Month: April 2021

A vacancy

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A Vacancy Instead of You
–Elena Kostyleva

Photo by Dmitry Mashkin on Unsplash

the meaning of simplicity

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The Meaning of Simplicity

–Yannis Ritsos

I hide behind simple objects so you may find me,
if you do not find me, you will find the objects,
you will touch those objects my hand has touched,
the traces of our hands will mingle.
 
The August moon gleams like a tin kitchen kettle 
(what I am telling you becomes like that),
it lights up the empty house and silence kneeling in the house
silence is always kneeling.

Every single word is an exodus
for a meeting, cancelled many times,
it is a true word when it insists on the meeting.

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

 

 

 

absence presence

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Absence, Presence

–Luisa A. Igloria

Every absence is an ancestor: speak to it,
ignore it, feed it, turn it out of doors,
it will not matter— It knows where you live,
which side of the pillow you prefer in sleep,
where you buy eggs and milk and toilet
paper. It knows whom you last kissed on the mouth,
how you cried to read that poem written by
your daughter, your bewilderment at the stroke
after stroke of bad luck that came the year
you decided to say I do to your green, unproven
heart. The roses in the garden bloomed and withered,
and then came back. Dormant doesn’t mean dead,
only sleeping. Winter is another form of absence,
some say a kindness: substituting white
after white for all the gutted fields before
their softening in spring. Absence, presence—
I bow to you my ancestors; I stoke the fire
and save the bones for soup in these cold months
when I am most reminded I am your kin.

 

Photo by Dominic Sansotta on Unsplash

 

 

at the lake

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At the Lake
–Michael Lee

Photo by Heye Jensen on Unsplash

definition of

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Definition of Attraction

–János Pilinszky

On a fully broken-in animal’s back
a fully broken-in animal rides.

 

Photo by Alfredo Mora on Unsplash

 

 

films begin with a funeral

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Films Begin with a Funeral
–Mala Malanova

Photo by Rhodi Lopez on Unsplash

pupation

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Pupation
–Fleur Adcock

Books, music, the garden, cats:
I have cocooned myself
in solitude, fatly silken.
Settled?
I flatter myself.
Things buzz under my ribs;
there are ticklings, dim blunderings.
Ichneumon flies have got in.

Photo by Koen Eijkelenboom on Unsplash

 

 

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to you

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To You
–Kenneth Koch

I love you as a sheriff searches for a walnut
That will solve a murder case unsolved for years
Because the murderer left it in the snow beside a window
Through which he saw her head, connecting with
Her shoulders by a neck, and laid a red
Roof in her heart. For this we live a thousand years;
For this we love, and we live because we love, we are not
Inside a bottle, thank goodness! I love you as a
Kid searches for a goat; I am crazier than shirttails
In the wind, when you’re near, a wind that blows from
The big blue sea, so shiny so deep and so unlike us;
I think I am bicycling across an Africa of green and white fields
Always, to be near you, even in my heart
When I’m awake, which swims, and also I believe that you
Are trustworthy as the sidewalk which leads me to
The place where I again think of you, a new
Harmony of thoughts! I love you as the sunlight leads the prow
Of a ship which sails
From Hartford to Miami, and I love you
Best at dawn, when even before I am awake the sun
Receives me in the questions which you always pose.

 

Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash

dead people

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I Have Dead People
–Yehuda Amichai

I have dead people, buried in the air.
I have a bereaved mother while I’m still alive.
I am like a place
At war with time.
Once, the green color rejoiced
Near your face in the window.
Only in my dreams
Do I still love hard.

 

 

 

that spring

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That Spring Everything Grew Wild and The Rain Came Down Like Punishment
–Clementine von Radics

I sat on the fire escape
until the ashtrays were snowdrifts,
watching for storms on the horizon.
Begging the world for a reason
to lock all the doors.

Change came to me
so ugly then.
Showed up alone
with moldy suitcases
and too many demands, speaking
the language of hard looks
and wine headaches.
Telling me things I did not want
to know, growling,

Getting everything you ever wanted
does not make you want less

and

You break the hearts
of better people
who get in your way.

When will I stop belonging
to this hungry thing inside me?

What no one ever talks about
is how dangerous hope can be.
Call it forgiveness
with teeth.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash