April 2010
17 posts
2 tags
Tear It Down
by Jack Gilbert
We find out the heart only by dismantling what the heart knows. By redefining the morning, we find a morning that comes just after darkness. We can break through marriage into marriage. By insisting on love we spoil it, get beyond affection and wade mouth-deep into love. We must unlearn the constellations to see the stars. But going back toward childhood will not help. The...
4 tags
Watchthe Incognito Lounge
by Denis Johnson
4 tags
WatchLetter to a Poet
by Robert Hass
2 tags
Solitude (I)
By Tomas TranströmerOne Comment translated by Robin Robertson I was nearly killed here, one night in February. My car shivered, and slewed sideways on the ice, right across into the other lane. The slur of traffic came at me with their lights.
My name, my girls, my job, all slipped free and were left behind, smaller and smaller, further and further away. I was a nobody: a boy in a playground,...
1 tag
Very Little Evil
By Ryan Scott Nance
I never was taught the fact of
elevation, that at the core of every
mountain, a translucent lozenge of inert
star-matter is. The uncanny
throat & lift of express
elevators; the long hill up;
innocent shiny steel; the angles
of my feet on edges of big
things, or the felt distance from
the magma heart of earth as switchable,
as nervous, as a barometer. The terraces of
the...
2 tags
Of Mere Being
by Wallace Stevens The palm at the end of the mind, Beyond the last thought, rises In the bronze distance. A gold-feathered bird Sings in the palm, without human meaning, Without human feeling, a foreign song. You know then that it is not the reason That makes us happy or unhappy. The bird sings. Its feathers shine. The palm stands on the edge of space. The wind moves slowly in the...
“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”
– ~ Albert Einstein (via rafimama)
2 tags
WatchThe Lake Isle of Innisfree
by W.B. Yeats
3 tags
WatchMeditation At Lagunitas
by Robert Hass
Folk Song
By Ryan Scott Nance
The leaves on this tree
are enraged. We choose
our mates by the shapes
of their heads.
The leaves on that tree
need no longer glow green.
We select our lovers by
the markings behind their ears.
The leaves on this tree
are becoming saints, leisurely,
in the appropriate way—— Buddhas,
Sebastians, Eriks the Red, Salmon.
Thank you, wheat, for your...
The Layers
by Stanley Kunitz I have walked through many lives, some of them my own, and I am not who I was, though some principle of being abides, from which I struggle not to stray. When I look behind, as I am compelled to look before I can gather strength to proceed on my journey, I see the milestones dwindling toward the horizon and the slow fires trailing from the abandoned camp-sites, ...
2 tags
Archaic Torso of Apollo
by Rainer Maria Rilke Translated by Stephen Mitchell
We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,
gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where...
2 tags
The Idea of Order at Key West
By Wallace Stevens
She sang beyond the genius of the sea.
The water never formed to mind or voice,
Like a body wholly body, fluttering
Its empty sleeves; and yet its mimic motion
Made constant cry, caused constantly a cry,
That was not ours although we understood,
Inhuman, of the veritable ocean.
The sea was not a mask. No more was she.
The song and water were not medleyed sound
Even if what she...
1 tag
Fabulous Species and Landscapes
by Ryan Scott Nance
That piled-up melon, bright with waxen chill, the wide avenues of choice tamp down breath into vacuum-packed bricks. You can stack together a week’s worth. Felt-covered mittens are offered at the swinging doors on the verge of the walk-in freezer. Your own coat though, whichever kind is yours, your neck swaddled or not, will most likely suffice. That isn’t to say shopping...
