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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
84a5a50f6db742bc | In Black | Joyce Sutphen | The image that haunts me is not beautiful.
I do not think it will open into a field
of wildflowers; I doubt that it will take
wing suddenly, startling us into admiration.
It is one of those brutish facts of life,
the awkward nakedness of the memory when
it takes off its clothes and crawls
between the top and bot... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S6-5",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
cc6308f80254b9ed | from Deaf Republic: 14 | Ilya Kaminsky | Each man has a quiet that revolvesaround him as he beats his head against the earth. But I am laughinghard and furious. I pour a glass of pepper vodkaand toast the gray wall. I say we werenever silent. We read each other’s lips and saidone word four times. And laughed four timesin loving repetition. We read each other’... | [
"S5",
"S6",
"S7",
"S9"
] | [
"S5-8",
"S9-1"
] | [
"Religion",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Activities"
] | [
"Religion/The Spiritual",
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
e56ae9476140b8c9 | Repetition | Kay Ryan | Trying to walk the same way to the same store takes high-wire balance: each step not exactly as before risks chasms of flatness. One stumble alone and nothing happens. Few are the willing and fewer the champions. | [
"S3",
"S9"
] | [
"S9-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
5faa10bc3d6422bc | Pillow | Jana Prikryl | How solitary
and resolute you look in the morning.
A stoic in your cotton sleeve.
Do you dream of walking out
rain or shine
a truffle balanced on your sternum
and passing me on the sidewalk?
Or is that a smile
because you interpret nothing
and statelessness is where you live?
How calmly you indulge my moods.
... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-6"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated"
] |
f5179e4f5dd72f98 | The River on Our Face | Emmy Pérez | With el río grande~bravo
in our face
This river
at its mouth
at its source
With you at its source
its sources
With you at the snow
the evergreens
The million earth holes
of water emerging
em... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S2-6"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water"
] |
33db24908b6e65a3 | An Anatomy of the World | John Donne | (excerpt) AN ANATOMY OF THE WORLD Wherein, by occasion of the untimely death of Mistress Elizabeth Drury, the frailty and the decay of this whole world is represented THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY
When that rich soul which to her heaven is gone, Whom all do celebrate, who know they have one (For who is sure he hath a soul, u... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S5",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S3-11",
"S5-2",
"S5-3",
"S5-4",
"S6-4",
"S6-5",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Religion",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Religion/Christianity",
"Religion/Faith & Doubt",
"Religion/God & the Divine",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
9603198f8c8fcf7f | Robinson Walks Museum Mile | Kathleen Rooney | the ideal city building itself in his brain.
Is this mile magnificent? He’s lived here
a while, but the mile feels unreal. Robinson’s
training himself to act blasé. Do museums
amuse me? Yes, but not today. Would he
like to be in one? Of course. Why not?
An object of value with canvas wings,
an unchanging face in... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S10-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Painting & Sculpture",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life"
] |
720c0054eb66c308 | The Pilgrims | Algernon Charles Swinburne | Who is your lady of love, O ye that pass Singing? and is it for sorrow of that which was That ye sing sadly, or dream of what shall be? For gladly at once and sadly it seems ye sing. — Our lady of love by you is unbeholden; For hands she hath none, nor eyes, nor lips, nor golden Treasure of... | [
"S5",
"S9"
] | [
"S5-2",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Religion",
"Activities"
] | [
"Religion/Christianity",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
6d26b6f17ce6d5df | 4th | Gillian Conoley | of July
bagpipes big mad Hitchcockian crows
siren families striding hurrying
want a whole lot of love sings the Joplin
mimic white birch willow swings pollen
... | [
"S3",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-7",
"S10-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Photography & Film",
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture"
] |
7ef4f48657fb15cb | Color in American History: An Essay | Tom Disch | Did they enjoy this, those honorary ancestors
Of ours, whom we may not speak of as Indians now,
But, rather, as Native Americans? Did they, that is,
Have the opportunity to take in such views?
For there were no roads then, slicing through
The hills, opening vistas like this. Astonishing!
Unless, perhaps, they were upon... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S2-3",
"S2-6",
"S2-7",
"S3-8"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Nature/Fall",
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
025bc57c56e5d5c9 | Derecho Ghazal | Luisa A. Igloria | And the high winds bore down, and the sky
built up that grey wall: derecho.
The taverns by the sea closed their shutters,
and the stands selling battered fries, derecho.
On the boardwalk, pieces of salt-water taffy, half-
eaten funnel cakes oozing grease and cream: derecho.
And the people on every highway, panick... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-10"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Weather"
] |
14a9c5566b18d5f8 | Knell | Atsuro Riley | We low on daddies hereabouts
The fathers all but gone
Our lack a weight
a shape a drybone lake
By war by
drink by
gun by
drift
The father’s all but gone. | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-3",
"S6-5",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Living/Mourning",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
f8b7b777aa82b188 | Letter 7 | Michael Palmer | But the buried walls and our mouths of fragments,no us but the snow staring at us . . .
And you Mr. Ground-of_what, Mr. Text, Mr. Is-Was,
can you calculate the ratio between wire and window,
between tone and row, copula and carnival
and can you reassemble light from the future-past
in its parabolic nest
or recite... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S10-2"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics"
] |
f15e3ceb3da79bd5 | To the Skylark | William Wordsworth | Ethereal minstrel! pilgrim of the sky!
Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound?
Or, while the wings aspire, are heart and eye
Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground?
Thy nest which thou canst drop into at will,
Those quivering wings composed, that music still!
Leave to the nightingale her shady wood;
A p... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-5"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Animals"
] |
687c63e4c3011985 | Mutation | William Cullen Bryant | They talk of short-lived pleasure–be it so– Pain dies as quickly: stern, hard-featured pain Expires, and lets her weary prisoner go. The fiercest agonies have shortest reign; And after dreams of horror, comes again The welcome morning with its rays of peace. Oblivion, softly wiping out the stain,Makes the stron... | [
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S6-1"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Living/Aging"
] |
6a6e1ebca2bb5cbb | For Adam | Michael Hofmann | In that aftertime I wasn't writing. I never wrote, I didn't know what the aftertime was for. I felt little, collected nothing. I talked to myself, but it was boring. | [
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-5",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
0390a14cb9827553 | Sonnet 144: Two loves I have of comfort and despair | William Shakespeare | Two loves I have of comfort and despair, Which like two spirits do suggest me still The better angel is a man right fair, The worser spirit a woman coloured ill. To win me soon to hell, my female evil Tempteth my better angel from my side, And would corrupt my saint to be a devil, Wooing his purity with her foul pride.... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-6"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated"
] |
8cb1b9aaff0508ec | Deliberate | Amy Uyematsu | So by sixteen we move in packs
learn to strut and slide
in deliberate lowdown rhythm
talk in a syn/co/pa/ted beat
because we want so bad
to be cool, never to be mistaken
for white, even when we leave
these rowdier L.A. streets—
remember how we paint our eyes
like gangsters
flash our legs in nylons
sassy blac... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-8",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
d9893e28f6c8d1dc | Song: “When daisies pied and violets blue” | William Shakespeare | (from Love's Labors Lost)
When daisies pied and violets blue And lady-smocks all silver-white And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue Do paint the meadows with delight, The cuckoo then, on every tree, Mocks married men; for thus sings he: “Cuckoo; Cuckoo, cuckoo!” ... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-1",
"S2-4",
"S8-7"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Spring",
"Nature/Winter",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
82e015c287270f02 | Paralysis | Peter Boyle | Laid out flat
in the back of the station wagon my father borrowed
I look up:
the leaves are immense,
green and golden with clear summer light
breaking through –
though I turn only my neck
I can see all of them
along this avenue that has no limits.
What does it matter
that I am only eyes
if I am to be carried... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [] |
88fedf8ea75c8562 | To Luck | W. S. Merwin | In the cards and at the bend in the road we never saw you in the womb and in the crossfire in the numbers whatever you had your hand in which was everything we were told never to put our faith in you to bow to you humbly after all because in the end there was nothing else we could do but not to believe in yo... | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-5"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy"
] |
e205375ac82b9a99 | Brock | Paul Muldoon | Small wonder
he’s not been sighted all winter;
this old brock’s
been to Normandy and back
through the tunnels and trenches
of his subconscious.
His father fell victim
to mustard-gas at the Somme;
one of his sons lost a paw
to a gin-trap at Lisbellaw:
another drills
on the Antrim hills’
still-molten lava
in... | [
"S8"
] | [
"S8-3"
] | [
"Relationships"
] | [
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
1f2b8bdf6ed09499 | Monaco | Spencer Reece | For Michael Williams
Monaco was clean, with small clean streets. There was not much in the way of a shore. There was hardly any place to go. One clipped, well-behaved London plane tree, not welcoming like most ordinary trees, was kept apart by a white spear-tipped fence, and had a somewhat diffident sense of nobles... | [
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S3-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
113da1e8a8f30097 | The Way to Keep Going in Antarctica | Bernadette Mayer | Be strong Bernadette
Nobody will ever know
I came here for a reason
Perhaps there is a life here
Of not being afraid of your own heart beating
Do not be afraid of your own heart beating
Look at very small things with your eyes
& stay warm
Nothing outside can cure you but everything's outside
There is great sha... | [
"S6",
"S9"
] | [
"S6-3",
"S9-6",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Living",
"Activities"
] | [
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Activities/Study & Knowledge",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
b078134bdcbcf27b | Helping My Daughter Move into Her First Apartment | Sue Ellen Thompson | This is all I am to her now: a pair of legs in running shoes, two arms strung with braided wire. She heaves a carton sagging with CDs at me and I accept it gladly, lifting with my legs, not bending over, raising each foot high enough to clear the step. Fortunate to be of any use to her at all, I wrestle, stooped... | [
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S6-7"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Living/Parenthood"
] |
1c737ff8f41ff353 | Toussaint L’Ouverture | Henrietta Cordelia Ray | To those fair isles where crimson sunsets burn, We send a backward glance to gaze on thee, Brave Toussaint! thou was surely born to be A hero; thy proud spirit could but spurn Each outrage on the race. Couldst thou unlearn The lessons taught by instinct? Nay! and we Who share the zeal that would make all men free, Mus... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S11"
] | [
"S3-8",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
869d1104c7089ad4 | Long Nights | Jenny Xie | Ice, entire cakes of it.
