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Breasts [poem by James Cummins]
William Bailey "N" (Female Nude) c. 1965 Breasts He never thought breasts antagonistic.Unreachable, perhaps; unknowable, eitherin the Biblical or secular sense. Mythic.But the glorious revelations that exceededwhat he once would have optimistically called expectations,…
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“Evening Hawk” [by Robert Penn Warren]
From plane of light to plane, wings dipping throughGeometries and orchids that the sunset builds,Out of the peak's black angularity of shadow, ridingThe last tumultuous avalanche ofLight above pines and the guttural…
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Two Platitudes [by Mitch Sisskind]
Easier said than done is almost always true: For example, the act of getting out of bed. On some days I find laborious to do, But I got…
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Shakespeare’s sonnet #67 on the Bard’s birthday
Ah, wherefore with infection should he live,And with his presence grace impiety,That sin by him advantage should achieveAnd lace itself with his society?Why should false painting imitate his cheekAnd steal dead seeing of his living hue?Why should poor beauty indirectly seekRoses of shadow, since his rose is true?Why should he live, now Nature bankrout is,Beggared of blood to blush through lively veins,For she hath no exchequer now but his,And, proud of many, lives upon his gains? O, him she stores, to show what wealth she had In days long since, before these last so bad.
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“Hysteria” [by T. S. Eliot, 1885-1965]
As she laughed I was aware of becoming involved in her laughter and being part of it, until her teeth were only accidental stars with a talent for squad-drill. I was drawn…
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He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven [by William Butler Yeats]
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,Enwrought with golden and silver light,The blue and the dim and the dark clothsOf night and light and the half light,I would spread the cloths under your feet:But I,…
