haiku
stringlengths
5
2.3k
source
stringlengths
1
74
i thought he was dumb i said he was dumb yet i've heard him cry
img2poems
loveit tell tell your griefs attentive will i stay tho' time is precious and i want some tea
img2poems
patch if whom they love my envy must pursue 'tis sure at least i never envy you
img2poems
overlit not a scream the mute button pushed generally the patient has the sense
img2poems
twang chic sweeter than honey or money or running through the red clay gully the forlorn moan of the midnight macon train
img2poems
or a barber (prodding a chin back into position would be likely to notice
img2poems
bushes and grass along the glass-still way were all dabbled with rain and the road reeled with shattered skies
img2poems
this made us smile and laugh at last there was rejoicing all night long in mytilene
img2poems
a child is vengeance a child is a missile into the coming generations i launched him: i'm still trembling
img2poems
had i but plenty of money money enough and to spare the house for me no doubt were a house in the city-square ah such a life such a life as one leads at the window there
img2poems
something to see by bacchus something to hear at least there the whole day long one's life is a perfect feast while up at a villa one lives i maintain it no more than a beast
img2poems
and the duke's guard brings up the rear for the better prevention of scandals bang-whang-whang goes the drum tootle-te-tootle the fife oh a day in the city-square there is no such pleasure in life
img2poems
whenas in silks my julia goes then then how sweetly flows that liquefaction of her clothes
img2poems
next when i cast mine eyes and see that brave vibration each way free o how that glittering taketh me
img2poems
for their indulgent love and tender care all is forgot this love he doth despise they brought this bird up to pick out their eyes
img2poems
lonely winters when there was nothing to say
img2poems
how do the children convert their troubles into hip-hop dunno but it's wonderful
img2poems
waking at night now as the snow flakes from darkness to darkness go past yellow lights in the street below
img2poems
since persia fell at marathon the yellow years have gathered fast long centuries have come and gone
img2poems
for five billion years we have seen the past and it works
img2poems
inside the veins there are navies setting forth tiny explosions at the waterlines and seagulls weaving in the wind of the salty blood
img2poems
now we wake and rise from bed and eat breakfast shouts rise from the harbor of the blood mist and masts rising the knock of wooden tackle in the sunlight
img2poems
now we sing and do tiny dances on the kitchen floor our whole body is like a harbor at dawn we know that our master has left us for the day
img2poems
here at the edge of the millennium i don't imagine you'd call them anything as archaic as angels
img2poems
small wonder the angels are said to despise us still without them how do we account for our meanness
img2poems
the bering strait: one humpback whale plump and bardic an orca caught on the ascending arc salt droplets flung from a flange of soot-black fin
img2poems
pale petals of the roses in the dark warm bellies of the sleeping deer that's what going to sleep is like
img2poems
circumcision does it to us as in the bible story of shechem and the sons of jacob so that we go on hurting all our lives
img2poems
spilled blood is not the roots of trees but it's the closest thing to roots we have
img2poems
jazz june we die soon
img2poems
the three languages i know all the colors in which i see and dream none will help me
img2poems
what else nothing blue lights of police cars
img2poems
what else nothing nothing
img2poems
on the leaves on the meadow grass on the wickerwork of shrubs dark cape of desire
img2poems
the poem slips away through slots of lace liquefied as a fat caterpillar dressed in the capsule of a cocoon
img2poems
rides her many-stickered bicycle backward up the staircase of the abandoned trolleybarn
img2poems
a couple of sparks a few more a flash of light a slow increase in heat and radiating around you: uncontainable fire
img2poems
there are so many roots to the tree of anger that sometimes the branches shatter before they bear
img2poems
and sit here wondering which me will survive all these liberations
img2poems
ah beauty as i led her to the window i told her: you i loved best in life
img2poems
until a white bird flew across the road with its mysterious message that said to some turn back and to the rest go on
img2poems
the first time i went to the tree was to knock on wood
img2poems
his death had sockets and keys it had walls and beams it had a handle which you could not hold and a floor you could not lie down on in the middle of the night
img2poems
for a while i'll let it make you strong make your heart lion then i'll take it back
img2poems
those you love come at you like lightning crackle for an instant so kissable and then lips and all they're gone
img2poems
must represent the governess for of course the creature itself could not inspire such terror
img2poems
when the window opened of its own accord in the big walnut tree were six or seven wolves
img2poems
believe her indian eyes her sly french smile her breast with its veins skim milk blue she is the myth that is true
