for theirs
for ... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
58021a8b7fe19c4f | Walking with My Father | Linda Hogan | In the dark evening, my father and I
walk down the road to the old house
where my grandmother lived,
and we see through the door an old woman's feet
lifted up, tired, on a footstool,
still in her thick stockings,
the feet with legs and stockings
looking just like Grandma's
after bearing nine children who lived,... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S8-3"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
7e933edb0a4035e0 | February | Margaret Atwood | Winter. Time to eat fat
and watch hockey. In the pewter mornings, the cat,
a black fur sausage with yellow
Houdini eyes, jumps up on the bed and tries
to get onto my head. It’s his
way of telling whether or not I’m dead.
If I’m not, he wants to be scratched; if I am
He’ll think of something. He settles
on my ch... | [
"S2",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-4",
"S8-8",
"S9-3",
"S9-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Winter",
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals",
"Activities/Indoor Activities",
"Activities/Sports & Outdoor Activities"
] |
37e0a31e7490630e | Preparation | Ellen Bryant Voigt | The Bone-man lives in a stucco
house. He ticks his heels
on the cold terrazzo floor.
He parks his ragtruck
in the yard, instructs his crew
on the white telephone.
I am training my dog
to attack the red-capped hunter
bearing his long package.
I am training the tethered jay
to cry out against
the killer who cr... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S8-5",
"S8-8"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Home Life",
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals"
] |
8458a2fa7dd4d649 | The Day | Geoffrey Brock | It hangs on its stem like a plumat the edge of a darkening thicket.It’s swelling and blushing and ripeand I reach out a hand to pick itbut flesh moves slow through timeand evening comes on fastand just when I think my fin... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S2-8",
"S6-1"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Living/Aging"
] |
cf9c9f0d3133fd28 | Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest | B. H. Fairchild | In his fifth year the son, deep in the backseat
of his father’s Ford and the mysterium
of time, holds time in memory with words,night, this night, on the way to a stalled rig south
of Kiowa Creek where the plains wind stacks
the skeletons of weeds on barbed-wire fences
and rattles the battered DeKalb sign to make
... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S6-3",
"S9-7",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
1a4fad40eb06f225 | Branch Library | Edward Hirsch | I wish I could find that skinny, long-beaked boy who perched in the branches of the old branch library. He spent the Sabbath flying between the wobbly stacks and the flimsy wooden tables on the second floor, pecking at nuts, nesting in broken spines, scratching notes under his own corner patch of sky. I'd give anythi... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S9-3",
"S9-6",
"S10-5",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Activities/Indoor Activities",
"Activities/Study & Knowledge"
] |
99475ca8ec79e47a | Alone, Drinking with the Tickfaw River | Alison Pelegrin | Featherweight lawn chair, cooler for a footrest,
and me a squatter on the landlord's dock
where baitstealers teased a thousand times a day
until rowdy boats and summer scared them deep.
Day and night I snoozed on the porch
beneath a filthy orbit of fanblades
to the opera of my neighbors fighting
and reconciling in the ... | [
"S2",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S9-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Activities/Sports & Outdoor Activities"
] |
6c731878a991fcfc | The Magus | C. Dale Young | The pearls, mere reminders.
The ocean’s rapid recoil, a signal.
The gulls appeared enormous
in that way only things from above can—
such is presentation of the sudden.
If only this were worthy of a frame,
the wooden gesture announcing
a moment past were cherished.
But it was too late for that, too late
to answ... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
803c5ad9b9968edd | Silent, Silent Night | William Blake | Silent Silent Night Quench the holy light Of thy torches bright For possessd of Day Thousand spirits stray That sweet joys betray Why should joys be sweet Used with deceit Nor with sorrows meet But an honest joy Does itself destroy For a harlot coy | [
"S2",
"S5"
] | [
"S2-9"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion"
] | [
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space"
] |
312bf8f632c84fd9 | You Are the Penultimate Love of My Life | Rebecca Hazelton | I want to spend a lot but not all of my years with you.
We’ll talk about kids
but make plans to travel.
I will remember your eyes
as green when they were gray.
Our dogs will be named For Now and Mostly.
