My Mother and the Lilacs —Lyn Lifshin Their purple meant spring. “That whole apartment was lilacs,” she glows, retelling how the one she couldn’t marry but checks for in phone books fifty years surprised her with orchid and snow. She wishes for a yard, for daughters who will plant lilacs that bloom, not just stunted […]
“Wild Geese” Adapted for the Pandemic —Adrie Kusserow Adrie Kusserow was inspired by Mary Oliver‘s poem “Wild Geese” to write a coronavirus version of that poem: You do not have to become totally zen, You do not have to use this isolation to make your marriage better, your body slimmer, your children more creative. You […]
Wild Geese — Mary Oliver You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. […]
Wait for Me — Konstantin Simonov Translated by Lubov Yakovleva Wait for me, and I’ll come back, But wait with all your might, Wait when dreariness descends, With the yellow rains, Wait when snowdrifts sweep the ground, Wait during the heat, Wait when others are given up And together with the past forgotten. Wait when […]
The Enkindled Spring — D. H. Lawrence This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green, Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes, Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes. I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration Of green fires lit on […]