Crows feed on sand.
So poor is this season
the ground steals color
from the tree-shadows.
•
Can it be that nothing
is as far as here?
Just look!
How much past we have
to cover this evening–
•
Come to think of it
don't forget to pick
off this self and that... | [
"S5",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S5-8"
] | [
"Religion",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Religion/The Spiritual"
] |
2867c8e04d5da290 | The Western Emigrant | Lydia Huntley Sigourney | An axe rang sharply ’mid those forest shades Which from creation toward the skies had tower’d In unshorn beauty. There, with vigorous arm Wrought a bold emigrant, and by his side His little son, with question and response, Beguiled the toil. ‘Boy, thou hast never seen Such glorious trees. Hark,... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S8-3",
"S8-5",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Relationships/Home Life",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
5d498770f136726b | Benjamin Banneker Sends His “Almanac” to Thomas Jefferson | Jay Wright | Old now,
your eyes nearly blank
from plotting the light's
movement over the years,
you clean your Almanac
and place it next
to the heart of this letter.
I have you in mind,
giving a final brush and twist
to the difficult pages,
staring down the shape of the numbers
as though you would find a flaw
in their f... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S2-9"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space"
] |
fd9c6f66a501d4af | Moves in the Field | Sara Miller | Had to come in out of the people,they blew me about so.Was told of the life taking placeelsewhere. Went to check on that,flying late and low over the west.Saw no house, no shade.Sat down on the damp bankon the far shore at the leftedge of the world, against whichthe sea endlessly lapped.So now there were two of us,who ... | [
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Living"
] | [] |
c2b665566d96ec8f | Grief | Elizabeth Barrett Browning | I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless; That only men incredulous of despair, Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air Beat upward to God’s throne in loud access Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness, In souls as countries, lieth silent-bare Under the blanching, vertical eye-glare Of the absolute... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
f85245ffc24c8139 | Boardinghouse with No Visible Address | Franz Wright | So, I thought,as the door was unlocked and the landlord disappeared (no,he actually disappeared)and I got to examine the room unobserved. Thereit stoodin its gray corner: the narrow bed, sheetsthe color of old aspirin.Maybe all this had occurredsomewhere inside mealready, orwas just about to.Is there a choice?Is there ... | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S6-6",
"S10-3",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Health & Illness"
] |
0406acecb842feae | 50-50 | Langston Hughes | I’m all alone in this world, she said,
Ain’t got nobody to share my bed,
Ain’t got nobody to hold my hand—
The truth of the matter’s
I ain’t got no man.
Big Boy opened his mouth and said,
Trouble with you is
You ain’t got no head!
If you had a head and used your mind
You could have me with you
All the time.
... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S4-1",
"S8-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"History & Politics/Money & Economics",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
fec3e7644ea311af | To the Muses | William Blake | Whether on Ida's shady brow, Or in the chambers of the East, The chambers of the sun, that now From ancient melody have ceas'd; Whether in Heav'n ye wander fair, Or the green corners of the earth, Or the blue regions of the air, Where the melodious winds have birth; Whether on crysta... | [
"S2",
"S10",
"S11"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S10-6",
"S11-3",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Arts & Sciences",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Mythology & Folklore/Greek & Roman Mythology",
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Nature/Bodies of Water"
] |
e18beb601ba32294 | Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop | William Butler Yeats | I met the Bishop on the road
And much said he and I.
`Those breasts are flat and fallen now
Those veins must soon be dry;
Live in a heavenly mansion,
Not in some foul sty.'
`Fair and foul are near of kin,
And fair needs foul,' I cried.
'My friends are gone, but that's a truth
Nor grave nor bed denied,
Learned... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-1"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Aging"
] |
cf55a5751b5da583 | Unemployment (3) | Mark Levine | Out of cash, out of well-fitting trousers,Out of soap and apples,Out of pencils, out of my keeper’sReach. I wish to set myself afireBut may not. This morning(Last night) in the common room I watched the administrationOf oxygen to one who had noneAnd I would not sit down, demandingTo do so.Later I happened on a manAt th... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S6-5",
"S9-4",
"S10-3"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Living/Mourning",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
f28135f13ab2be72 | Please | Yusef Komunyakaa | Forgive me, soldier.
Forgive my right hand
for pointing you
to the flawless
tree line now
outlined in my brain.
There was so much
bloodsky at daybreak
in Pleiku, but I won’t say
those infernal guns
blinded me on that hill.
Mistakes piled up men like clouds
pushed to the dark side.
Sometimes I try to retrac... | [
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S8-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Relationships/Friendship"
] |
1ae73b776c08932d | Epistle from Mrs. Yonge to Her Husband | Lady Mary Wortley Montagu | Think not this paper comes with vain pretense
To move your pity, or to mourn th’ offense.
Too well I know that hard obdurate heart;
No softening mercy there will take my part,
Nor can a woman’s arguments prevail,
When even your patron’s wise example fails.
But this last privilege I still retain;
Th’ oppressed and injur... | [
"S1",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-6",
"S8-1"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Relationships/Breakups & Separation"
] |
79c3b74467f0f3fe | In the House of Wax | John Haines | I
Far-sighted into yesterday
they stand, gripping
their charters and speeches,
the presidents and kings,
masters of unconscious evil.