Sex will be good but next door’s wil... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S1-6",
"S3-4",
"S8-1",
"S8-5",
"S8-7"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Relationships/Breakups & Separation",
"Relationships/Home Life",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
b23126352146ba1b | Sonnet 9: On Returning to the Front after Leave | Alan Seeger | Apart sweet women (for whom Heaven be blessed),Comrades, you cannot think how thin and blue | [
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S3-11",
"S8-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Relationships/Friendship"
] |
b3a837008e1f4788 | Agape | Timothy Murphy | The night you died, I dreamed you came to campto hear confession from an Eagle Scouttortured by forty years of sin and doubt.You whispered vespers by a hissing lamp.Handlers, allowing you to hike with me,followed us to the Bad Axe waterfrontdown a firebreak this camper used to hunt.Through all I said you suffered silent... | [
"S5"
] | [
"S5-2",
"S5-3"
] | [
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/Christianity",
"Religion/Faith & Doubt"
] |
74b7cade337fbe1e | Turkey Buzzards | Paul Muldoon | They've been so long above it all,
those two petals
so steeped in style they seem to stall
in the kettle
simmering over the town dump
or, better still,
the neon-flashed, X-rated rump
of fresh roadkill
courtesy of the interstate
that Eisenhower
would overtake in the... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-5"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Animals"
] |
4511de057f44de23 | Piano | D. H. Lawrence | Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me; Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings. In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song Betrays me back, till the hear... | [
"S6",
"S7",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-5",
"S10-3",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
e728095406bffff3 | The Old Man's Complaints. And how he gained them | Robert Southey | You are old, Father William, the young man cried, The few locks which are left you are grey;You are hale, Father William, a hearty old man, Now tell me the reason I pray.In the days of my youth, Father William replied, I remember'd that youth would fly fast,And abused not my health and my vigour at first Th... | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Living/Aging"
] |
434612a907a4380b | Parmi beaucoup de poèmes / Among Many Poems | Jacques Roubaud | Parmi beaucoup de poèmes
Il y en avait un
Dont je ne parvenais pas à me souvenir
Sinon que je l'avais composé
Autrefois
En descendant cette rue
Du côté des numéros pairs de cette rue
Baignée d'une matinée limpide
Une rue de petites boutiques persistantes
Entre la Seine sinistrée et l'hôpital
Un poème écrit avec mes pie... | [
"S3",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life"
] |
4c3d287bb2e340b8 | Chinese Silence No. 92 | Timothy Yu | After “Exile’s Letter” by Ezra Pound
To Tom S. of Missouri, possum friend, clerk at Lloyd’s.Now I remember that you rang a silent bellBy the foot of the bridge at the River “Thames.”With dull roots and dried tubers, you wrote poems and lamentsAnd grew more English month on month, bowing to kings and princes.Americans ... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S7",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S6-6",
"S9-7",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Living/Health & Illness",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
283e41b7ca96d3f3 | Psalm 102 | Mary Sidney Herbert Countess of Pembroke | O Lord, my praying hear; Lord, let my cry come to thine ear. Hide not thy face away, But haste, and answer me, In this my most, most miserable day, Wherein I pray and cry to thee. My days as smoke are past; My bones as flaming fuel waste, Mown down in me, ala... | [
"S5"
] | [
"S5-2",
"S5-4"
] | [
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/Christianity",
"Religion/God & the Divine"
] |
351358014c9c14ce | To Mistress Margaret Hussey | John Skelton | Merry Margaret,
As midsummer flower,
Gentle as a falcon
Or hawk of the tower:
With solace and gladness,
Much mirth and no madness,
All good and no badness;
So joyously,
So maidenly,
So womanly
Her demeaning
In every thing,
Far, far passing
That I can indit... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-6"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated"
] |
f402ae20c2130c77 | Sometimes with One I Love | Walt Whitman | Sometimes with one I love I fill myself with rage for fear I effuse unreturn’d love,
But now I think there is no unreturn’d love, the pay is certain one way or another
(I loved a certain person ardently and my love was not return’d,
Yet out of that I have written these songs). | [
"S1",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-9",
"S8-1"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Unrequited Love",
"Relationships/Breakups & Separation"
] |
9e3e71d697dd00a1 | Sonnet 109: O! never say that I was false of heart | William Shakespeare | O! never say that I was false of heart, Though absence seemed my flame to qualify. As easy might I from myself depart As from my soul, which in thy breast doth lie: That is my home of love; if I have ranged, Like him that travels, I return again, Just to the time, not with the time exchanged, So that myself bring water... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-7",
"S1-8"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Love/Classic Love"
] |
9e69a629bd052a49 | On the Funeral of Charles the First at Night, in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor | William Lisle Bowles | The castle clock had tolled midnight:
With mattock and with spade,
And silent, by the torches’ light,
His corse in earth we laid.
