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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ad40213562b7566d | Delivery | Maggie Dietz | 1. Waking
First the low drone of
uilleann pipes, the river
of the spine just barely
quivering: the froth
on a half-drunk pint
of Guiness shifting
as the bellow breathes.
2. Waiting
A pressure sprouting
in the back—the joke
I told about having
eaten a pumpkin seed
to astonish the moon-
faced... | [
"S6"
] | [
"S6-2"
] | [
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Birth & Infancy"
] |
0b53641080a9130b | Envoy | Lisa Robertson | I have tried to say
that, although Love is not judgement
analysis too is a style
of affect
since the scale that rends me vulnerable
has cut, from abundance, doubt
(not that identity shunts
civic ratio or consequence) Sure —
I would prefer to respond to only
the established charms (and forget inconvenience)
bu... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S3-4",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
2d85c2263755d677 | The Bat | Ellen Bryant Voigt | Reading in bed, full of sentiment
for the mild evening and the children
asleep in adjacent rooms, hearing them
cry out now and then the brief reports
of sufficient imagination, and listening
at the same time compassionately
to the scrabble of claws, the fast treble
in the chimney—
then it ... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-5"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Animals"
] |
94223accf43895fe | What I Saw | Robert Duncan | The white peacock roosting
might have been Christ,
featherd robe of Osiris,
the radiant bird, a sword-flash,
percht in the tree
and the other, the fumed-glass slide
—were like night and day,
the slit of an eye opening in
time
vertical to the horizon | [
"S5",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S8-8"
] | [
"Religion",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals"
] |
a4dfa8b365c40cbe | Getting in the Wood | Gary Snyder | The sour smell,
blue stain,
water squirts out round the wedge,
Lifting quarters of rounds
covered with ants,
"a living glove of ants upon my hand"
the poll of the sledge a bit peened over
so the wedge springs off and tumbles
ringing like high-pitched bells
... | [
"S2",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S10-3"
] | [
"Nature",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
] |
9c0ef415ed4cc48a | The Newspaper | Penina Moise | To a Venetian coin, the first Gazetta For its generic title became debtor.
Whither excursive Fancy tends thy Flight? Like Eastern Caliph masking thee at night, By Vezier memory attended still, Thou pertly pryest in each domicil. Woe! to the Caitiff then who in his cups, Unconscious with sublimity he sups, ... | [
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S9-4",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
40a687fa725b9c02 | Four-Leaf Clover | Ella Higginson | I know a place where the sun is like gold, And the cherry blooms burst with snow, And down underneath is the loveliest nook, Where the four-leaf clovers grow. One leaf is for hope, and one is for faith, And one is for love, you know, And God put another in for luck— If you search, you will find where they g... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-8"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Plants & Fungi"
] |
68f8e90cf594e947 | John Altoon | Cedar Sigo | The neck
of the flask
pitch black-getting bored
jacked
also madness, insidious
intended ghost
(days late)
I cro... | [
"S6",
"S7",
"S10"
] | [
"S10-2",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets"
] |
1453c42ea0ac7195 | In a Station of the Metro | Dan Beachy-Quick | Peace fell on the dim lands a sort of abstractionThe metronome counted one petal after anotherSo the petals fell as or in some musicThis song needs no breath just an apparitionWith a mouth open and eyes and eyesThe wet smear of eyes beneath pink Petals in excess of the window frame’s bright Yellow square and yes spring... | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-6"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets"
] |
773e1593cddbd8d8 | In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII: 95 | Alfred, Lord Tennyson | By night we linger'd on the lawn, For underfoot the herb was dry; And genial warmth; and o'er the sky The silvery haze of summer drawn; And calm that let the tapers burn Unwavering: not a cricket chirr'd: The brook alone far-off was heard, And on the board the fluttering urn: And bat... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-2",
"S6-4",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Summer",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
b04310caa79d5fcc | American Poetry | Louis Simpson | Whatever it is, it must have
A stomach that can digest
Rubber, coal, uranium, moons, poems.
Like the shark it contains a shoe.
It must swim for miles through the desert
Uttering cries that are almost human. | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-6"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets"
] |
f289d3c2d4deca52 | My Wisdom | Naomi Shihab Nye | When people have a lot
they want more
When people have nothing
they will happily share it
*
Some people say
never getting your way
builds character
By now our character must be
deep and wide as a continent
Africa, Australia
giant cascade of stars
spilling over our huge night
*
Where did the power go?
Did... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S5",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S10-2"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Religion",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
3c150b07a17ecef8 | My Brother’s Bear | Bruce Lansky | My baby brother has a bear
that travels with him everywhere.
He never lets the bear from sight.
He hugs it in his crib at night.
And when my brother’s diaper smells,
the name of the bear is what he yells—
which is a clever thing to do
because my brother named it Pooh. | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-2",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Birth & Infancy",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
afe371ba2d3c8555 | Cephalic | Orlando White | I place a black cloth the size of a dot over his head. Wrap his entire miniscule body
with a thread of my black hair. He lies there on a white sheet of paper and squirms like
a dark cocoon, thinks he is going to transform. The letter, when it begins to lose color
in a book never opened, becomes a macula in thought. ... | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-1",
"S10-2",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Architecture & Design",
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books"
] |
bafc83b0529770e6 | Though some Saith that Youth Ruleth me | Henry VIII, King of England | Though some saith that youth ruleth me,
I trust in age to tarry.
God and my right and my duty,
From them I shall never vary,
Though some say that youth ruleth me.
I pray you all that aged be,
How well did ye your youth carry?
I think some worse, of each degree:
Therein a wager lay dare I,
Though... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S10-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy"
] |
8bf76dc1370e14fa | To be of use | Marge Piercy | The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
w... | [
"S9"
] | [
"S9-4"
] | [
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
c6439b80ed85093f | from From "Living Truthfully Under Imaginary Circumstances" | Elizabeth A.I. Powell | The goal of the Meisner acting technique has often been described
as getting actors to "live truthfully under imaginary circumstances."
Here are some acting games we have found useful.
I.
THE REPETITION GAME:
The Moment is a Tricky Fucker | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-5",
"S10-10"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Theater & Dance",
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy"
] |
03d28e8d16d7a95c | Personally Engraved | Alice Fulton | There are many opportunities here for unrequited friendship,
the offer letter said. All you need is a chain saw and die grinder.
In this spirit I force my eyes across your message,
revisiting that due diligence tone you do so well.
I’m searching for some whispered twist or shout,
but all emotion’s leveled, the way... | [
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Living"
] | [] |
2eb54fefeec15a12 | Last August Hours Before the Year 2000 | Naomi Shihab Nye | Spun silk of mercy,
long-limbed afternoon,
sun urging purple blossoms from baked stems.
What better blessing than to move without hurry
under trees?
Lugging a bucket to the rose that became a twining
house by now, roof and walls of vine—
you could live inside this rose.
Pouring a slow stream around the
ancient... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S2-2"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Nature/Summer"
] |
ab88617ab378dda6 | Three Words | Li-Young Lee | God-My-Father gave me three words:O-My-Love.
O-My-God.
Holy-Holy-Holy. | [
"S5",
"S8"
] | [
"S5-8",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Religion",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Religion/The Spiritual",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
36ae9aac3696ec71 | Men at My Father’s Funeral | William Matthews | The ones his age who shook my hand
on their way out sent fear along
my arm like heroin. These weren’t
men mute about their feelings,
or what’s a body language for?
And I, the glib one, who’d stood
with my back to my father’s body
and praised the heart that attacked him?
I’d made my stab at elegy,
the flesh mad... | [
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S8-3",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
6d81644e783c5655 | Song | W. D. Snodgrass | Observe the cautious toadstools
still on the lawn today
though they grow over-evening;
sun shrinks them away.
Pale and proper and rootless,
they righteously extort
their living from the living.
I have been their sort.
See by our blocked foundation
the cold, archaic clay,
stiff and clinging... | [
"S3",
"S5",
"S6",
"S8",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S6-4",
"S8-7",
"S9-2"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Religion",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship",
"Activities/Gardening & Farming"
] |
eab640660b5372e5 | South Carolina Morning | Yusef Komunyakaa | Her red dress & hat
tease the sky’s level-
headed blue. Outside
a country depot,
she could be a harlot
or saint on Sunday
morning. We know
Hopper could slant
light till it falls
on our faces. She waits
for a tall blues singer
whose twelve-string is
hours out of hock,
for a pullman porter
wi... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-6",
"S3-4"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Realistic & Complicated",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
ce3533946a46295d | On the Eve of a Birthday | Timothy Steele | As my Scotch, spared the water, blondly sloshes
About its tumbler, and gay manic flame
Is snapping in the fireplace, I grow youthful:
I realize that calendars aren’t truthful
And that for all of my grand unsuccesses
External causes are to blame.
And if at present somewhat destitute,
I plan to alter, prove myself... | [
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
4e18b9a338965435 | Hinterlands | Sy Hoahwah | My ancestors were not diligent
and so they lived beside the fort
that's neither on the maps of Heaven,
Nor of Hell.
In these lands, there is no difference
between a star and thrown car keys.
Chicken nuggets hatch from the eggs of eagles.
I grow dirty while bathing in bottled water.
My bed comforter is a wet par... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S8",
"S11"
] | [
"S4-1",
"S8-3",
"S11-2"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Relationships",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Ghosts & the Supernatural",
"History & Politics/Money & Economics",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
c922833e7c87d82f | Minor Miracle | Marilyn Nelson | Which reminds me of another knock-on-wood
memory. I was cycling with a male friend,
through a small midwestern town. We came to a 4-way
stop and stopped, chatting. As we started again,
a rusty old pick-up truck, ignoring the stop sign,
hurricaned past scant inches from our front wheels.
My partner called, “Hey, t... | [
"S3",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-8"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
4f959c71054bc0c4 | Somebody Said the Riffs Sounded Like Metal, | Stephanie Gray | you know I wanted to know which one, the bridges are all made of metal out here, the
diners are still chrome-plated-affairs, a silver lunch box you could almost pick up and
carry on your way home but instead you fit yourself inside of its dents, bulky, heavy
metal, you just went for the leather jacket, you know I fl... | [
"S3",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
88ae011cc56961e5 | Easter, 1916 | William Butler Yeats | I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a ... | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
aecd41d5bdc4b34b | Staying | Pierluigi Cappello | My eyes turned to salt in looking back,
my thoughts stood still in gestures,
in the silence of what’s been done;
I gathered the crumbs of another lunch
and shook them into the garden’s vitreous air
where the sun’s just cracked and spilled.
