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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
554aadc960482b9e | Assemblage of Ruined Plane Parts, Vietnam Military Museum, Hanoi | Paisley Rekdal | My eye climbs a row of spoilers soldered
into ailerons, cracked bay doors haphazarded
into windows where every rivet bleeds
contrails of rust. An hour ago, the doctor’s wand
waved across my chest and I watched blood
on a small screen get back-sucked
into my weakened heart. It’s grown a hole
I have to monitor: on... | [
"S2",
"S3"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S3-11"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
f99389bd73591dee | Grafik | Juan Felipe Herrera | for Tomás Mendoza-Harrell & Lauro Flores
I cut / / / / /
I multiply everyday images. I apply an aluminum point.
To the landscape.
To the sentence.
To the photo.
To the figure.
To the word.
And suddenly, with a slight tremor of eyes, vertebrae and fingers, I
destroy everything that exists.
Through the years, I... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S6-5",
"S6-6"
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"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Living/Mourning",
"Living/Health & Illness"
] |
49713bcc28eb5b5a | A Description of a City Shower | Jonathan Swift | Careful observers may foretell the hour (By sure prognostics) when to dread a shower: While rain depends, the pensive cat gives o’er Her frolics, and pursues her tail no more. Returning home at night, you’ll find the sink Strike your offended sense with double stink. If you be wise, then go not far to dine; You’ll spen... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-10",
"S3-1",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Weather",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
98f6a985be2bdddc | A. E. F. | Carl Sandburg | There will be a rusty gun on the wall, sweetheart, The rifle grooves curling with flakes of rust. A spider will make a silver string nest in the darkest, warmest corner of it. The trigger and the range-finder, they too will be rusty. And no hands will polish the gun, and it will hang on the wall. Forefingers and thumbs... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
5969399323d28ae9 | Labor Day | Rodney Koeneke | So I say to my friend at the day job
“We are bored sometimes, and scented like realtors
but if everyone’s equally disconsolate
under labor’s gooey caul
then nuance can be stitched more vividly
to secrets lodged inside of everyone
until it becomes your own country
with highways that carry you silently past the je... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S3-9",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Social Commentaries/Rural & Country Life",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
b5457445f66f994e | "I loved you first: but afterwards your love" | Christina Rossetti | Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda. – Dante
Ogni altra cosa, ogni pensier va fore,
E sol ivi con voi rimansi amore. – Petrarca
I loved you first: but afterwards your love
Outsoaring mine, sang such a loftier song
As drowned the friendly cooings of my dove.
Which owes the other most? my love ... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-7"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Romantic Love"
] |
ea9738bfbbae14ed | An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatly | Jupiter Hammon | I
O come you pious youth! adore
The wisdom of thy God,
In bringing thee from distant shore,
To learn His holy word.
Eccles. xii.
II
Thou mightst been left behind
Amidst a dark abode;
God’s tender mercy still combin’d,
... | [
"S3",
"S5",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-8",
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"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Religion/Christianity",
"Religion/God & the Divine"
] |
fc91bcf39d2179cd | The Pied Piper of Hamelin | Robert Browning | Hamelin Town's in Brunswick, By famous Hanover city; The river Weser, deep and wide, Washes its wall on the southern side; A pleasanter spot you never spied; But, when begins my ditty, Almost five hundred years ago, To see the townsfolk suffer so From vermin, was a pity. Rats! They fought the dogs, and k... | [
"S3",
"S10",
"S11"
] | [
"S10-3"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Arts & Sciences",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music"
] |
120872f495af8731 | The Blue Scarf | Amy Lowell | Pale, with the blue of high zeniths, shimmered over with silver, brocaded
In smooth, running patterns, a soft stuff, with dark knotted fringes, it lies there,
Warm from a woman’s soft shoulders, and my fingers close on it, caressing.
Where is she, the woman who wore it? The scent of her lingers and drugs me.
A lang... | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-4",
"S1-7",
"S1-9"
] | [
"Love",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Love/Unrequited Love"
] |
ee89293b22b85c7a | The Vegetable Air | Cathy Song | You’re clean shaven in this country
where trees grow beards of moss,
where even bank tellers
look a little like banditos
in vests as pungent as sweatsuits.
Still, you prefer the vegetable air
to almost any other place on the map.
After the heart attack,
you considered Paris—
the flying buttresses,
the fractur... | [
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"S9",
"S10"
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"S10-3"
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"Nature",
"Living",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Nature/Weather",
"Nature/Animals",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Living/Health & Illness",
"Activities/Eating & Drinking",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
c2d4fd3a75a971b0 | Being Serious | Christian Wiman | I.
Serious smiles a lot.
At least that’s what they say,
His Mum and Pop
Trying to be proud
As all the nurses gather round
To squint into the cloud
Of little Serious on the ultrasound.It’s likely just the way he’s bent,
The head nurse finally thunders
Into the awe and argument
Swirling through the crowd
Where... | [
"S1",
"S5",
"S6"
] | [
"S5-3",
"S5-4"
] | [
"Love",
"Religion",
"Living"
] | [
"Religion/Faith & Doubt",
"Religion/God & the Divine"
] |
69138aa308c35f5e | Campo dei Fiori | Czeslaw Milosz | In Rome on the Campo dei Fiori
baskets of olives and lemons,
cobbles spattered with wine
and the wreckage of flowers.
