Elegy For the Poet Charles Moulton by Peter Everwine When we were last together,you read me your latest poem from a sheafof hand -scrawled pages, dog-earedand rolled together by a rubber band.You didn’t ask me to look at it.We both knew why: I thought a catfishhad a better grasp of English spelling;you thought my soul …

Continue reading

The Blue Robe by Wendell Berry How joyful to be together, aloneAs when we first were joinedIn our little house by the riverLong ago, except that now we know Each other, as we did not then;And now instead of two stories fumblingTo meet, we belong to one storyThat the two, joining, made. And now We …

Continue reading

Chaplinesque By Hart Crane We make our meek adjustments,Contented with such random consolationsAs the wind depositsIn slithered and too ample pockets. For we can still love the world, who findA famished kitten on the step, and knowRecesses for it from the fury of the street,Or warm torn elbow coverts. We will sidestep, and to the …

Continue reading

The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog by Alicia Ostriker To be blessedsaid the old womanis to live and workso hardGod’s lovewashes right through youlike milk through a cow To be blessedsaid the dark red tulipis to knock their eyes outwith the slug of lustimplied byyour up-ended skirt To be blessedsaid …

Continue reading

Primavera by Louise Glück Spring comes quickly: overnightthe plum tree blossoms,the warm air fills with bird calls. In the plowed dirt, someone has drawn a picture of the sunwith rays coming out all aroundbut because the background is dirt, the sun is black.There is no signature. Alas, very soon everything will disappear:the bird calls, the …

Continue reading