The coffin bore his name, that those
Of other years might know,
When earth its secrets should disclose,
Whose bones were laid below.
“Peace to the dead” no children sung,... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S11"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S6-5",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
9f28cfe381feac78 | Each and All | Ralph Waldo Emerson | Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown,
Of thee from the hill-top looking down;
The heifer that lows in the upland farm,
Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm;
The sexton, tolling his bell at noon,
Deems not that great Napoleon
Stops his horse, and lists with delight,
Whilst his files sweep round yon Alpin... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S2-6",
"S2-7",
"S2-8"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi"
] |
5d8dc65cf214cffe | A Wasp Woman Visits a Black Junkie in Prison | Etheridge Knight | After explanations and regulations, he
Walked warily in.
Black hair covered his chin, subscribing to
Villainous ideal.
“This can not be real,” he thought, “this is a
Classical mistake;
This is a cake baked with embarrassing icing;
Somebody’s got
Likely as not, a big fat tongue in cheek!
What have I to do
With... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S3-6",
"S3-8"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
7a2df3d33567924e | Mine | Lilian Moore | I made a sand castle.
In rolled the sea.
"All sand castles
belong to me—
to me,"
said the sea.
I dug sand tunnels.
In flowed the sea.
"All sand tunnels
belong to me—
to me,"
said the sea.
I saw my sand pail floating free.
I ran and sna... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-2",
"S2-7"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Summer",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
] |
ac3b1e1af73e1485 | Transatlantic | Joseph Brodsky | The last twenty years were good for practically everybody
save the dead. But maybe for them as well.
Maybe the Almighty Himself has turned a bit bourgeois
and uses a credit card. For otherwise time’s passage
makes no sense. Hence memories, recollections,
values, deportment. One hopes one hasn’t
spent one’s mother... | [
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S6-4",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
4e0eb9efec6a88dc | Inkamisana | Cecilia Vicuña | Stairs & rites
not for the foot
The building
thinks
Angular rock
Green skyscraper
Black ziggurat
Miniature
of time
Made
into altar
Invention
of the night
Sprouting
at dawn
Carved rock
praying
as it buds
Seeking the seed
to sprout!
Saliva
in torrents
Cooling waterfall
You redeem your field
Salt h... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-8",
"S10-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Architecture & Design",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
6d5836b557ba39ce | Nightmare Begins Responsibility | Michael S. Harper | I place these numbed wrists to the pane
watching white uniforms whisk over
him in the tube-kept
prison
fear what they will do in experiment
watch my gloved stickshifting gasolined hands
breathe boxcar-information-please infirmary tubes
distrusting white-pink mending paperthin
silkened end hairs, distrusting tub... | [
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-6",
"S3-8",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
594ba49a8656429e | The Triple Fool | John Donne | I am two fools, I know, For loving, and for saying so In whining poetry; But where's that wiseman, that would not be I, If she would not deny? Then as th' earth's inward narrow crooked lanes Do purge sea water's fretful salt away, I thought, if I could draw my pains Through rhyme's vex... | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-5",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
881728b57d2775f1 | Old Mama Saturday | Marie Ponsot | “Saturday’s child must work for a living.”
“I’m moving from Grief Street.Taxes are high herethough the mortgage’s cheap.The house is well built.With stuff to protect, thatmattered to me,the security.These things that I mind,you know, aren’t mine.I mind minding them.They weigh on my mind.I don’t mind them well.I haven... | [
"S3",
"S6"
] | [
"S3-2"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor"
] |
a0bcf0c4b1421ac9 | The Crow | Kaelum Poulson | So beautiful but often unseen a maid of nature the street cleaner that’s everywhere never thanked never liked always ignored so elegant in a way no one sees but without it we would be in trash up to our knees with the heart of a lion the mind of a fox the color of the night sky a crow the unpaid workman ... | [
"S2",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S8-8"
] | [
"Nature",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals"
] |
7a02375907d0ea61 | View from an Aeron Chair | Mónica de la Torre | A half-view of greenery, cut off by blinds.
Pinecones hanging in pairs, like testicles.
Brain balls, someone once said at a pool.
We were in it, looking up at a guy getting out.
This angle replicates that one, but the view
is more animated, less peopled.
The sky’s changeups are reminders
that this will not drag ... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S3-2",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
c112014e840ad2ec | The Letter Scale | Jacques Réda | One of the objects I've treasured most in my life
Is this letter scale which, long ago, you gave me.
I was an active correspondent at the time,
Even sending lots of letters overseas.
While still enjoying the pleasure of going to the post,
I now had another: assessing exactly, in advance,
At my counter, the cost of pack... | [
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S8-4"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Relationships/Friendship"
] |
e61a770ee25e3d8e | scent of orange blossoms: haiku/senryu | Teresa Mei Chuc | this morning
weaving Chi in the garden
invisible ball in my hand
*
Halong Bay
battle distant memory
smoke from Gulf of Tonkin
*
did the atom
ever know its destiny
how our hands create?
A student asked me,
“Why do your people
believe in dragons?”
*
river birch –
undressing
in the wind
*
the solid bone... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S2-6",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
b05d0be054eaef8d | The Hosts | Alan Seeger | Purged, with the life they left, of allThat makes life paltry and mean and small,In their new dedication chargedWith something heightened, enriched, enlarged,That lends a light to their lusty browsAnd a song to the rhythm of their trampling feet,These are the men that have taken vows,These are the hardy, the flower, th... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
e01353c7a56266c9 | Dead Men Walking | William Logan | What did they desire, the dead who had returned?
The sons who had inherited their estates
pretended not to know them. The iron gates
were welded shut, but soon the dead had learned
to hire lawyers practiced in the laws
that bound the afterlife to lesser gods.
The angels thundered on like piston rods,
denying the... | [
"S5",
"S6"
] | [
"S5-2",
"S5-4",
"S5-8",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Religion",
"Living"
] | [
"Religion/Christianity",
"Religion/God & the Divine",
"Religion/The Spiritual",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
6053fc10ca5d2a2b | Seven Spell | Reb Livingston | conjured in a closet;
seven minutes in a delusive boon
deep breaths shallow,
ankles stretched, entwined
ribs padded with throbs,
bells and trance
it never ended and then
it ended
the spell distant,
retrospect, precious
the doorways, hall-
ways, the fleeting pitter
patters gaze
up a long flight of stairs
s... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [] |
b8af0b41dc8a454b | The Jewish Cemetery at Newport | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | How strange it seems! These Hebrews in their graves, Close by the street of this fair seaport town, Silent beside the never-silent waves, At rest in all this moving up and down! The trees are white with dust, that o'er their sleep Wave their broad curtains in the south-wind's breath, While underneath ... | [
"S2",
"S5",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S5-6",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Religion/Judaism",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
3e0142a8615c1155 | The Convert | G. K. Chesterton | After one moment when I bowed my head
And the whole world turned over and came upright,
And I came out where the old road shone white.
I walked the ways and heard what all men said,
Forests of tongues, like autumn leaves unshed,
Being not unlovable but strange and light;
Old riddles and new creeds, not in despite... | [
"S5"
] | [
"S5-2",
"S5-3"
] | [
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/Christianity",
"Religion/Faith & Doubt"
] |
fd0ff777aedcd13d | More Blues and the Abstract Truth | C. D. Wright | I back the car over a soft, large object;
hair appears on my chest in dreams.
The paperboy comes to collect
with a pit bull. Call Grandmother
and she says, Well you know
death is death and none other.
In the mornings we’re in the dark;
even at the end of June
the zucchini keep on the sill.
Ring Grandmother for... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-6",
"S8-3",
"S10-3"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Living/Health & Illness",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
eb2cd1e4f28eadfc | Squaring the Circle | Philip Fried | It’s a little-known fact that God’s headgear — A magician’s collapsible silk top hat,When viewed from Earth, from the bottom up — Is, sub specie aeternitatis,A pluperfect halo, both circle and square,And a premonition of this truthSpurred on an ancient philosopher,Anaxagoras, to make numerous vainAttempts to approximat... | [
"S5",
"S10"
] | [
"S5-4",
"S10-9"
] | [
"Religion",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Sciences",
"Religion/God & the Divine"
] |
f3676872de0487a4 | Philosophies | Dorothea Lasky | The man who murders his wife
Is not the same as the man
Who goes around and murders a stranger.