Their deputies are here —
judges, robed executioners,
steely and triumphant.
And stunned at their feet,
the beheaded, the betrayed,
healed and hallowed now
in this grave sorr... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S7",
"S11"
] | [
"S11-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Fairy-tales & Legends"
] |
23534aa09083e99e | Get Up, John | Chris Dombrowski | Here comes dawn and nothing rosy about her fingers — stove-flame blue and some hand must’ve turned the burner on: the little tongues licking, gradually, the teapot of us aboil, cooking off a giardia of stars, the dregs of our night- mares. Who will place his fingers in the nailmarks, come near enough to smell death i... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [] |
81e10bea9d13e98d | Let me tell you about my marvelous god | Susan Stewart | Let me tell you about my marvelous god, how he hides in the hexagons
of the bees, how the drought that wrings its leather hands
above the world is of his making, as well as the rain in the quiet minutes
that leave only thoughts of rain.
An atom is working and working, an atom is working in deepest
night, then burs... | [
"S2",
"S5"
] | [
"S5-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/God & the Divine"
] |
bdf5083a605d8882 | “Soldier from the wars returning” | A. E. Housman | Soldier from the wars returning,Spoiler of the taken town,Here is ease that asks not earning;Turn you in and sit you down.Peace is come and wars are over,Welcome you and welcome all,While the charger crops the cloverAnd his bridle hangs in stall.Now no more of winters biting,Filth in trench from fall to spring,Summers ... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
109c323ba5934aa8 | Sostenuto | Linda Gregerson | Night. Or what they have of it at altitudelike this, and filtered air, what wasin my lungs just an hour ago is now in yours, there’s only so much air to go around. They’re ... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S6-7"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Living/Parenthood"
] |
ad9dd07b267cefc2 | “You could lighten | Greg Glazner | up a little,” he says,shutting the rusted tailgate,“maybe at least leandown from your high horse and look busy,” picking uphis work gloves and his spade.“You’re not the onlyhick on the clockwith an education,” he says, half-laughing, half-wheezing,and spits, his bottom lip bulgingwith a load of Skoal,“even if you do th... | [
"S3",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor"
] |
c7b3449aa2270255 | On Cooking a Symbol at 400 Degrees | Patty Seyburn | I butterflied Australian rack of lambwith shallots, garlic, parsley, butter, wine(some in the pan, some for the palate).Although the livestock loved in nursery rhymeavoided clumps of mint, it served my familynonetheless. I am no PETA zealot(leather jacket, handbag, wallet, shoes)but wonder if the deeds we do pursueus i... | [
"S3",
"S9"
] | [
"S9-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
073b52e717cf5bf5 | The Flea | Rick Barot | At a certain point I stopped and asked
what poems I could write, which were different
from the poems I wanted to write, with the wanting
being proof that I couldn’t write those poems, that they
were impossible. What I could do
was different from what I wanted. To see this
was the beginning of work that could be w... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Nature/Animals"
] |
9689e8244765dda6 | The True-Blue American | Delmore Schwartz | Jeremiah Dickson was a true-blue American,
For he was a little boy who understood America, for he felt that he must
Think about everything; because that’s all there is to think about,
Knowing immediately the intimacy of truth and comedy,
Knowing intuitively how a sense of humor was a necessity
For one and for all ... | [
"S3",
"S11"
] | [
"S11-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism"
] |
27b0802d440e75e6 | Nocturne | Michelle Y. Burke | A man can give up so much, can limit himself to handwritten correspondence, to foods made of whole grains, to heat from a woodstove, logs hewn by his own hand and stacked neatly like corpses by the backdoor.He can play nocturnes by heart. They will not make the beloved appear. He can learn the names of all the birds in... | [
"S1",
"S2"
] | [] | [
"Love",
"Nature"
] | [] |
c7f7ad14cf8949ca | The Bridge | C. Dale Young | I love. Wouldn't we all like to start
a poem with "I love . . ."? I would.
I mean, I love the fact there are parallel lines
in the word "parallel," love how
words sometimes mirror what they mean.
I love mirrors and that stupid tale
about Narcissus. I suppose
there is some Narcissism in that.
You know, Narcissis... | [
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S8-5",
"S9-1"
] | [
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Relationships/Home Life",
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
30fef8e3d94d2905 | Nature Boy | Tomás Q. Morín | If I had enough cages to keep all the birds I’ve collected over the years then I would have to open a shop because there’s only so much room in a two-bedroom walk-up for 48 birds, not to mention the dancing bears and the frogs, or the different varieties of fish, the one species of flea, and I almost forgot the proud d... | [
"S2",
"S5",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S5-2",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Nature/Animals",
"Religion/Christianity"
] |
be01875bfb83f6de | Tone | Jay Wright | (1)
Nothing that exists can be
temporal; still I come to lay this stick
upon these altars, those three
definitions of sun, the border and thick
measure of lost perfection.
Sun must acknowledge this state, an iconic
message, abrupt invention
of death; we shall call it an accomplishment,
or a causal relation.
T... | [
"S5",
"S6",
"S7",
"S10"
] | [
"S5-8",
"S6-4",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Religion",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Religion/The Spiritual",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
0ef3a25db16a7b33 | The Pump | Frank Stanford | There was always a lizard
Or a frog around the pump,
Waiting for a little extra water
Or a butterfly to light.