Vendors cover the trestles
with rose-pink fish;
armfuls of dark grapes
heaped on peach-down.
On this same square
they burned Giordano Bruno.
Henchmen kindled the pyre
close-pressed by the mob... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S6-5",
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"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
05b63e8c000799f6 | The Mill | Edwin Arlington Robinson | The miller's wife had waited long,
The tea was cold, the fire was dead;
And there might yet be nothing wrong
In how he went and what he said:
"There are no millers any more,"
Was all that she had heard him say;
And he had lingered at the door
So long that it seemed yesterday.
Sick with a fear that had n... | [
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"S6",
"S7",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
8cf3a106d2bcb1a7 | Street Dog | Amrita Pritam | It's really something from the past— when you and I split up without any regrets— just one thing that I don't quite understand . . . When we were saying our farewells and our house was up for sale the empty pots and pans strewn across the courtyard— perhaps they were gazing into our eyes and others that ... | [
"S3",
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"S8"
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"S3-4",
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"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Relationships/Breakups & Separation",
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals"
] |
52daeacbe946163f | The Eve of St. Agnes | John Keats | St. Agnes' Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was! The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold; The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass, And silent was the flock in woolly fold: Numb were the Beadsman's fingers, while he told His rosary, and while his frosted breath, Like pious i... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S5",
"S6",
"S8",
"S11"
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"S1-4",
"S1-5",
"S1-7",
"S3-4",
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"S6-4",
"S8-7",
"S11-2"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Religion",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Love/New Love",
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Mythology & Folklore/Ghosts & the Supernatural",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Religion/Christianity",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
2263b6aec8099e7e | Nests in Elms | Michael Field | The rooks are cawing up and down the trees! Among their nests they caw. O sound I treasure, Ripe as old music is, the summer's measure, Sleep at her gossip, sylvan mysteries, With prate and clamour to give zest of these— In rune I trace the ancient law of pleasure, Of love, of all the busy-ness of leisure, With dream ... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
a15368f286f1a2f2 | Dog Gospel | Brian Barker | When I dare at last to imagine hunger,
see farmer wandering his parched fields
knowing nothing to do, finally, but sleep
the day out in the barn's long shadow,
dreaming of the family dog he drove
deep into a neighboring county
and abandoned by the side of the road.
Weeks later a boy finds it in a ditch—
timid and gimp,... | [
"S2",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S2-7",
"S9-1"
] | [
"Nature",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
3477c4ea982f7eae | The Small Vases from Hebron | Naomi Shihab Nye | Tip their mouths open to the sky.
Turquoise, amber,
the deep green with fluted handle,
pitcher the size of two thumbs,
tiny lip and graceful waist.
Here we place the smallest flower
which could have lived invisibly
in loose soil beside the road,
sprig of succulent rosemary,
bowing mint.
They grow deeper in th... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-8",
"S3-11",
"S6-4",
"S8-5"
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"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
ebc0cd0236535a60 | Stargazer | Dara Wier | You're presenting me with a telescopic line of reasoning.
You think because one dies then to die must be a good idea.
Let me get this straight. So you think to follow suit is what's
In the cards and the works and the stars. It may be that's
The next step that's clear or it may be there's another way.
You may find ... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-9",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
0a02f0725aebb645 | Chicago: A Historical & Literary Review | Randall Horton | chicago: city of ice-cold wind — elbow city of the rectangular block, where bigger thomas choked mary dalton in a drunken stupor on cottage grove, that great avenue divider between the haves & have-nots, where my uncle sydney fled after escaping an alabama chain gang a quarter after midnight &, consequently, cleaved th... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S3-7",
"S3-11",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture"
] |
bac08218756af1df | Any | George Bowering | Fresh out of the icebox, this brain looks
the wrong way from time to time, and misses
the cat stepping by, Gerry on the screen
laboring to tell the nuances his pink matter
almost notices, he’s not my brother, not really
my close friend, just my necessary neighbor
on a bicycle going by like a whistle from
the lip... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S8-4"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Relationships/Friendship"
] |
d7a88ba2eeaa0a2a | Excelsior Fashion Products, Easter | D. Nurkse | They pay us time and a half
and don’t dare catch us
drinking: we don’t insist,
don’t pass a bottle, but each sips
a private pint, all sitting
in the narrow room with our backs
to the center, each facing
his work—router, stain tray,
buffing wheel, drill press—
and with that sweet taste echoing
in our bones, we... | [
"S9"
] | [
"S9-4"
] | [
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
bd85aba0cdceabf5 | My Sentence | Dana Levin | —spring wind with its train of spoons, kidney-bean shaped pools, Floridianhumus, cicadas with their electric appliance hum, cricket pulse of dusk under the pixilate gold of the trees, fall’s finish, snow’s white afterlife, death’s breath finishing the mono... | [
"S2",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-1",
"S2-2",
"S2-3",
"S2-4",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Nature",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Nature/Spring",
"Nature/Summer",
"Nature/Fall",
"Nature/Winter"
] |
08bb6c2f4d9e58ba | [O my Lord] | Rabi'a | O my Lord,
the stars glitter
and the eyes of men are closed.
Kings have locked their doors
and each lover is alone with his love.
Here, I am alone with You. | [
"S1",
"S5",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-4",
"S5-8"
] | [
"Love",
"Religion",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Religion/The Spiritual"
] |
b48465665f0345bd | What Grieving Was | Lynn Emanuel | That was not the summer of aspic
and cold veal. It was so hot
the car seat stung my thighs
and the rearview mirror swam
with mirage. In the back seat
the leather grip was noosed by twine.