Here, even a flutter of blackbird beyond the hedge
stands still, as my wo... | [
"S6",
"S7"
] | [
"S6-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [
"Living/Mourning"
] |
a45e976d7e25f151 | The Chaste Stranger | James Tate | All the sexually active people in Westport
look so clean and certain, I wonder
if they’re dead. Their lives are tennis
without end, the avocado-green Mercedes
waiting calm as you please. Perhaps it is
my brain that is unplugged, and these
shadow-people don’t know how to drink
martinis anymore. They are suddenly ... | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S4-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"History & Politics/Money & Economics"
] |
13715d1fb9d93c6a | from Stanzas in Meditation: Stanza 14 | Gertrude Stein | She need not be selfish but he may add
They like my way it is partly mine
In which case for them to foil or not please
Come which they may they may in June.
Not having all made plenty by their wish
In their array all which they plan
Should they be called covered by which
It is fortunately their stay that they ma... | [
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S10-2"
] | [
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics"
] |
ce682e4f58507311 | for my dead & loved ones | Ntozake Shange | (for gail, tracie & viola)
whatever shall i do with my dead
my tombs & mausoleums
these potted plants tended by strangers
over yr eyes closed
maybe dreaming dead/ loved
so particularly i dont know
what to do with you
shall i see you dancin/
hold yr child askin/ what’s mammy like
should... | [
"S1",
"S6"
] | [
"S1-3",
"S6-4",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Love",
"Living"
] | [
"Love/Heartache & Loss",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
c116a8211d6da899 | On the Ground | Saskia Hamilton | When the collie saw the childbreak from the crowd,he gave chase, and since they bothwere border-crossers,they left this world. We were then made of—affronted by—silence.The train passed Poste 5, Paris,late arrival, no luck, noenlarging commentarymagnified in any glass.“The ineffableis everywhere in language”the speaker... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S10-2",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics",
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Nature/Animals"
] |
f8968f3c3b049a96 | Stalker | Alice Notley | The light so thick nothing’s visible, cognoscentiI knew them, stupid apes. Real apes know moreBefore we said apes. I know how to be you bet-ter — a stupid voice. You must find a mind to respect — why? There was someone with earbuds, speaking gibberish who wouldn’tstop walking beside me; freckle-spattered. Ihad to ask t... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S9"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S9-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Activities"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
c55668c9c428dad6 | Alexandreis | Anne Killigrew | I sing the man that never equal knew, Whose mighty arms all Asia did subdue, Whose conquests through the spacious world do ring, That city-raser, king-destroying king, Who o’er the warlike Macedons did reign, And worthily the name of Great did gain. This is the prince (if fame you will believe, To ancient story any cre... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S11"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S11-3",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Greek & Roman Mythology",
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
9cf335be11e1173f | The Soldier of Mictlán | Rigoberto González | Once upon a time there was a soldier
who marched to Mictlán in his soldier
boots and every step was a soldier
step and every breath was a soldier
word. Do you know what this soldier
said? I'd like a piece of bread for my soldier
hand. I'd like a slice of cheese for my soldier
nose. And I'd like a woman for my so... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
4df1a9f4163735ef | II [What is this tint that in the shrill cress] | Lisa Robertson | What is this tint that in the shrill cress
Will never cease to trouble us and in the fields
Gives prick and praise for Beauty?
And said birds that feed on berries
Are pervious—and shook the snow from his thighs.
I thought of nothing carefully, but of snow, and the birds.
Then kissed the cup and sipped a little
T... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S2-7"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
] |
fc876a30b74bb26c | Dropping Leaflets | Jena Osman | Help me come up with a strategy to get through this white noise.
— U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney,
November 2001
Are we on the ground now? Ally cells and I said operations.
We cleared 50% of a wonderful friend and enduring opposition.
Take the solid.
Louder.
We clearly are loud. We are the postal syste... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S10",
"S11"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Arts & Sciences",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict"
] |
1434babab985f1d2 | Song: Memory, hither come | William Blake | Memory, hither come, And tune your merry notes; And, while upon the wind, Your music floats, I'll pore upon the stream, Where sighing lovers dream, And fish for fancies as they pass Within the watery glass. I'll drink of the clear stream, And hear the linnet's song; And the... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S6",
"S8",
"S10"
] | [
"S1-3",
"S1-9",
"S2-6",
"S2-7",
"S6-5",
"S10-3"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Love/Heartache & Loss",
"Love/Unrequited Love",
"Arts & Sciences/Music",
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
fb8665eacab89a1f | Foul Shots: A Clinic | William Matthews | for Paul Levitt
Be perpendicular to the basket,
toes avid for the line.
Already this description
is perilously abstract: the ball
and basket are round, the nailhead
centered in the centerplank
of the foul-circle is round,
and though the rumpled body
isn’t round, it isn’t
perpendicular. You have to draw
“an i... | [
"S9"
] | [
"S9-5"
] | [
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Sports & Outdoor Activities"
] |
0fde327aede35a74 | Blood | Naomi Shihab Nye | “A true Arab knows how to catch a fly in his hands,”
my father would say. And he’d prove it,
cupping the buzzer instantly
while the host with the swatter stared.
In the spring our palms peeled like snakes.
True Arabs believed watermelon could heal fifty ways.
I changed these to fit the occasion.
Years before, a ... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
7532b5a52574063e | In a Dark Room | Cassie Lewis | ’Cause it’s alright, alright to see a ghost.