Jimmy said the pump gave him the worms.
I got the worms under the slick boards.
The pump would bite you in the winter.
It got hold of Jimmy and wouldn’t let go.
The blades of Johnson grass were tall
A... | [
"S6",
"S8",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S8-4",
"S9-4",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Relationships/Friendship",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
ebdb743d7ec12098 | Next to Him | Sjohnna McCray | It's not about the sex, really, it's not
the ache of the bruised nipple or the burn
left by his two-day-old beard in the crook
of my neck where the pulse is taken, it's
his breathing when asleep that draws me near.
When I was seventeen, I'd check beside me,
hope I hadn't rolled and squashed flat
my one-year-old ... | [
"S1",
"S6"
] | [
"S1-7",
"S6-8"
] | [
"Love",
"Living"
] | [
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Living/Youth"
] |
4b0ad3b32a3c00bf | The Invention of Cuisine | Carol Muske-Dukes | Imagine for a moment
the still life of our meals,
meat followed by yellow cheese,
grapes pale against the blue armor of fish.
Imagine a thin woman
before bread was invented,
playing a harp of wheat in the field.
There is a stone, and behind her
the bones of the last killed,
the black bird on her shoulder
that... | [
"S9"
] | [
"S9-1"
] | [
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
5bd085e5d0ca82ab | The Talk | Gayle Danley | Pretty soon we’ll have the talk.She’ll ask me where babies come fromAnd I will lie to her:“Babies come from the chance meeting of sperm and eggSee the man deposits his sssperm which is like a pudding into the woman’s vvagina and it travels up this tube-y thingand only one of them gets the prize and bing! A cell becomes... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-6",
"S3-4",
"S8-1",
"S8-3",
"S8-7"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Relationships/Breakups & Separation",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
c2bd5590dae9b80d | Certainty | Sandra Lim | Perhaps you can tell children that the world is always a more beautiful place than you can suppose,
and then you release them into their future, the black row of trees in the distance.
She died suddenly in midwinter, in the same bed in which her husband died years earlier; it still sagged on his side. Her second husb... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-3",
"S6-5",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Living/Mourning",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
6e6149a9fb82ad2a | Conversation with a Widow | A. F. Moritz | Uncle Johnny died after rigid years of cutting hair in his shop downtown. Toward the end he cut it badly, breathing a whisky scent into the tonic, talc and glossy male curls piling up on the tiled floor. He died shrivelled, a man who seldom spoke, still with that nickname, Johnny, last taciturn hint of a youth who may ... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S6-4",
"S6-5",
"S8-3",
"S8-7"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
d95408aa77f7d0f9 | A Boy in Church | Robert Graves | ‘Gabble-gabble, . . . brethren, . . . gabble-gabble!’ My window frames forest and heather. I hardly hear the tuneful babble, Not knowing nor much caring whether The text is praise or exhortation, Prayer or thanksgiving, or damnation. Outside it blows wetter and wetter, The tossing trees never stay still. ... | [
"S2",
"S5"
] | [
"S2-8",
"S2-10",
"S5-2"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion"
] | [
"Nature/Weather",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Religion/Christianity"
] |
ee1c7d51c6290bc7 | A Shropshire Lad 53: The lad came to the door at night | A. E. Housman | The lad came to the door at night, When lovers crown their vows, And whistled soft and out of sight In shadow of the boughs. ‘I shall not vex you with my face Henceforth, my love, for aye; So take me in your arms a space Before the east is grey. ‘When I from hence away am past I shall not find a bri... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-3"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Heartache & Loss"
] |
3cf25f148dc08524 | Escape from the Old Country | Adrienne Su | I never had to make one,
no sickening weeks by ocean,
no waiting for the aerogrammes
that gradually ceased to come.
Spent the babysitting money
on novels, shoes, and movies,
yet the neighborhood stayed empty.
It had nothing to do with a journey
not undertaken, not with dialect,
nor with a land that waited
to ... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S6-3",
"S8-5",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Relationships/Home Life",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
138e0623a04d90cc | It's been a long time | Joanne Kyger | NOTES FROM THE REVOLUTION
During the beat of this story you may find other beats. I meana beat, I mean Cantus, I mean Firm us, I mean paper, I mean inthe Kingdom which is coming, which is here in discovery.It is also Om Shri Maitreya, you don't go across my vibes,but with them, losing the pronoun. It is Thy, it is The... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S5"
] | [
"S5-8"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/The Spiritual"
] |
424b364313296bf9 | Head Handed | Brenda Shaughnessy | Stop belonging to me so much, face-head.Leave me to my child and my flowers.I can’t run with you hanging on to me like that.It’s like having ten dogs on a single leadand no talent for creatures.No hands, no trees. Not my dogs, nobody’s.Don’t you have a place to go, face-head? Deep into the brick basement of another lif... | [
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Living"
] | [] |
1ab8ab3b26765073 | Proem | Martin Carter | Not, in the saying of you, are you
said. Baffled and like a root
stopped by a stone you turn back questioning
the tree you feed. But what the leaves hear
is not what the roots ask. Inexhaustibly,
being at one time what was to be said
and at another time what has been said
the saying of you remains the living of ... | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-2"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics"
] |
91c5d93e0c3d3a16 | Unemployment (1) | Mark Levine | I had a calling.I took the call.It was all I could do to follow the voice streaming into meLike traffic on the runway where I layDown to gather.I had a calling. I heard the geese bleatIn the firmament as they migratedInto the jet’s jets.And could I have foreseen that fallingI could have fallen tooRather than being sutu... | [
"S3",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
9c1666d62507a1dc | Wac-A-Mole Realism™ | Matthea Harvey | At the carnival, Robo-Boy sees only things he recognizes. The Ferris Wheel is an overgrown version of his own bells and whistle eyes. His Flashers, his mother calls them. The Tilt-A-Whirl is the angle his head tilts when the Flirt Program goes into effect, usually in the vicinity of a Cindy or a Carrie, though once he ... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture"
] |
4545050ac3dded17 | Firefly | Jacqueline Woodson | It's almost May
and yesterday
I saw a firefly.