img2poems
and here face downward in the sun to feel how swift how secretly the shadow of the night comes on
img2poems
between basalt cliffs no one mourns the loss of statecraft
img2poems
i did look sharp as a lynx when models arrived some minx tripped up-stairs she and her ankles
img2poems
boat me around gently whoever i'm with i'm seeing only you
img2poems
i have seen the old gods go and the new gods come
img2poems
but let's not yearn for the days of prenormalization just think of the torments the anxieties the sweat the wiles needed to entice in spite of all
img2poems
everything has thorns at first sight think twice before trusting even a good omen
img2poems
the friend i saw each day and never spoke to because i hoped soon to disappear from there as i have disappeared into the heaven of better days
img2poems
yea while i found all wisdom they grieved for me i should have grieved for them
img2poems
chicken squints doesn't think it's funny
img2poems
forced to wear a gaudy gold star to surrender their pride they do their best to look alive
img2poems
but whumpp the bird attacked the glass again
img2poems
his long claws scuffled at the pane and i yelled crow
img2poems
admit you'd like to find something discarded or damaged even gone and lift it back into the world
img2poems
she was a great master and died young leaving me with unrelieved grief her talents known to only a few
img2poems
my dear children do you remember the morning when we climbed into the old plymouth and drove west straight toward the pacific
img2poems
when something becomes ash there's nothing you can do to turn it back about this even diamonds do not lie
img2poems
iowa's unruly grass submits blade by blade a yellow hill rises and the shy man finds perfection in his art
img2poems
the living let our days be patterned after theirs is it not marvelous to be forgetful
img2poems
this marky lived a while my braves a while and then he died honor the cork of comstock and the pies of mrs yapp
img2poems
bringing us noway coolness but burning thirst giving us noway peace but implacable strife loosing upon us the wounding joy and the wasting sorrow of life
img2poems
ma i say you mean cut off loose and cut off being as far apart as say son and daughter
img2poems
that's roll i say throwing up my hands as in hot dog hamburger dinner roll
img2poems
a light on i may have to come ashore some distance from where i set in
img2poems
he guesses the flower will slip fragile from one century to the next with its prayer
img2poems
but bluer than the lips of lazarus baby before sweet jesus himself could figure out what else in the world to do but weep
img2poems
in our hammocks our hats tipped forwards hands folded neatly like bamboo huts above our hearts
img2poems
so i will wait like a fly on the tip of a stick until he is finished
img2poems
why the human heart still slows when divers break the surface why mermaids still swim in our dreams
img2poems
from across the field with a word who can speak for the willow and the zinnia can surely charm a squirrel down from a tree
img2poems
the paper table cloth was tastefully bleak the misty morning light shone on his cheek and made him look alone and masculine
img2poems
he talked of seneca and bad translations of modern critics' lightweight observations a bread crumb rested sweetly on his chin
img2poems
behind him through the glass the ocean's heave uncurled against the sand beside his sleeve as eros aimed his toxic javelin
img2poems
instead this conversation about art and formal education god he's smart such rationality should be a sin
img2poems
under this crushing burden when with a single word you could be a god one of the few gods who when called on really listens
img2poems
listen and you can hear them whisper in the rushes gazing out at us wondering what lives are these
img2poems
instead i walk out on a summer morning to the sound of birds and a waterfall is a beaded curtain brushing over my shoulders
img2poems
how easy he has made it for me to enter here to sit down in a corner cross my legs like his and listen
img2poems
might offer a vital lesson to any apostate instinct aspiring to survive
img2poems
saying graduate of the school of flesh father conspirator
img2poems
but who will hide from us who will keep digging for us here in the cloud of ashes
img2poems
slips grief into a careless pocket breaks it to pieces lets it go
img2poems
like snow falling in the darkness of the house the silence before i wrote a word and the poorer silence now
img2poems
no longer can he pose with comrade stalin admiring the moscow-volga canal now he is water
img2poems
and now the past itself is air is water and finally fire whitening to ash in his fat fingers its pages flare
img2poems
is not a god the only god is the sun our mind master of all crickets and clocks
img2poems
it is important to stay sweet and loving
img2poems
he picks at the wounds on his crucified body the injury scabbed over with jewels
img2poems
keeping all the grim social hate safe in him
img2poems
lately the weather aches the air is short of breath and morning stumbles in stiff-jointed
img2poems
even the seasons change with a throb of weariness bud bloom leaf fall
img2poems
i would but who am i to try to cheer up the self-indulgent universe
img2poems