— The National
Rock quartz next to a fence with upturned faces.
On the hill, on the other side
a storm, or plausibly, you.
Time keeps its footsteps regular until it is clapped upwards:
a falcon glides into view.
Dissolving into the pool in a splash of white,
I saw y... | [
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Living"
] | [] |
7edfbb004612835e | [THE NIGHT THAT LORCA COMES] | Bob Kaufman | THE NIGHT THAT LORCA COMES
SHALL BE A STRANGE NIGHT IN THE
SOUTH, IT SHALL BE THE TIME WHEN NEGROES LEAVE THE
SOUTH
FOREVER,
GREEN TRAINS SHALL ARRIVE
FROM RED PLANET MARS
CRACKLING BLUENESS SHALL SEND TOOTH-COVERED CARS FOR
THEM
TO LEAVE IN, TO GO INTO
THE NORTH FOREVER, AND I SEE MY LITTLE GIRL MOTH... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-8",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
85d2dfb75cc47591 | Leave him now Quiet by the Way | Trumbull Stickney | Leave him now quiet by the way To rest apart. I know what draws him to the dust alway And churns him in the builder’s lime: He has the fright of time. I heard it knocking in his breast A minute since; His human eyes did wince, He stubborned like the massive slaughter beast And as a thing o’erwhelmed with sound Stood bo... | [
"S6",
"S7"
] | [] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity"
] | [] |
05b90e5866ee1ca8 | And on the Third Day | Andrew Allport | We called off the search,
and the weary climbed down from the glacier
with their dogs exhausted in the spring sun
too tired to eat the ice in their paws.
We had called his name, mostly for show,
a ritual that kept us moving: in the high bowls,
their stunted pines predating the flood,
in the steep ravines sliding... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S3-9",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Social Commentaries/Rural & Country Life",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
6057ee8a077d0879 | The Beggars | Margaret Widdemer | The little pitiful, worn, laughing faces,
Begging of Life for Joy!
I saw the little daughters of the poor,
Tense from the long day's working, strident, gay,
Hurrying to the picture-place. There curled
A hideous flushed beggar at the door,
Trading upon his horror, eyeless, maimed,
Complacent in his profitable mask.
They... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S3-4",
"S6-3",
"S9-4",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
5a36b7403ba21a87 | [From Mars cruel god of war] | Franco Buffoni | From Mars cruel god of war The desire to tie the corpse to the chariot And drag it around each morning, From Mercury the idea to put a stop to that And buy the body back. Because everything sooner or later becomes a musical Or a collectible card or figurine Hitler or the Fierce Saladin Dracula the Impaler All stripped ... | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S3-6",
"S3-11"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Social Commentaries/Incarceration & Justice"
] |
273a01a3ea0d3dfb | Fourth of July at Santa Ynez | John Haines | I
Under the makeshift arbor of leaves
a hot wind blowing smoke and laughter.
Music out of the renegade west,
too harsh and loud, many dark faces
moved among the sweating whites.
II
Wandering apart from the others,
I found an old Indian seated alone
on a bench in the flickering shade.
He was holding a... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4",
"S6"
] | [] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living"
] | [] |
9995c7044ffba038 | This Landscape Before Me | Sarah Holland-Batt | Is unwritten, though it has lived in violence.First the factory stood, quiet as an asylum. Then the annihilating mallee with its red fists of blossoms and the mountain ash creeping over it like a stain.I have no proof, but I tell you there were leadlight windows here once, barred.They cast a little striped light on the... | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S3-2"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor"
] |
ff6c7d9f82cc7383 | Don’t Let That Horse . . . | Lawrence Ferlinghetti | Don’t let that horse
eat that violin
cried Chagall’s mother
But he
kept right on
painting
And became famous
And kept on painting
The Horse With Violin I... | [
"S10"
] | [
"S10-4"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Painting & Sculpture"
] |
86a738e361dcd0dd | Pastoral | Jennifer Chang | Something in the field is
working away. Root-noise.
Twig-noise. Plant
of weak chlorophyll, no
name for it. Something
in the field has mastered
distance by living too close
to fences. Yellow fruit, has it
pit or seeds? Stalk of wither. Grass-
noise fighting weed-noise. Dirt
and chant. Something in the
field. ... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S2-8"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi"
] |
80bab3ac454d43ad | The Festubert Shrine | Edmund Blunden | A sycamore on either side
In whose lovely leafage cried
Hushingly the little winds —
Thus was Mary’s shrine descried.
“Sixteen Hundred and Twenty-Four”
Legended above the door,
“Pray, sweet gracious Lady, pray
For our souls,”—and nothing more.
Builded of rude gray stones and these
Scarred and mar... | [
"S3",
"S5"
] | [
"S3-11",
"S5-2"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Religion"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Religion/Christianity"
] |
7eb6a23f0de8d190 | In the Secular Night | Margaret Atwood | In the secular night you wander around
alone in your house. It’s two-thirty.
Everyone has deserted you,
or this is your story;
you remember it from being sixteen,
when the others were out somewhere, having a good time,
or so you suspected,
and you had to baby-sit.