We were not poor but we had
the troubles of the poor.
She who had been that soft snore
beside the Nytol, open-mouthed,
was... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S4-1",
"S6-4",
"S6-5",
"S8-3"
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"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"History & Politics/Money & Economics",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
cdee5964c2cda80f | A Sister on the Tracks | Donald Hall | Between pond and sheepbarn, by maples and watery birches,
Rebecca paces a double line of rust
in a sandy trench, striding on black
creosoted eight-by-eights.
In nineteen-forty-three,
wartrains skidded tanks,
airframes, dynamos, searchlights, and troops
to Montreal. She coun... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S8",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S8-5",
"S9-7",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Relationships/Home Life",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
7e7ceb4b5f955b29 | Family | Marilyn Nelson | My master/father sent me up from South
Carolina to Boston as a nine-year-old.
My mother's illiterate silence has been a death.
I wonder if she still labors in his fields.
His sister, dutiful but cold as snow,
gave me a little room in her house, below
the stairs with the Irish servants, who hated me
for the fatal... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-8",
"S8-3",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
8089b6fae84e4021 | The Penitent | Edna St. Vincent Millay | I had a little Sorrow,
Born of a little Sin,
I found a room all damp with gloom
And shut us all within;
And, "Little Sorrow, weep," said I,
"And, Little Sin, pray God to die,
And I upon the floor will lie
And think how bad I've been!"
Alas for pious planning —
It mattered not a whit!
As far as gloom wen... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
f4fd32e3d0d7e8f7 | I never hear that one is dead (1325) | Emily Dickinson | I never hear that one is dead
Without the chance of Life
Afresh annihilating me
That mightiest Belief,
Too mighty for the Daily mind
That tilling it’s abyss,
Had Madness, had it once or, Twice
The yawning Consciousness,
Beliefs are Bandaged, like the Tongue
When Terror were it told
In any Tone commensurate
W... | [
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S6-4"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
6147bfcd24d95dbc | Being Muslim | Hayan Charara | O father bringing home crates
of apples, bushels of corn,
and skinned rabbits on ice.
O mother boiling lentils in a pot
while he watched fight after fight,
boxers pinned on the ropes
pummeling each other mercilessly.
And hung on the wall where we
ate breakfast an autographed photo
of Muhammad Ali. O father
wh... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-3",
"S8-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
f83d122101395707 | The Fable | Yvor Winters | Beyond the steady rock the steady sea,
In movement more immovable than station,
Gathers and washes and is gone. It comes,
A slow obscure metonymy of motion,
Crumbling the inner barriers of the brain.
But the crossed rock braces the hills and makes
A steady quiet of the steady music,
Massive with peace.
And list... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-6"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water"
] |
82a7fba8e5f8fb0b | Requiem for the First Half of Split | Alice Notley | An early sadness for the future
(as in dreams of myself young and sad)
accompanies my departure towards
a conventional story: a town
of girls a New York City dormitory.
And so a trail proceeds from
our house on the top of the hill
down the back way of former army barracks
and past the borrowed church (ours had ... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S8-1",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Relationships/Breakups & Separation"
] |
7b903435cf24dbc7 | Love's Last | Christian Wiman | Love's last urgency is earth
and grief is all gravity
and the long fall always
back to earliest hours
that exist nowhere
but in one's brain.
From the hard-packed
pile of old-mown grass,
from boredom, from pain,
a boy's random slash
unlocks a dark ardor
of angry bees
that link the trees
and block his way ho... | [
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Living"
] | [] |
6d96f2a9ab6089d4 | On Love | Kahlil Gibran | Then said Almitra, Speak to us of Love.
And he raised his head and looked upon
the people, and there fell a stillness upon
them. And with a great voice he said:
When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to
him,
Though t... | [
"S1",
"S5"
] | [
"S1-7",
"S5-8"
] | [
"Love",
"Religion"
] | [
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Religion/The Spiritual"
] |
cb3a74916044083c | Pre-Dialogue, II | Edmond Jabès | ...this insignificant interval between death and dying.
One cannot accept or refuse, O death, emptiness, air, sun.
The "I" is the miracle of the "You."
"This follows from a certain logic," he said: "the 'I' to designate the 'You,' the 'You' to justify the 'I,' and 'He' for disappearing."
There is no present. ... | [
"S5",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Religion",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
2b2053c915cf9bbb | Bringing Hannah Home | Esther Belin | We brought Hannah home today
in afternoon sun with a crisp chill in the air
on a hill overlooking the bay.
Two women with a child and a shovel and a frozen placenta wrapped in aluminum foil placed in a red plastic bag.
Hannah was brought into this world
some say fourth others say fifth
five days before.
Before w... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
3cb3bedd3e9927ec | New Personal Poem | Ted Berrigan | to Michael Lally
You had your own reasons for getting
In your own way. You didn’t want to be
Clear to yourself. You knew a hell
Of a lot more than you were willing
to let yourself know. I felt
Natural love for you on the spot. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Right.