You don't see
them a lot
in the city.
Sometimes
in the park
in the near dark
one comes out
you'll hear
a little kid shoutLightning bug! Firefly!
It's almost May
and yesterday
I caught a firefly in my hand.
First firefly I
seen in a
long, long time.Make a w... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-2",
"S2-5"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Summer",
"Nature/Animals"
] |
157fb0a941118dc7 | Lychees | Meena Alexander | Terrace deep as the sky.
Stone bench where I sit and read,I wandered by myselfInto the heart of the mountains of Yoshino.
In one hand a book, in the other, a bag made of newsprint—
No weather-beaten bones here
Just lychees bought in the market,
Thirty rupees per kilogram.
Stalks mottled red tied up with string,
... | [
"S9"
] | [
"S9-1"
] | [
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
1cd7b401879d9f47 | Essential Poem | A. F. Moritz | For John Hollander
Although it’s likely you’re on your ownat this moment in this city of three millionreading the poems of Traherne,and there was no one till you lit your lamp,the kingdom of childhood keeps being foundedin his voice and his seeing,which are a sort of birth. A birth goes onin the dark of a poor family,... | [
"S6",
"S7",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-7",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Living/Parenthood"
] |
fad48565e4133387 | East of Carthage: An Idyll | Khaled Mattawa | 1.
Look here, Marcus Aurelius, we’ve come to see
your temple, deluded the guards, crawled through a hole
in the fence. Why your descendent, my guide and friend
has opted for secrecy, I don’t know. But I do know
what to call the Africans, passport-less, yellow-eyed
who will ride the boat before me for Naples, they... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S8",
"S9",
"S10",
"S11"
] | [
"S3-8",
"S6-1",
"S6-3",
"S8-3",
"S9-7",
"S10-5",
"S10-8",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Living/Aging",
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
1aa65cedda747246 | Keough Hall | Francisco Aragón | November 9, 2016
University of Notre Dame
minutes
felt
like hours
"deplorables
knocking
at your door"
he shouted
the day
after—“build
the wall—
we're
building
a wall
around
your room!"
minutes
felt
like hours
"cowards!"
you managed,
catching
a glimpse
by cracking
your door:
there were three
o... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-8",
"S9-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Activities/Study & Knowledge"
] |
e561f06a6de000af | Vestibule | Chase Twichell | What etiquette holds us back
from more intimate speech,
especially now, at the end of the world?
Can’t we begin a conversation
here in the vestibule,
then gradually move it inside?
What holds us back
from saying things outright?
We’ve killed the earth.
Yet we speak of other things.
Our words should cauterize
... | [
"S3",
"S8"
] | [] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [] |
3310e7a783e4c2a2 | January 1919 | Christopher Middleton | What if I know, Liebknecht, who shot you dead.
Tiegarten trees unroll
staggering shadow, in spite of it all.
I am among the leaves; the inevitable
voices
have nothing left to say, the holed head
bleeding across a heap of progressive magazines;
torn from your face,
trees that turned around,
we do not sanctify t... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
f47760ce84e43fc9 | Stairway to the Stars | Ron Padgett | "And then there were three
whereas before there had been four
or two
And then there were four or two."
Thus spake the King.
No one dared ask what it meant.
He seemed satisfied by the beauty
of the logic that had arrived,
the royal hall now lightly radiant
as he arose from his throne
and the world fell away,
... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S6",
"S11"
] | [
"S2-9"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space"
] |
22fa1fd3e1017608 | Scree | Alan R. Shapiro | Long scree of pill bottles
spilling over the tipped brim
of the wicker basket, fifty or more,
a hundred,
your name on every one and under
your name the brusque rune of instructions—
which ones to take, how many, and often,
on what days,
with or without food, before or
... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S6-4",
"S6-6",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Health & Illness",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
f7c00338a289a3f9 | Tuning | Keith Waldrop | Herr Stimmung—purblind—moves in corporeal time.
Think how many, by now, have escaped the world’s memory.
Think, how all his wandering is only thought. Having once tried to
live in the quasi-stupor of sensation, now he picks his way through
areas of spilth, seeking the least among infinite evils.
His ho... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S10"
] | [
"S10-2"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics"
] |
2f71645e66d08d32 | Call Me Pier | Susan Firer | I have just returned from a visit to my pier
Often I am permitted to return to my pier
For a long time I would go to pier early
So much depends upon a pier
This is an old pier
I celebrate my pier, and what I assume . . .