You took a large scoop of vanilla ice-cream
an... | [
"S8"
] | [
"S8-5"
] | [
"Relationships"
] | [
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
5898d15db456b8c3 | Invisible Fish | Joy Harjo | Invisible fish swim this ghost ocean now described by waves of sand, by water-worn rock. Soon the fish will learn to walk. Then humans will come ashore and paint dreams on the dying stone. Then later, much later, the ocean floor will be punctuated by Chevy trucks, carrying the dreamers’ decendants, who are going to the... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S2-7",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
cd324ee92bd59388 | In Heaven | Stephen Crane | XVIII
In Heaven,
Some little blades of grass
Stood before God.
“What did you do?”
Then all save one of the little blades
Began eagerly to relate
The merits of their lives.
This one stayed a small way behind
Ashamed.
Presently God said:
“And what did you do?”
The little blade answered: “Oh, my lord,
“Memory is bitter to... | [
"S5"
] | [
"S5-4"
] | [
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/God & the Divine"
] |
a969aa5859e89e41 | Cat, Failing | Robin Robertson | A figment, a thumbed maquette of a cat, some ditched plaything, something brought in from outside: his white fur stiff and grey, coming apart at the seams. I study the muzzle of perished rubber, one ear eaten away, his sour body lumped like a bean-bag leaking thinly into a grim towel. I sit and watch the light degrade ... | [
"S8"
] | [
"S8-8"
] | [
"Relationships"
] | [
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals"
] |
695fe6aa236bb3f3 | Elegy for a Soldier | Marilyn Hacker | June Jordan, 1936-2002
I.
The city where I knew you was swift.
A lover cabbed to Brooklyn
(broke, but so what) after the night shift
in a Second Avenue
diner. The lover was a Quaker,
a poet, an anti-war
activist. Was blonde, was twenty-four.
Wet snow fell on the access
road to the Manhattan Bridge. I was
nei... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S3-4",
"S3-8",
"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/Gender & Sexuality",
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
e755bbcd97a919f3 | Night-Piece | Charles Reznikoff | I saw within the shadows of the yard the shed
and saw the snow upon its roof—
an oblong glowing in the moonlit night.
I could not rest or close my eyes,
although I knew that I must rise
early next morning and begin my work again,
and begin my work again.
That day was lost—that month as well;
and year and year f... | [
"S6",
"S7",
"S9"
] | [
"S9-4"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Activities"
] | [
"Activities/Jobs & Working"
] |
edb4ef395b4a57fc | Each Bound of the Fiery Paper | Calvin Bedient | 1
Who does me this I whistle off
brazen as the green of the Palestinian flag
Strange wishful little books clot my fur
I do not labor except to season my domain
Through seven holes all things twitter
I reject the disjecta of allegory
A sluttery roller skate grips my shoe
2
Is there enough chaos in you to make a... | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S10-2"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Language & Linguistics"
] |
e9db5affc0d995a4 | Luna | Alurista | lunatuna
fluttering
below belly
pasiones swooping
down deep
gathering storms
treasuring
rainergías pacíficas
marítimas, montañescas
abotona tu vientre, maja
easles b ready
... | [
"S3",
"S6"
] | [
"S3-8"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Race & Ethnicity"
] |
165277860dc8a308 | Styx | Robert Duncan | And a tenth part of Okeanos is given to dark night
a tithe of the pure water under earth
so that the clear fountains pour from rock face,
tears stream from the caverns and clefts,
down-running, carving woundrous ways in basalt resistance,
cutting deep as they go into layers of time-layerd
... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S6-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Living/Death & Dying"
] |
ca54f2d397bcb532 | Luminous Great Mass | Peter O’Leary | Holy Trinity Airship
billows a
chrys-
elephantine
cave Louis Sullivan, Arch-
itect, lord master,
conceived of
in the hollow of power.
He swells.
I am his balloonist
balancing an azimuth
as earth-apse I
orbit, robed in
hot gas & leather
fastened by a yolk-stalk
of gravity to gold-
end onions nozzling hea... | [
"S3",
"S5",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S5-2",
"S10-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Religion",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Architecture & Design",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Religion/Christianity"
] |
357fe831549da709 | Trying to See Auras at the Airport | Angela C. Trudell Vasquez | Recycled over and over
people born look like parents,
grandparents, sister or brother,
or perhaps a throwback
from an earlier ancestor,
the hawk nose, a hard ridged forehead,
the cleft in the chin or a blue birthmark
on the arm, the stomach,
the dainty fresh bum of a newborn
each unique like a snowflake never
... | [
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
3277896f6e73c64f | Requiem for a Nest | Wanda Coleman | the winged thang built her dream palace
amid the fine green eyes of a sheltering bough
she did not know it was urban turf
disguised as serenely delusionally rural
nor did she know the neighborhood was rife
with slant-mawed felines and those long-taloned
swoopers of prey. she was ignorant of the acidity & oil
tha... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S6-4",
"S6-7",
"S8-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
55a94302c5a8cdfd | The Curtain | Hayden Carruth | Just over the horizon a great machine of death is roaring and rearing.
We can hear it always. Earthquake, starvation, the ever-renewing sump of corpse-flesh.
But in this valley the snow falls silently all day, and out our window
We see the curtain of it shifting and folding, hiding us away in our little house,
We s... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S2-4",
"S3-11",
"S8-5",
"S8-7"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Nature/Winter",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Relationships/Home Life",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
a830d3ede6985562 | Christmas Tree Lots | Chris Green | Christmas trees lined like war refugees,
a fallen army made to stand in their greens.
Cut down at the foot, on their last leg,
they pull themselves up, arms raised.