Beautiful. I don’t use the word lightly. I
Pro... | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S1-4",
"S8-4",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Love",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Relationships/Friendship"
] |
b84e3c7b03ec4d00 | Wait | C. K. Williams | Chop, hack, slash; chop, hack, slash; cleaver, boning knife, ax— not even the clumsiest clod of a butcher could do this so crudely, time, as do you, dismember me, render me, leave me slop in a pail, one part of my body a hundred years old, one not even there anymore, another still riven with idiot vigor, voracious ... | [
"S6",
"S7"
] | [] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [] |
17ab8f97ea28d1b7 | The Revelation | Coventry Patmore | An idle poet, here and there, Looks round him; but, for all the rest, The world, unfathomably fair, Is duller than a witling’s jest. Love wakes men, once a lifetime each; They lift their heavy lids, and look; And, lo, what one sweet page can teach, They read with joy, then shut the book. And some give t... | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S1-3",
"S1-8",
"S8-7",
"S10-6",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Love",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Love/Heartache & Loss",
"Love/Classic Love",
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
5893d0f9a778ee72 | War Voyeurs | Juan Felipe Herrera | for Clara Fraser
I do not understand why men make war.
Is it because artillery is the most stoic example
of what flesh can become?
Is it because the military plan is the final map
drawn by the wisest hunter?
Is it because the neutron ray is the invincible finger
no one will disobey?
or
Is it because the flood ... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
53f0e5925dff5ba2 | A Low Bank of Cloud | Ed Roberson | But for a low bank of cloud,
clear morning, empty sky. The bright band of light beneath the cloud’s gray I thought at first was open distance, but it’s ice that by extension raised the lake above the lip of blue lake and spilled it farther out than that horizon along the sky ... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S7",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S2-7",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
] |
a27abbe1793b09db | Sad Wine (II) | Cesare Pavese | The hard thing’s to sit without being noticed.
Everything else will come easy. Three sips
and the impulse returns to sit thinking alone.
Against the buzzing backdrop of noise
everything fades, and it’s suddenly a miracle
to be born and to stare at the glass. And work
(a man who’s alone can’t not think of work)
b... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S6",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S6-1",
"S9-1"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Aging",
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
5644eca12ea9a2f6 | His Suicide | May Swenson | He looked down at his withering body and saw a hair near his navel, swaying. And now he saw his other hairs rise up. He felt a hectic current in his veins. Looking within, he saw the bubbling of his blood. He cursed his fever, saying: “It is the chemistry of prayer. It increases in frequency, seeding panic to all... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S6-6"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Health & Illness"
] |
20fb6451705b6fca | The Father | Sir Ronald Ross | Come with me then, my son; Thine eyes are wide for truth:And I will give thee memories, And thou shalt give me youth.The lake laps in silver, The streamlet leaps her length:And I will give thee wisdom, And thou shalt give me strength.The mist is on the moorland, The rain roughs the reed:A... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S6-3",
"S6-7",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
c2eb9a030b2c6e51 | My Sister Says White Supremacy Is Turning Her Crazy | Morgan Parker | Pandemic of lilies dreaming majesty
hovers like sweat & unwraps you & you
are in love
it makes you bad, bad
is your name
is the desert
is movement ... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-6",
"S2-8",
"S3-8",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
a985932ea4246a90 | To the Swimmer | Countee Cullen | Now as I watch you, strong of arm and endurance, battling and strugglingWith the waves that rush against you, ever with invincible strength returningInto my heart, grown each day more tranquil and peaceful, comes a fierce longingOf mind and soul that will not be appeased until, like you, I breast yon deep and boundless... | [
"S9"
] | [
"S9-5"
] | [
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Sports & Outdoor Activities"
] |
153929ce97c2048c | Heisenberg Saying Goodbye to Mum at Lilyfield | Luke Davies | Every construction is temporary, including the fire altar.
— Roberto Calasso
Accommodate the action in your life
to wrest the deep perspective of the real
from cubic content realms of atmosphere
at play beyond the bank and shoal of time.
Then resonance begins, and all vibrates.
The syntax of position no more sc... | [
"S8",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S8-3",
"S9-7",
"S10-2",
"S10-9"
] | [
"Relationships",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
"Arts & Sciences/Sciences",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
29e3888637619020 | In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII: 55 | Alfred, Lord Tennyson | The wish, that of the living whole No life may fail beyond the grave, Derives it not from what we have The likest God within the soul? Are God and Nature then at strife, That Nature lends such evil dreams? So careful of the type she seems, So careless of the single life; That I, cons... | [
"S2",
"S5",
"S6"
] | [
"S5-4",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion",
"Living"
] | [
"Religion/God & the Divine",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
694f9990ab9feee6 | Muck Savage | Dave Lordan | The minute the fiddler takes to the stagebetwixt the rapper and the organistI dive out through a slit in the rear ofthe reggae tent, meaning to take a slash and chill.But there’s a rave throbbing in the woods beyond.Bonfires radiating inside holly, spruce, and ash.Canvas banners thrashing in the storm.Chinese lanterns ... | [
"S6",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S9-1",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
0526d01df0c2a330 | A Historical Footnote to Consider Only When All Else Fails | Nikki Giovanni | (For Barbara Crosby)
While it is true
(though only in a factual sense)
That in the wake of a
Her-I-can comes a
Shower
Surely I am not
The gravitating force
that keeps this house
full of panthers
Why, LBJ has made it
quite clear to me
He doesn’t give a
Good goddamn what I think
(else why would he continue ... | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S3-2",
"S3-4",
"S3-7",
"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture"
] |
7b9b96b5fdf8d248 | The Forest of Sure Things | Megan Snyder-Camp | In this land the children tear their hearts in half.