I am a woman but I am not
The same as another woman.
Identity politics are bullshit.
There is only the smart and the evil,
The good and the righteous.
There is only one color on the earth.
In its infinite degradatio... | [
"S5",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S5-3",
"S5-4",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Religion",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Religion/Faith & Doubt",
"Religion/God & the Divine"
] |
4e4f982fef470019 | De Linin’ ub De Hymns | Daniel Webster Davis | Dare a mighty row in Zion an’ de debbil’s gittin’ high, An’ de saints done beat de sinners, a-cussin’ on de sly; What for it am? you reckon, well, I’ll tell you how it ’gin Twuz ’bout a mighty leetle thing, de linin’ ub de hymns. De young folks say taint stylish to lin’ out no mo’, Dat dey’s got edikashun, an’ dey want... | [
"S3",
"S5",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S5-2",
"S10-3"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Religion",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Religion/Christianity"
] |
aabdc90235bbf392 | What Length of Verse? | Sir Philip Sidney | What length of verse can serve brave Mopsa’s good to show,
Whose virtues strange, and beauties such, as no man them may know?
Thus shrewdly burden, then, how can my Muse escape?
The gods must help, and precious things must serve to show her shape.
Like great god Saturn, fair, and like fair Venus, chaste;
As smooth as P... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-4",
"S1-7"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Love/Romantic Love"
] |
af296b56b9b72f21 | Love Letters | Juliet Kono | Many months have passed
since the diagnosis,
and you’re still grieving for her.
She’s not dead yet.
But she’s lost, like a child is lost—
her mind the ocean floor,
where she kicks up sand
and churns in the water.
Al, we call it, or AD—
never by its real name
as if mentioning the word would bring bad luck—
th... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S6-6"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Living/Health & Illness"
] |
88788ff3a64d0018 | Walking the Dunes | Brenda Hillman | In movies when the hero is about to die,
He scatters a few phrases in a place like this,
Hoping the words will come up again
Immortal, or the grasses will reach out for him
As now they do for us.
Someone has planted a row of little trees
To stop the wind. Instead they’ve learned
To bend like the elect
In one di... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-6"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water"
] |
13270001e180f2cb | Empress Dowager Boogies | Tina Chang | Last night I found my face below
the water in my cupped hands.
The mask made of copper and bone
criss-crossing to make a smirk,
a false glamour, a plated glaze.
I unwound myself from the heavy
machinery of my body's burden.
The lute, the light, chime.
I'll get up and partner myself
with music, the purple moon
... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S3-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
0de40eb3b208eb39 | A Dent in a Bucket | Gary Snyder | Hammering a dent out of a bucket
a woodpecker
answers from the woods | [
"S2",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
5cb786d100ce1680 | From “Beautiful Boyfriend” | Marilyn Chin | For Don (1958–2011)
My skiff is made of spicewood my oars are Cassia bractMusic flows from bow to starboard Early Mozart cool side of Coltrane and miles and miles of Miles Cheap Californian Merlot and my young boyfriend • If I could master the nine doors of my bodyAnd close my hear... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S6"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-3",
"S3-1",
"S3-8",
"S6-4",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Heartache & Loss",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
6b592dda161d9c61 | Frank O'Hara | Ted Berrigan | Winter in the country, Southampton, pale horse
as the soot rises, then settles, over the pictures
The birds that were singing this morning have shut up
I thought I saw a couple kissing, but Larry said no
It’s a strange bird. He should know. & I think now
“Grandmother divided by monkey equals outer space.” Ron
put... | [
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S8-4",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Relationships/Friendship"
] |
65bbd6c23014ca90 | Post-Traumatic Rainstorm | Lisa Gill | Cinder blocks ripple. A hard lot is suddenly glammed up
by an illusion. Cats will slip under chain-link and lap this
dirty pool. I want to go there, be gone there, be anything
liquid or even topped with barbed tape. But the sky is swept
away and I am stuck in a parked car, all limbs attached
to the idea of being h... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S2-10",
"S6-6"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Nature/Weather",
"Living/Health & Illness"
] |
9654f244c8f24f32 | The Rose Tree | William Butler Yeats | 'O words are lightly spoken,' Said Pearse to Connolly, 'Maybe a breath of politic words Has withered our Rose Tree; Or maybe but a wind that blows Across the bitter sea.' 'It needs to be but watered,' James Connolly replied, 'To make the green come out again And spread on every side, And shake the blossom from the bud ... | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
4040827bfaca7e65 | To Go to Lvov | Adam Zagajewski | To go to Lvov. Which station
for Lvov, if not in a dream, at dawn, when dew
gleams on a suitcase, when express
trains and bullet trains are being born. To leave
in haste for Lvov, night or day, in September
or in March. But only if Lvov exists,
if it is to be found within the frontiers and not just
in my new pas... | [
"S9"
] | [
"S9-7"
] | [
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
4214aa0af7ee6837 | Forecast | Josephine Miles | All our stones like as much sun as possible.