I had a pier
There is a certain slant of pier
On woman's first disobedience, and the pier
... | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-6"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets"
] |
137dce1a91513afa | Ex Libris | Eleanor Wilner | By the stream, where the ground is soft
and gives, under the slightest pressure—even
the fly would leave its footprint here
and the paw of the shrew the crescent
of its claws like the strokes of a chisel
in clay; where the lightest chill, lighter
than the least rumor of winter, sets the reeds
to a kind of speaki... | [
"S2",
"S5"
] | [
"S2-3",
"S2-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion"
] | [
"Nature/Fall",
"Nature/Animals"
] |
d66bc097e2c23a2a | Amusing Our Daughters | Carolyn Kizer | after Po Chü-i,
for Robert Creeley
We don’t lack people here on the Northern coast,
But they are people one meets, not people one cares for.
So I bundle my daughters into the car
And with my brother poets, go to visit you, brother.
Here come your guests! A swarm of strangers and children;
But the strangers write... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S6-7",
"S8-3",
"S8-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
36a277b0ae060a65 | NON-commitment | Chinua Achebe | Hurrah! to them who do nothing
see nothing feel nothing whose
hearts are fitted with prudence
like a diaphragm across
womb’s beckoning doorway to bar
the scandal of seminal rage. I’m
told the owl too wears wisdom
in a ring of defense round
each vulnerable eye securing it fast
against the darts of sight. Long a... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S5"
] | [
"S5-2"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/Christianity"
] |
083abe03a387f097 | Amoretti III: The Sovereign Beauty | Edmund Spenser | The sovereign beauty which I do admire,
Witness the world how worthy to be praised:
The light whereof hath kindled heavenly fire
In my frail spirit, by her from baseness raised;
That being now with her huge brightness dazed,
Base thing I can no more endure to view;
But looking still on her, I stand amazed
At wondrous s... | [
"S1",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-4",
"S1-7"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Love/Romantic Love"
] |
09b0d8287c1455f4 | The ghost | Dorothea Lasky | I saw him
His body a very pale sea, almost green
Soaring above me in a different sphere
With gold wings
He had a blissful expression
One maybe he never had
Certainly he was always smiling, somewhere
When he died
I had just gotten betrayed by a friend
I thought was mine
I forgave him
Was more just said
You l... | [
"S5",
"S6"
] | [
"S5-8",
"S6-4",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Religion",
"Living"
] | [
"Religion/The Spiritual",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
9158dd7ecc645ebf | Farewell to Poetry | Théophile Gautier | Come, fallen angel, and your pink wings close;
Doff your white robe, your rays that gild the skies;
You must—from heaven, where once you used to rise—
Streak, like a shooting star, fall into prose.
Your bird’s feet now must strike an earthly pose.
It is no time to fly: walk! Lock your prize—
Your harp’s fair harm... | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-6"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets"
] |
cd578cfcb4a49bf6 | Probation | Averill Curdy | The cheap dropped ceiling
jumped like a pot-lid boiling
when our upstairs neighbor
chased his girl that winter.
Falling out of
summer’s skimpy tops
she’d want our phone. Her plush lips
creased. Not exactly blonde,
but luteous, we thought,
pleased the right word
was there for tha... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-6",
"S3-4",
"S3-6",
"S8-7"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
11898372bdf54352 | After a While, You Win: Death Pastoral | Elena Karina Byrne | Someone else’s child, not you, is running and running
down the beach. Both feet dig into the burning sand.
Two others heave one yellow bucket full of sugar-brown
seaweed, their twin suits flowering
a conflation of pink over blue behind the water. So
landmark cactus and landmine rock battlefield uphill toward
the... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-2",
"S2-6",
"S2-7",
"S6-4",
"S6-5",
"S6-7",
"S6-8",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Summer",
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Living/Youth",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
c820d7d8e264eb0a | The Death of Elvis | Ciaran Berry | This lip, too, used to curl a little easier,and we, all of us, must enter our Vegas years.Blessed the pacemakers, blessed the painkillers,blessed our famed quiffs grown flyaway, grown thin,the gray starting to sprout under the dye.So much to hide beneath the spit and mascara.So much to powder puff and trim. Nose hairs,... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S7",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-7",
"S6-1",
"S6-4",
"S10-3"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture",
"Living/Aging",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
0bb554ad353ad684 | Chinese Silence No. 30 | Timothy Yu | after Eleanor Goodman, "Boston's Chinatown"
It’s easy to slam the Chinatowns of America.
They’re just a lot of red lanterns.
Yeah, there are Chinese people around,
But it’s all for tourists.
Their dirty alleyways remind me
Of that strange beast called American culture.
The peculiar smell of fish (how Chinese!)—
... | [
"S3",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-8",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
1148ad865eea7ca7 | Last May a Braw Wooer | Robert Burns | Last May a braw wooer cam down the lang glen, And sair wi' his love he did deave me; I said there was naething I hated like men: The deuce gae wi 'm to believe me, believe me, The deuce gae wi 'm to believe me. He spak o' the darts in my bonie black een, And vow'd for my love he was ... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-4",
"S1-6",
"S2-1",
"S8-7"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Nature/Spring",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
3040a7f710d2e8e3 | Friendship After Love | Ella Wheeler Wilcox | After the fierce midsummer all ablaze Has burned itself to ashes, and expires In the intensity of its own fires, There come the mellow, mild, St. Martin days Crowned with the calm of peace, but sad with haze. So after Love has led us, till he tires Of his own throes, and torments, and desires, Comes lar... | [
"S8"
] | [] | [
"Relationships"
] | [] |
1a5c181040a4dc09 | Valentine To RR Written Extempore Feb. 14 1802 | Charlotte Richardson | Custom, whose laws we all allow,
And bow before his shrine,
Has so ordained, my friend, that you
Are now my Valentine.
Ah, could my humble Muse aspire
To catch the flame divine!
These are the gifts that I’d require
For thee, my Valentine!
May virtue o’er thy steps preside
And in thy conduct shine;
M... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-7",
"S3-4"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
3a55f4320836bcc3 | The Source | Fanny Howe | The source
I thought was Arctic
the good Platonic
Up the pole
was soaked film
an electric elevation
onto a fishy platform
and waves on two sides greenly welcoming
The sunwater poured on holy atheism
It was light that powered out
my ego or my heart
before ending with a letter | [
"S5"
] | [
"S5-8"
] | [
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/The Spiritual"
] |
ef2397d2833038e3 | Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, D.S.P.D. | Jonathan Swift | Dans l'adversité de nos meilleurs amis nous trouvons quelque chose, qui ne nous déplaît pas. ["In the hard times of our best friends we find something that doesn't displease us."]
As Rochefoucauld his maxims drew From Nature, I believe 'em true: They argue no corrupted mind In him; the fault is in mankind. This... | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-4"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
c0706ece19258e94 | America Politica Historia, in Spontaneity | Gregory Corso | O this political air so heavy with the bells
and motors of a slow night, and no place to rest
but rain to walk—How it rings the Washington streets!
The umbrella’d congressmen; the rapping tires
of big black cars, the shoulders of lobbyists
caught under canopies and in doorways,
and it rains, it will not let up,
... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S11"
] | [
"S11-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism"
] |
61dccdbac1b32c0f | False Portrait of D.B. as Niccolò Paganini | Michael Palmer | Those who have lived here since before
time are gone while the ones who must
replace them have not yet arrived.
The streets are wet with a recent
rain yet you continue to count
first minutes and hours then trees
rocks, windows, mailboxes, streetlights
and pictographs refusing to
rest even for the brief span it
... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-7",
"S10-2",
"S10-3"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture"
] |
0fd155a9c86c1526 | Grand Expensive Vista | Andrew Hudgins | As we sipped and mingled,regaledwith oldfangledcanapés and beguiled,or entertained at least, by gargledoldies, I disengagedand angledacross grass tenderly groomed,past where electric tiki torches gleamed,and, alone, gazed,now truly beguiled,at my hosts’ grandexpensive vista, mortgaged,yes, and, yes, remortgaged.A low g... | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S4-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"History & Politics/Money & Economics"
] |
e7d29d5dbd765c5b | Pencil | Teresa Mei Chuc | "In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing."—Vincent Van Gogh
A missile is shaped like a pencil—
its long, slender body and pointed
end creates history.
A girl walking down the street
a few steps ahead of ... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
4ace9bacd98d07fe | Light-years | Hester Knibbe | It’s a beautiful world, you said,with these trees, marshes, deserts,grasses, rivers and seasand so on. And the moon is really somethingin its circuits of relative radiance. Includethe wingèd M, voluptuous Venus, hotheaded Mars, that lucky devilJ and cranky Saturn, of course, plusU and N and the wanderer P, in short the... | [
"S2",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-9"
] | [
"Nature",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space"
] |
bb9711e27740b119 | Leaving Tulsa | Jennifer Elise Foerster | for Cosetta
Once there were coyotes, cardinals
in the cedar. You could cure amnesia
with the trees of our back-forty. Once
I drowned in a monsoon of frogs—
Grandma said it was a good thing, a promise
for a good crop. Grandma’s perfect tomatoes.
Squash. She taught us to shuck corn, laughing,
never spoke about he... | [
"S2",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S8-3",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Nature",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
2446af7fbcb11493 | Home Federal | Rae Armantrout | A merchant is
probing for us
with his chintz curtain
effect.
*
“Ha, ha, you missed me,”
a dead person says.
*
There’s the bank’s
colonial balcony
where no one has
ever stood. | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S4-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"History & Politics/Money & Economics"
] |
4defd6875c0025f8 | The Murder of William Remington | Howard Nemerov | It is true, that even in the best-run state
Such things will happen; it is true,
What’s done is done. The law, whereby we hate
Our hatred, sees no fire in the flue
But by the smoke, and not for thought alone
It punishes, but for the thing that’s done.
And yet there is the horror of the fact,
Though we knew not t... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice"
] |
e1d71afec02d0f59 | In Lent | Cleopatra Mathis | Dead deer a week now by the snowy gate.
Do I have to watch it be eaten? Do I have to see
who comes first, who quarrels, who stays?
And there is the question of the night,
what flesh preferred by which creature—
what sinew and fat, the organs, the eyes.
These appetites: it’s enough
to know the swoop and cut of wi... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
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