Let me explain. If ten things are wanted, only ten
can be had. If a stand of birches is found to be made of tin,
the soil around them will bleed with rust. In this land children
study their magazines in broad daylight, and in their books
any soldier who stumbles... | [
"S6",
"S8",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S9-1",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
112f3603ee1de9b3 | Service | Trumbull Stickney | Chide me not, darling, that I sing Familiar thoughts and metres old: Nay, do not scold My spirit’s childish uttering. I know not why ’t is that or this I murmur to you thus or so: Only I know It throbs across my silences, It blows over my heart,—a long Infinite wind, again, again! Again! and then My life kneels down in... | [
"S6",
"S7",
"S10"
] | [
"S10-6"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets"
] |
442055454da67131 | Rue | Mark Levine | I was a traveler in my day
a business traveler, territorial
in the grassy gaps.
I sold bonds
to clients hungry for bonds
in the boundless sales call
door to door among
“folks.”
It was a job
I was born with.
I had a heavy sample bag, rubber-
banded stack of calling cards
and leather binder
(embossed)
openi... | [
"S6",
"S9"
] | [
"S6-3",
"S6-7",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Living",
"Activities"
] | [
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
ab9e32b16f5f9af7 | Queen Christina | Randall Mann | To celebrate his final Pride, in June,
my friend, lymphatic, thin, and in distress,
managed to dress in drag. He shot the moon:
outstretched, he’d used his dying to think—obsess—
about the Prada pumps, their skin a snake;
the heavy pantyhose, two pair; the moot
but lacy underthings; the makeup, cake,
to overlay ... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S6",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S1-3",
"S3-4",
"S6-4",
"S6-6",
"S8-4",
"S8-6",
"S9-3"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Love/Heartache & Loss",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Health & Illness",
"Relationships/Friendship",
"Relationships/LGBTQ+",
"Activities/Indoor Activities"
] |
dd7977a3033db7b2 | Bel Canto | Jane Yeh | The opera
In her head
Runs with no interval,
A lot of people singing tunelessly
About the same things.
An overheard
Comment like
A rotting peach.
The overzealous
Cockatoo of her impatience,
Flap flap. The slab
Of blue behind her
Is a sea of
Her doubts. The squirrel
In her stomach
Trying to get out—
They... | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S10-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music"
] |
30983bc8959a119e | Winter | Graham Foust | By photography’s gospel, I thank you,
think you back.
You fail far away from me,
waving at pain.
A perfect song is loveless
and here by your name.
Things will never be the same.
Are they the same yet? | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S8-1"
] | [
"Love",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Relationships/Breakups & Separation"
] |
7e3636b90f9c6fea | Study for Belief with Lines from “Star Trek: The Original Series” | Dayna Patterson | ?) Let every sentence begin: I have been grossly mistaken.The stars are gone. Kirk: Kindly tell me what happened to the stars.
Kierkegaard shuttles past Reason to planet Absurd, a gas giant
without a detectable landing pad. He says, it’s the leap that matters.We’re being pulled toward the center of the zone of darkne... | [
"S2",
"S5",
"S6",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-9",
"S5-3",
"S9-7",
"S10-7",
"S10-9"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion",
"Living",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Photography & Film",
"Arts & Sciences/Sciences",
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space",
"Religion/Faith & Doubt",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
bc3c35069c94570e | Moon | Amy E. Sklansky | Marvelous
Opaque
Orb.
Night-light
for the world. | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-9"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space"
] |
74fdc0843fa95615 | London | William Blake | I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow.
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear
How the Chimney-sweepers cry
Every blackning Chu... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
531131660c4ed92b | American Singer | Matthew Zapruder | In memory of Vic Chesnutt
when I walkto the mailboxholding the letterthat fails to sayhow sorry I amyou feel your callor any words at allon that daywould have stoppedthe great singerwho long agodecided morequickly throughto moveI notice probablybecause you wrotethat strangeword funeralthe constant blackfabric I think... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-7",
"S6-5",
"S6-7",
"S8-3",
"S10-3",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture",
"Living/Mourning",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
641f7a1b73a831a7 | The Stump | Donald Hall | 1.
Today they cut down the oak.
Strong men climbed with ropes
in the brittle tree.
The exhaust of a gasoline saw
was blue in the branches.
The oak had been dead a year.
I remember the great sails of its branches
rolling out green, a hundred and twenty feet up,
and acorns thick on the lawn.
Nine cities of squi... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S2-8",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
9f0ddd59aedd434f | [lady in red] “there was no air / the sheets made ripples under his” | Ntozake Shange | there was no air/ the sheets made ripples under his
body like crumpled paper napkins in a summer park/ & lil
specks of somethin from tween his toes or the biscuits
from the day before ran in the sweat that tucked the sheet
into his limbs like he was an ol frozen bundle of chicken/
& he’d get up to make coffee, dri... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S3-6",
"S3-8",
"S8-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
fe1330d110aae617 | On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic | William Wordsworth | Once did She hold the gorgeous east in fee;And was the safeguard of the west: the worthOf Venice did not fall below her birth,Venice, the eldest Child of Liberty.She was a maiden City, bright and free;No guile seduced, no force could violate;And, when she took unto herself a Mate,She must espouse the everlasting Sea.An... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S6-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Living/Mourning"
] |
ff43e2bb4ec26333 | A Little Washington DC Dream | Philip Lamantia | The Due D’Aumal’s cannonballs
Are being marshmellowed 370 years from their masonic inception
Now lie on the Potomac
The Due D’Aumal’s balls cannonaded
Split
Through mirror teeth Washington D.C.