Along their joints run both solar access and decline
In equal splendor, like a mica chipping
At every beat, being sun responsible.
How much sun then do you think is due them?
Or should say, how much sun do you think they are apt to have?
It has misted at their roots fo... | [
"S2",
"S7"
] | [
"S2-10"
] | [
"Nature",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Nature/Weather"
] |
5022944690d8f8c6 | Perihan | Sara Deniz Akant | it doesn’t matter when I cross.
two seconds and they’re gone.
the ferry facing Ulus. the trees
that spanked of green. the narrow
bags of temples. beyond that –
just – these Peri scenes
when the human body sweats the skin produce an oil
when Peri bodies sweat it does... | [
"S8",
"S10",
"S11"
] | [
"S8-3",
"S10-2",
"S11-1"
] | [
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
"Mythology & Folklore/Fairy-tales & Legends",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
69a1efdd93d30713 | Gatekeepers | Juan Delgado | 1.
A crow gliding over a ravine was
The sign his eyes were waiting for.
They thought they were ready to cross.
The tumbleweed listening to a cricket
And seeing a line of ants snaking in
Was the figure of his younger sister,
Huddled by him, asking for a campfire.
They made it as far as a roadside store
And held... | [
"S5",
"S8"
] | [
"S5-4",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Religion",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Religion/God & the Divine",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
684f217b39d9ad59 | Little Ice Age | Kathy Nilsson | I have one good memory—a total Eclipse of the sun—when out of brilliance Dusk came swiftly and on the whole At seven years it felt good on a summer afternoon To be outrun by a horse from another century—The next morning I washed up On land like a pod of seals Struck with a longing for dark at noon—If the cessation of f... | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-3",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Living/Coming of Age"
] |
2f02aac8bc95f5f5 | From a Bridge | David St. John | I saw my mother standing there below meOn the narrow bank just looking out over the riverLooking at something just beyond the taut middle rope Of the braided swirling currentsThen she looked up quite suddenly to the far bankWhere the densely twined limbs of the cypressTwisted violently toward the storm-struck skyThere ... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-5",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Mourning",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
d1ea730da9c57197 | On Teaching My Son How to Mourn | Khaty Xiong | I tell him to touch his toes. He reaches for them in a squat.
He stabs them with his little fingers. One toe. Two toes.
Then we say our letters, spell out all the sounds we will deliverbecause the death of a child is no small death.
I extend to him an open palm where he makes a fist
and slams it into my hand, a for... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S6-5",
"S6-7",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
21032c6f485511f7 | Double Rainbow | Ravi Shankar | Speeding, without destination, after dark
torrents have poured & been returned
at home, the skies above mirror my mood,
windshield wipers knifing through sheets,
back roads slick with pooling, when a shard
of cloudlessness opens. Pulling over, cutting
the ignition, I unstitch myself from the humid
seat, still fu... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-10"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Weather"
] |
9e185cd2cbd1ea24 | from Pamphilia to Amphilanthus: 7 | Lady Mary Wroth | Love leave to urge, thou know’st thou hast the hand; ’T’is cowardise, to strive wher none resist: Pray thee leave off, I yeeld unto thy band; Doe nott thus, still, in thine owne powre persist,Beehold I yeeld: lett forces bee dismist; I ame thy subject, conquer’d, bound to stand, Never thy foe, butt did t... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-6",
"S3-4"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
3c860f2a4e3253f2 | Fortune | Charlie Smith | At a small monastery—or what had been
a monastery—outside Obrégon, we stopped;
you were suffering the hollow nausea of your first
pregnancy, sleeping as best you could
through the thousand miles of pines
and rocky fields of northern Mexico, so I went ahead
through the saddle-colored rooms, past
the broken church... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S6-7",
"S8-3",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
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