Courage, by Anne Sexton (1928-1974) It is in the small things we see it. The child’s first step, as awesome as an earthquake. The first time you rode a bike, wallowing up the sidewalk. The first spanking when your heart went on a journey all alone. When they called you crybaby or poor or fatty […]
On The Birth Of A Son, by Su Tung-Po, also known as Su Shi (1037-1101) Families when a child is born Hope it will turn out intelligent. I, through intelligence Having wrecked my whole life, Only hope that the baby will prove Ignorant and stupid. Then he’ll be happy all his days And grow into […]
The Obligation to be Happy, by Linda Pastan (1932-) It is more onerous than the rites of beauty or housework, harder than love. But you expect it of me casually, the way you expect the sun to come up, not in spite of rain or clouds but because of them. And so I smile, as […]
Grenoble Cafe, by Jean Garrigue (1914-1972) At breakfast they are sober, subdued. It is early. They have not much to say Or with declamations fit only for whisper Keep under pressure the steam of their joy. She listens, usually. It is he who talks, Surrounding her with the furious smoke Of his looking that […]
Elegy Written in a County Churchyard, by Thomas Gray (1716-1771) The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea, The plowman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. Now fades the glimm’ring landscape on the sight, And all the air […]
To the Sour Reader, by Robert Herrick (1591-1674) If thou dislik’st the piece thou light’st on first, Think that of all that I have writ the worst; But if thou read’st my book unto the end, And still dost this and that verse reprehend, O perverse man! If all disgustful be, The extreme scab take […]
“What Do Women Want?”, by Kim Addonizio (1954-) I want a red dress. I want it flimsy and cheap, I want it too tight, I want to wear it until someone tears it off me. I want it sleeveless and backless, this dress, so no one has to guess what’s underneath. I want to walk […]
Yorkshiremen in Pub Gardens, by Gavin Ewart (1916-1995) As they sit there, happily drinking, their strokes, cancers and so forth are not in their minds. Indeed, what earthly good would thinking about the future (which is Death) do? Each summer finds beer in their hands in big pint glasses. And so their leisure passes. Perhaps […]
The Skylark, by John Clare(1793-1864) The rolls and harrows lie at rest beside The battered road; and spreading far and wide Above the russet clods, the corn is seen Sprouting its spiry points of tender green, Where squats the hare, to terrors wide awake, Like some brown clod the harrows failed to break. Opening their […]
by Izumi Shikibu, (c. 976-????) Although the wind blows terribly here, the moonlight also leaks between the roof planks of this ruined house. (trans. Jane Hirsfield & Mariko Aratani)