Black City of white rectangular bits of fear
Blown fluff of fear
O the Duke of Aumal’s balls are raging
Yellow vermin... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
90325f353ba1d1b0 | I Hid my Love | John Clare | I hid my love when young till I
Couldn't bear the buzzing of a fly;
I hid my love to my despite
Till I could not bear to look at light:
I dare not gaze upon her face
But left her memory in each place;
Where'er I saw a wild flower lie
I kissed and bade my love good-bye.
I met her in the greenest dells,
Where dewdrops pe... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S1-6",
"S1-7",
"S2-2",
"S2-7",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Nature/Summer",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
] |
c9362ac084c4ea34 | Coco(nut) | Mahogany L. Browne | Beside the tree
Beside the chair
Beside the house
Beside the pit
Beside the tree stump
Coco say don’t climb / so I don’t / I sit & stare — my skin coming dark and burnt
They say: tire
I say: brown
They say: Black Black can’t take back!
& I don’t
I learnt to not ask where I’m from
I learn to listen, then not
... | [
"S3",
"S6"
] | [
"S3-8",
"S6-3",
"S6-8"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Living/Youth"
] |
64907ea041dcaebb | [the snow is melting] | Kobayashi Issa | The snow is melting and the village is flooded with children. | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S2-10",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Nature/Weather",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
] |
f9b40dfddea08ddb | Sop Préacháin [A Crow's Wisp] | Aifric Mac Aodha | Do Keara [For Keara]
stuaimBa cheart bhur gcur ó aithne,tá an tír róbheag, teanganíos stuama a chleachtadhnó seasamh siar ón tús.Ach anois thar aon am eile,níl teacht ná dul ón tosach.Ag cóisir daoibh in íoslach tí,thug tú úll dó in áit osclóra.Bíonn dúil agus dúil ann,a shonc féin, ba mheidhreach:Bíonn diúltú agus di... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
83e6f0d243366a16 | True Confessions Variations | Lynn Crosbie | (The Homemaker of the Month)
Ysidro calls me at night, meeya carra. his big
blonde bean, and slides his moustache across my
neck. he’s dark, and like I imagine his country,
flat and arid, face a painted clay pot drying
on the windowsill, on his lip, trails a snake
with black twisted rattles. he asks me about
my ... | [
"S8"
] | [
"S8-5"
] | [
"Relationships"
] | [
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
d282dd398f00beb1 | The Boston Evening Transcript | T. S. Eliot | The readers of the Boston Evening Transcript Sway in the wind like a field of ripe corn. When evening quickens faintly in the street, Wakening the appetites of life in some And to others bringing the Boston Evening Transcript, I mount the steps and ring the bell, turning Wearily, as one would turn to nod good-bye to Ro... | [
"S3",
"S6"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S3-2"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor"
] |
902d47809848dcbc | "Hush little baby, don't say a word," | Mother Goose | Hush little baby, don't say a word,
Papa's gonna buy you a mockingbird.
And if that mockingbird won't sing,
Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring.
And if that diamond ring turns to brass,
Papa's gonna buy you a looking glass.
And if that looking glass gets broke,
Papa's gonna buy you a billy goat.
And if that bil... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-2",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Birth & Infancy",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
8d040226565dfc2f | Eleventh Song | Sir Philip Sidney | "Who is it that this dark night
Underneath my window plaineth?"
It is one who from thy sight
Being, ah, exil'd, disdaineth
Every other vulgar light.
"Why, alas, and are you he?
Be not yet those fancies changed?"
Dear, when you find change in me,
Though from me you be estranged,
Let my change to ruin be.
"Well, in absen... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-6",
"S3-4",
"S8-1"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Relationships/Breakups & Separation"
] |
ece11feacdb6f401 | Under the Edge of February | Jayne Cortez | Under the edge of february
in hawk of a throat
hidden by ravines of sweet oil
by temples of switchblades
beautiful in its sound of fertility
beautiful in its turban of funeral crepe
beautiful in its camouflage of grief
in its solitude of bruises
in its arson of alert
Who will enter its beautiful calligraphy of... | [
"S2",
"S3"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S3-1"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life"
] |
4bd8fa69789e16cb | What's Wrong | Landis Everson | "What you are struggling with," said the psychologist, "is a continuous song, something like a telephone's tone. Nebulous, noncommittal, unrelenting, pretending to give you messages it can't deliver. Because the body is unattached. It is," he said, "like a valentine sent out cold, beautiful, brittle as tomorrow's deja-... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-6"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Health & Illness"
] |
8b7c82943db8fe98 | Delight in Disorder | Robert Herrick | A sweet disorder in the dress Kindles in clothes a wantonness; A lawn about the shoulders thrown Into a fine distraction; An erring lace, which here and there Enthrals the crimson stomacher; A cuff neglectful, and thereby Ribands to flow confusedly; A winning wave, deserving note, In the tempestuous petticoat; A carele... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S3",
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S1-4",
"S1-6",
"S1-8",
"S3-4"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Love/Classic Love",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
4a0b89b370a9ef59 | Confessions | Robert Browning | What is he buzzing in my ears?