We drop them like wood;
tied, they are driven through the streets,
dragged through the door, cornered
in a room, given a single blanket,
only water to drin... | [
"S2",
"S5"
] | [
"S2-4",
"S5-2"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion"
] | [
"Nature/Winter",
"Religion/Christianity"
] |
67f9810b04a77e48 | [all the time I pray to Buddha] | Kobayashi Issa | All the time I pray to Buddha I keep on killing mosquitoes. | [
"S5"
] | [
"S5-1"
] | [
"Religion"
] | [
"Religion/Buddhism"
] |
df3ae91e75e1f300 | Town of Unspeakable Things | Allison Seay | Then there was the time I looked directly into the face of the life I thought I was missing, of love. I used to think to be not alone meant never having to walk through the high wheat or struggle in the water. Not having to decide notto fling from some height.Once, the two of us rode one bicycle.I wore a straw hat and ... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-7"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Romantic Love"
] |
2cdd2ecdbf670ab0 | White Heliotrope | Arthur Symons | The feverish room and that white bed, The tumbled skirts upon a chair, The novel flung half-open, where Hat, hair-pins, puffs, and paints are spread; The mirror that has sucked your face Into its secret deep of deeps, And there mysteriously keeps Forgotten memories of grace; And you half dressed and half awake, Your ... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-3",
"S1-7",
"S3-4"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Heartache & Loss",
"Love/Romantic Love",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality"
] |
f87554193b8ea2f4 | France: An Ode | Samuel Taylor Coleridge | I Ye Clouds! that far above me float and pause,
Whose pathless march no mortal may control!
Ye Ocean-Waves! that, wheresoe'er ye roll,
Yield homage only to eternal laws!
Ye Woods! that listen to the night-birds singing,
Midway the smooth and perilous slope reclined.
Save when your own imperious branches s... | [
"S2",
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S11"
] | [
"S2-6",
"S2-7",
"S2-8",
"S2-10",
"S3-11",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Nature/Weather",
"Nature/Bodies of Water",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Social Commentaries/War & Conflict",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
c477cc8949a0474e | The Photos | Diane Wakoski | My sister in her well-tailored silk blouse hands me
the photo of my father
in naval uniform and white hat.
I say, “Oh, this is the one which Mama used to have on her dresser.”
My sister controls her face and furtively looks at my mother,
a sad rag bag of a woman, lumpy and sagging everywhere,
like a mattress at t... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-1",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Aging",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
34c3cdc76d924bb1 | Midtown Triptych | Francisco Aragón | Broadway
past Lincoln
Center and the wind
is up so seems
to speaksaw you
through the glassstanding in line
I swear a quiver
played
on your lipsyou were
leafing through his book…
—years
it’s been years
since Corona
Heights, backing
into him: dribble,
hook, swi... | [
"S1"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S1-4"
] | [
"Love"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Love/Infatuation & Crushes"
] |
74f2c32650df7823 | Catalogue Raisonné of My Refrigerator Door | George Starbuck | for Joshua Starbuck, master of montage
A Caledonian megalith.
A tinted bather from Cape Ann.
The 1937 kith
and kin of a Kentuckian
beside their Model T sedan.
The Celts. Who set me this arith-
metic of icons? Who began
by pasting in Bob Dylan? Zith-
erpicking rhinestone charlatan.
He tries to be American.
Wh... | [
"S3",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture"
] |
cc1190d3191ae058 | [O sweet spontaneous] | E. E. Cummings | O sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the
doting
fingers of
prurient philosophers pinched
and
poked
thee
,has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy
beauty how
often have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and
buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive... | [
"S2",
"S5",
"S10"
] | [
"S2-1",
"S2-7",
"S5-8",
"S10-5",
"S10-9"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Arts & Sciences/Sciences",
"Nature/Spring",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Religion/The Spiritual"
] |
0c3fd9fbadedb4c0 | Looking Forward | Robert Louis Stevenson | When I am grown to man's estate
I shall be very proud and great,
And tell the other girls and boys
Not to meddle with my toys. | [
"S3",
"S4"
] | [
"S4-1"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics"
] | [
"History & Politics/Money & Economics"
] |
c6bbaff6d0b70839 | from The Changing Face of AIDS: V. Elegy for the AIDS Virus | Rafael Campo | How difficult it is to say goodbye
to scourge. For years we were obsessed with you,
your complex glycoproteins and your sly,
haphazard reproduction, your restraint
in your resistance, how you bathed so slight
yet fierce in our most intimate secretions.
We will remember you for generations;
electron micrographs o... | [
"S1",
"S3",
"S6"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S6-6"
] | [
"Love",
"Social Commentaries",
"Living"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Living/Health & Illness"
] |
68861c5e0f29c6f4 | The Seer | A. F. Moritz | The man was white, grey and pale brown,
the colorless colors of a used-up earth
where water has sunk down,
sunk down so low and risen
so far above the grey-white pale-brown heaven
and shrunk so far within itself
that it will not come back. What can moisten
a shriveled water, or can a clod of ash
regain colors from the ... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S2-10"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Weather",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals"
] |
59870df412397446 | In the Aquarium | Dunya Mikhail | A fish
meets another fish
and lays eggs.
As its fins signal to the seaweed
its colors come out
one after the other.
Its bubbles are words
meant for no one.
The world rises and falls
each day
through the eyes of a fish. | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-5"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Animals"
] |
46d85e5fa2896cd1 | A Supermarket in California | Allen Ginsberg | What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.
In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!
What peaches and what pe... | [
"S3",
"S5",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-1",
"S5-8",
"S9-1",
"S10-6"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Religion",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Social Commentaries/Cities & Urban Life",
"Religion/The Spiritual",
"Activities/Eating & Drinking"
] |
90d8150667e81005 | A World to Do | Theodore Weiss | “I busy too,” the little boy
said, lost in his book
about a little boy, lost
in his book, with nothing
but a purple crayon
and his wits to get him out.
“Nobody can sit with me,
I have no room.
I busy
too. So don’t do any noise.
We don’t want any noise
right now.”
He... | [
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S10-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy"
] |
4a9dfe6e618140f8 | Scree | Heidy Steidlmayer | I have seen the arrested shrub inform the crag with grief. Lichens crust the rocks with red. Thorns punctuate the leaf. Sorrow is not a desert where one endures the other— but footing lost and halting step. And then another. | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
623987763a95ca73 | Poem for My Love | June Jordan | How do we come to be here next to each other
in the night
Where are the stars that show us to our love
inevitable
Outside the leaves flame usual in darkness
and the rain
falls cool and blessed on the holy flesh
the black men waiting on the corner for
a womanly mirage
I am amazed by peace
It is this possibilit... | [
"S1",
"S8"
] | [
"S1-7"
] | [
"Love",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Love/Romantic Love"
] |
bf9d5327b1c9371e | Addict | Raina J. León | Mahogany maple syrup runs in spider web lines.My father never uses the stuff, heeats pancakes, powdered, butter moist.When I was a child, he knew more of straightness. Lines and razors were friends.One night he tried to die by his hand. A girljumped before he walked to the ledge.Her mangled body wore the rails like a g... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-4",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
0fdc9c103bc79f85 | Fig, Folded | Lisa Gill | Lash everything irredeemable to the ficus
with muscle. Use the flexor digitorum brevis
from the arch of my right foot.
This is how what’s grounded gets hitched
to the rooted, everything cramped
into place and contemplative. Tight
striations might as well be bindings
to Bodhi as body. Why not dump this tired mind... | [
"S1",
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S1-1",
"S2-8",
"S6-5"
] | [
"Love",
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Love/Desire & Erotic Love",
"Nature/Plants & Fungi",
"Living/Mourning"
] |
c6559983b4d8ca35 | Waiting There | Michael Anania | As others or ourselves
let’s say—furtive, then,
inconsequent and sad—
or on the edge of thought,
perhaps, or into some
predictable meandering,
the outward accelerations
of water against its shore
dissipating into erosions,
cuts and counter-cuts,
remembered as landscape,
the convenient certainties
of an aban... | [
"S2",
"S8"
] | [] | [
"Nature",
"Relationships"
] | [] |
440cc331c1ee2e97 | My Mother’s Closet | Kate Buckley | I had a fascination with your dresses — the greens, brocades,
the belted shapes which spoke of you more poignantly
than the photos in their careful frames.
Your shoes were their own country, the heels, satins,
the inexplicable mud — I scraped them with small fingernails,
marveling at the gorgeous debris, wishing I... | [
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S6-3",
"S6-7",
"S8-3"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Living/Coming of Age",
"Living/Parenthood",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
2518d29f798cfef9 | Uptown, Minneapolis, Minnesota | Hieu Minh Nguyen | Even though it’s May & the ice cream truck
parked outside my apartment is somehow certain,
I have a hard time believing winter is somehow,
all of a sudden, over — the worst one of my life,
the woman at the bank tells me. Though I’d like to be,
it’s impossible to be prepared for everything.
Even the mundane hum of... | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-1"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Spring"
] |
58be502a6514da36 | The One Turn That Makes the New World | Sophie Cabot Black | Maybe the light from a small window Tucked at the utmost eave of the barnCould be misunderstood; if only I had pulled In by the other way or not looked upAgainst such darkness. The animal I brought Into this no longer mine, the taskEach day was to confine enough, from harmOr from each other as night loosensOver the as... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-5"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Animals"
] |
7cf3bbabd87ea16d | The Potato Eaters | Leonard E. Nathan | Sometimes, the naked taste of potato reminds me of being poor. The first bites are gratitude, the rest, contented boredom. The little kitchen still flickers like a candle-lit room in a folktale. Never again was my father so angry, my mother so still as she set the table, or I so much at home. | [
"S8"
] | [
"S8-5"
] | [
"Relationships"
] | [
"Relationships/Home Life"
] |
602179bcac0014fd | Parable in Praise of Violence | Tony Barnstone | “Violence is as American as cherry pie.”
—H. Rap Brown, former Black Panther justice minister
Thanks for the violence. Thanks for Walt’s rude muscle
pushing through the grass, for tiny Gulliver crushed
between the giant’s breasts. Thanks for Moby’s triangular hump
and Ahab’s castrated leg. Thanks for t... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S10"
] | [
"S3-7",
"S10-6",
"S10-8"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Poetry & Poets",
"Arts & Sciences/Reading & Books",
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture"
] |
f64aed24b14a8cdb | “Yet, even ’mid merry boyhood’s tricks and scapes” | Frederick Goddard Tuckerman | from Sonnets, Second Series
XXX
Yet, even ‘mid merry boyhood’s tricks and scapes,
Early my heart a deeper lesson learnt;
Wandering alone by many a mile burnt
Black woodside, that but the snow-flake decks and drapes.
