After Apple-Picking, by Robert Frost (1874-1963) My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree Toward heaven still, And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill Beside it, and there may be two or three Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough. But I am done with apple-picking now. Essence of winter sleep is on the […]

Pig, by David Dominguez (1971-)   I pulled into the Galdini Sausage plant at noon. The workers walked out of production and swatted away the flies desperate for pork. Pork gripped the men and was everywhere, in the form of blood, in the form of fat, and in pink meat stuck to the worker’s shoes. […]

Equation, by Caroline Caddy (1944-) Someone said                that working through difficult equations was like walking in a pure and beautiful landscape –                                         the numbers glowing                                                    like works of art. And in the same crowded room a woman I thought I didn’t like                                            was singing to herself – talking and listening                                     […]

January in Detroit or Search For Tomorrow Starring Ken and Ann, by Ken Mikolowski I think it is interesting though not exactly amusing how we go from day to day with no money. How do we do it, friends ask, suspecting we really have some stash stacked away somewhere. But we certainly do not and […]

Beautiful Youth, by Gottfried Benn (1886-1956) The mouth of the girl who had lain long in the rushes looked so nibbled. When they opened her chest, her esophagus was so holey. Finally in a bower under the diaphragm they found a nest of young rats. One little thing lay dead. The others were living off […]

The Murdered Traveller, by William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)   When spring, to woods and wastes around, Brought bloom and joy again, The murdered traveller’s bones were found, Far down a narrow glen.   The fragrant birch, above him, hung Her tassels in the sky; And many a vernal blossom sprung, And nodded careless by.   […]

Another Insane Devotion, by Gerald Stern (1925-) This was gruesome—fighting over a ham sandwich with one of the tiny cats of Rome, he leaped on my arm and half hung on to the food and half hung on to my shirt and coat. I tore it apart and let him have his portion, I think […]

Living Light, by Robert Sabatier (1923-)   A child speaks and now the lark has come Collecting all the fire he has spoken Each goes his way and carries in his eyes The bright of dawn and of seasons renewed On the ground the child now sleeps and dreams.   As soon as he says […]

Dawning, by Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón (1881-1958) The sun gilds honey on mauve and green fields rock and vineyard, hills and plain. Breezes make the blue flower fresh and soft on livid stone walls. There is no one now, or not yet, in the enormous readied fields which the lark decorates with crystal wings Here, there, open […]

War II, by Angela Johnson (1961-) My daddy had Vietnam dreams. Nightmares that used to rip him out of bed screaming and running into the living room. Helicopters machine-gunned down on him, and he used to yell that he couldn’t get the blood off. And near the end I didn’t even wake up anymore. I […]