"Now that I come to die,
Do I view the world as a vale of tears?"
Ah, reverend sir, not I!
What I viewed there once, what I view again
Where the physic bottles stand
On the table's edge,—is a suburb lane,
With a wall to my bedside hand.
That lane sloped, much as the bo... | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-4",
"S1-5",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Love",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes",
"Love/New Love",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
eba94aa314862d5c | Reading Dickinson / Summer ‘68 | Peter Balakian | In the hermetic almost dark
under the fluorescent dizz
I found her broken nerves,
smoke coming off the dashes,
the caps like jolts to the neck,
the pried-open spaces between vowels
where the teeth bit off twine
and the tongue was raw then cool with ice.
The air of the stockroom after lunch
was the marbleized s... | [
"S1",
"S6",
"S7",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S6-3",
"S9-4",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Love",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
5046bb494a070dac | Flowers | Cynthia Zarin | This morning I was walking upstairs
from the kitchen, carrying your
beautiful flowers, the flowers you
brought me last night, calla lilies
and something else, I am not
sure what to call them, white flowers,
of course you had no way of knowing
it has been years since I bought
white flowers—but now you have
and ... | [
"S2",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-8",
"S8-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
ba9a90e1724b6744 | The Witch | Elizabeth Willis | A witch can charm milk from an ax handle.
A witch bewitches a man's shoe.
A witch sleeps naked.
"Witch ointment" on the back will allow you to fly through the air.
A witch carries the four of clubs in her sleeve.
A witch may be sickened at the scent of roasting meat.
A witch will neither sink nor swim.
When cru... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S11"
] | [
"S11-2"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Ghosts & the Supernatural"
] |
f9a86c90299823dc | Mezzo Cammin | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | Half of my life is gone, and I have let The years slip from me and have not fulfilled The aspiration of my youth, to build Some tower of song with lofty parapet. Not indolence, nor pleasure, nor the fret Of restless passions that would not be stilled, But sorrow, and a care that almost killed, Kept me... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-1"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Aging"
] |
28af0f85e4149653 | Before Completion | Arthur Sze | 1 I gaze through a telescope at the Orion Nebula,
a blue vapor with a cluster of white stars,
gaze at the globular cluster in Hercules,
needle and pinpoint lights stream into my eyes.
A woman puts a baby in a plastic bag
and places it in a dumpster; someone
parking a car hea... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S10-6",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
] |
efd007151538b3d1 | Friday Snow | Reginald Gibbons | Something needs to be done—like dragging a big black plastic sack through the upstairs rooms, emptying into it each waste basket, the trash of three lives for a week or so. I am careful and slow about it, so that this little chore will banish the big ones. But I leave the bag lying on the floor and I go into my daughte... | [
"S3",
"S6"
] | [
"S6-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Parenthood"
] |
53e4c824cc2994a4 | Yellowjackets | Yusef Komunyakaa | When the plowblade struck An old stump hiding under The soil like a beggar’s Rotten tooth, they swarmed up & Mister Jackson left the plow Wedged like a whaler’s harpoon. The horse was midnight Against dusk, tethered to somebody’s Pocketwatch. He shivered, but not The way women shook their heads Bef... | [
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S8-8",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
5da78df4fec38d06 | Answer | Chinua Achebe | I broke at last
the terror-fringed fascination
that bound my ancient gaze
to those crowding faces
of plunder and seized my
remnant life in a miracle
of decision between white-
collar hands and shook it
like a cheap watch in
my ear and threw it down
beside me on the earth floor
and rose to my feet. I
made of... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S4-1",
"S8-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"History & Politics/Money & Economics",
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
33bd029a2e9936d5 | Good Morning, Dear Students | Kenn Nesbitt | “Good morning, dear students,” the principal said.
“Please put down your pencils and go back to bed.
Today we will spend the day playing outside,
then take the whole school on a carnival ride.
“We’ll learn to eat candy while watching TV,
then listen to records and swing from a tree.
We’ll also be learning to draw... | [
"S9"
] | [
"S9-6"
] | [
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Study & Knowledge"
] |
de420443b07b0c5e | Dressing Down, 1962 | Lesley Wheeler | “Shalom,” called the pink-shirted man in the Oceanic Terminal of Heathrow, and I snapped, “I do not want to talk to you.” Manic with fear, I extended one pointy-tipped shoe, tapped the message home. My cases bulged with the wrong clothes, every outfit trimmed with clipped English, fit for telephone jobs on Long... | [
"S3",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-7",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
a4931190b7c017b2 | Living Ancients | Matthew Shenoda | For those of us young
healthy
we will face the mourning of our elders.
Bury them beneath
the earth.
And for those of us
who believe the living
ever-live
we will stand by the graves of our teachers
and know that we
like those we've buried
are living ancients. | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
9cdca9249f580223 | A Marriage Poem | Ellen Bryant Voigt | 1.
Morning: the caged baby
sustains his fragile sleep.
The house is a husk against weather.
Nothing stirs—inside, outside.
With the leaves fallen,
the tree makes a web on the window
and through it the world
lacks color or texture,
like stones in the pasture
seen from this distance.