And I have stood beneath Canadian sky,
In utter solitudes, where the cricket’s cry
Appals the he... | [
"S2",
"S6",
"S10"
] | [
"S6-3",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Living/Coming of Age"
] |
3dd36a0b6dc64209 | Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star | Jane Taylor | Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are! Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky. When the blazing sun is gone, When he nothing shines upon, Then you show your little light, Twinkle, twinkle, all the night. Then the traveler in the dark Thanks you for your tiny spark, How could he see whe... | [
"S2"
] | [
"S2-9"
] | [
"Nature"
] | [
"Nature/Stars, Moons, & Space"
] |
4323e965685dd6c3 | Acon and Rhodope; or, Inconstancy | Walter Savage Landor | The Year’s twelve daughters had in turn gone by, Of measured pace tho’ varying mien all twelve, Some froward, some sedater, some adorn’d For festival, some reckless of attire. The snow had left the mountain-top; fresh flowers Had withered in the meadow; fig and prune Hung wrinkling; the last apple glow’d amid Its freck... | [
"S2",
"S8",
"S11"
] | [
"S2-7",
"S8-3",
"S11-3",
"S11-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Relationships",
"Mythology & Folklore"
] | [
"Mythology & Folklore/Greek & Roman Mythology",
"Mythology & Folklore/Heroes & Patriotism",
"Nature/Landscapes & Pastorals",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors"
] |
73bb7d8969ebcc3e | Painted Eyes | Henri Cole | Dusty and treeless, the street sloped beneath us.
Somewhere a hammer made thunderclaps,
forging the night-sky.
Then the children,
seeing us, dashed from the Moorish houses,
vigorously shouting, vying for position,
while the bravest,
in worn underpants and plastic sandals,
... | [
"S6",
"S8",
"S9",
"S10"
] | [
"S8-3",
"S9-7",
"S10-5"
] | [
"Living",
"Relationships",
"Activities",
"Arts & Sciences"
] | [
"Arts & Sciences/Philosophy",
"Relationships/Family & Ancestors",
"Activities/Travels & Journeys"
] |
e0ac96dd6b149f54 | Aunt Helen | T. S. Eliot | Miss Helen Slingsby was my maiden aunt,And lived in a small house near a fashionable squareCared for by servants to the number of four.Now when she died there was silence in heavenAnd silence at her end of the street.The shutters were drawn and the undertaker wiped his feet —He was aware that this sort of thing had occ... | [
"S3",
"S4",
"S6",
"S7",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-2",
"S3-4",
"S4-1",
"S6-4",
"S8-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"History & Politics",
"Living",
"Time & Brevity",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Class & Labor",
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"History & Politics/Money & Economics",
"Living/Death & Dying",
"Relationships/Marriage & Companionship"
] |
4470daff14ff5a83 | A Muse of Water | Carolyn Kizer | We who must act as handmaidens
To our own goddess, turn too fast,
Trip on our hems, to glimpse the muse
Gliding below her lake or sea,
Are left, long-staring after her,
Narcissists by necessity;
Or water-carriers of our young
Till waters burst, and white streams flow
Artesian, from the lifted breast:
Cupbearer... | [
"S3",
"S6",
"S8"
] | [
"S3-4",
"S6-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries",
"Living",
"Relationships"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Gender & Sexuality",
"Living/Parenthood"
] |
a0ef29ffc6f7588e | spirit animal | Beth Bachmann | three times the snake appeared before me & like a gun said follow when you hear fire keep your body close to the ground the snake said point blank I am here for your protection I don’t have a trigger but I have a tongue to your neck to your ear to your temple follow me down the barrel three shots to steady ready the gr... | [
"S2",
"S5",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-5",
"S5-8"
] | [
"Nature",
"Religion",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Animals",
"Religion/The Spiritual"
] |
a5e296744e6c1c21 | Rat Song | Margaret Atwood | When you hear me singing
you get the rifle down
and the flashlight, aiming for my brain,
but you always miss
and when you set out the poison
I piss on it
to warn the others.
You think: That one’s too clever,
she’s dangerous, | [
"S8"
] | [
"S8-8"
] | [
"Relationships"
] | [
"Relationships/Pets & Domestic Animals"
] |
a692a51832a10075 | Chatty Cathy Villanelle | David Trinidad | When you grow up, what will you do?
Please come to my tea party.
I’m Chatty Cathy. Who are you?
Let’s take a trip to the zoo.
Tee-hee, tee-hee, tee-hee. You’re silly!
When you grow up, what will you do?
One plus one equals two.
It’s fun to learn your ABC’s.
I’m Chatty Cathy, who are you?
Please come help me ti... | [
"S3"
] | [
"S3-7"
] | [
"Social Commentaries"
] | [
"Social Commentaries/Popular Culture"
] |
7a9f9ccf3dd5c3f4 | The X-Ray | Heidy Steidlmayer | Mornings, the body’s old winter monochrome gives its image of extraordinary cold to a million hives— I could imagine a lanthorn as it swallows its strange light and gleams from within as if reborn when the bees come. | [
"S2",
"S6"
] | [
"S2-4"
] | [
"Nature",
"Living"
] | [
"Nature/Winter"
] |
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