This is what is done with ... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S8-5",
"S8-7"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Relationships/Home Life",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
bb607a6681854018 | Daughters of the King | Cheryl Savageau | Les Filles du Roi (1668)
French men are marrying Indian women. It will have to be stopped. Wives will have to be found. French wives for French men. And so the call goes out to all the unfortunates in France. Women without homes, without family, poor women, women alone. Women with no dowries to buy a husband. Becomes ... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S8-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
71632f6bd9478e10 | Why Is We Americans | Alison C. Rollins | We is gator teeth hanging from the rear-
view mirror as sickle cells suckle at Big
Momma’s teats. We is dragonfly
choppers hovering above Walden Pond.
We is spinal cords shedding like the skin
of a cottonmouth. We is Psalm 23 and
the Pastor’s chattering chicklets. We isa good problem to have. We is throats
const... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S5",
"S6",
"S10",
"S11"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S3-8",
"S5-2",
"S5-4",
"S6-4",
"S10-3",
"S11-3"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Religion",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Mythology & Folklore/Greek & Roman Mythology",
"Nature/Animals",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Religion/Christianity",
"Religion/God & the Divine",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
55caaac4b1aa3a58 | Corydon & Alexis, Redux | D. A. Powell | and yet we think that song outlasts us all: wrecked devotion the wept face of desire, a kind of savage caring that reseeds itself and grows in clusters oh, you who are young, consider how quickly the body deranges itself how time, the cruel banker, forecloses us to snowdrifts white as god’s own ribs what ... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-3"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Heartache & Loss"
] |
c0840d6cf5d963ff | To James Fenton | John Fuller | The poet’s duties: no need to stress
The subject’s dullness, nonetheless
Here’s an incestuous address
In Robert Burns’ style
To one whom all the Muses bless
At Great Turnstile.
I’ve no excuses for this theme.
Prescription is less popular than dream
And little rhymes, God knows, can seem
Much ... | [
"S3",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-7",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture"
] |
786b8cd6f7527592 | Provo | Mark Rudman | It's hard to get anywhere in Utah without going through Provo.
I can't tell you the number of times
I went there as a teenager, the number
Of times I drove into town in the early
Afternoon, hungry, and had to look around
For a place to eat. You don't have to starve
In Provo but you eat at your own risk.
At no ri... | [
"S3",
"S9",
"S11"
] | [
"S9-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
56f2eb88bdbb7a19 | Route 684, Southbound Rest Stop | Jessica Greenbaum | So you see why it could not have been a more humble moment.
If there was any outward sign of regalia
It might have been the twilight crowning of the day, just then,
A perfect moment of dusk, but changing, as a wave does
Even as you admire it. Because the southbound stop
Mirrors the one northbound where we so often... | [
"S6",
"S7",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S6-7",
"S8-3",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
289842ff3a7bc996 | Thigh Gap | Kiki Petrosino | It's true: I have it
though I hardly approve
of anything it does.
Supposed bend of light
or smudge where two odd
angles cross. I hardly see—
can hardly do a thing
with it. White zone of
no flesh pressing
into no. So low, I can’t
scale or measure it. I used
to think: OK! A clean sharp place
to keep. Or: I'l... | [
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Living"
] | [] |
51ab290914402238 | O Calgary | Tom Wayman | In Calgary
I saw a man break a dog’s back.
—Joseph Stroud, “Calligraphy”
i
In Calgary
I saw a man marry moneyWho giveth this money?
the commissioner asked
The man saidEveryone who works for me
The commissioner askedWhere are they? I don’t hear them declare it
The man said That’s not their jobYou do yoursDo you... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4",
"S9"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S3-11",
"S4-1",
"S9-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Activities"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"History & Politics/Money & Economics",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
914f4f2568001143 | Street Boy | J. Allyn Rosser | The afternoon slows down, the town in steady rain.
That one with the trendy chicken-plucked look—
hair a tufted circle on top, the rest shaved all around—
I can't really care about. Of course I hope
he grows up without totalling himself and his car,
but he's the clown in this act. He seems even
to know his place as unw... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S3-7",
"S6-3",
"S8-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture",
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Relationships/Friendship"
] |
2eef44c80bdb5fad | Somewhere or Other | Christina Rossetti | Somewhere or other there must surely be
The face not seen, the voice not heard,
The heart that not yet—never yet—ah me!
Made answer to my word.
Somewhere or other, may be near or far;
Past land and sea, clean out of sight;
Beyond the wandering moon, beyond the star
That tracks her night by night.
Somewhere ... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-3",
"S1-7",
"S1-9"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Heartache & Loss",
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Love/Unrequited Love"
] |
41ccf21b5c318981 | Reservation | Diane Glancy | This prairie holds us
with its plainness.
An ugly wife.
We would not stay but children comfort us
and we need this flatness.
On our table
a carp with a tumor
on its lip,
larva eating its side.
An old man laughs,
one silver tooth
in his head
like a galvanized
watertank.
We are driven back
into the land,
... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S3-8",
"S6-5",
"S8-3",
"S8-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity",
"Living/Mourning",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
ed50164b9e838f8c | "Perhaps this verse would please you better—Sue—(2)" | Colette Labouff Atkinson | Before boys, Susan drove me to work, for teriyaki takeout on Manchester past Lincoln Boulevard. Inseparable, we planned winter and Easter vacations. In the stairwell, I tried to talk. She cut me off. Her echo was loud when she said you can’t see yourself. We went to see Purple Rain. That fall, I had dinner with a boy. ... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S6-3",
"S8-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Relationships/Friendship"
] |
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